Page 54 of A Curse of Breath and Blood

I squeezed through, falling to my knees on the other side.

Come on, come on, make it through.I bit my nails, waiting for the men on the other side.

Another flash of light streamed through the crevasse—the last of Caiden’s power. The gifts of the sylph were not infinite. Caiden would be exhausted.Ifhe made it.

I held my breath as another figure made his way through the fissure. Tharan joined me, gasping for air.

Caiden came through after. His movements slowed by the weight of exhaustion. I bit my lip but did not look away until I saw the gold ring on his left hand slide out of the crack.

He collapsed onto the hard ground.

“Caiden,” I gasped, running to his side and pulling him into my lap.

“I’m so tired,” he said as his eyes fought to stay open.

“He needs to eat something.” Tharan went to the mouth of the cave, digging his hand into the damp morning soil. Holding it up to the sun, he whispered something in a language I did not recognize. To my amazement, two mushrooms sprouted from the dirt.

“Here, give these to him. They should help.”

I took the two yellow mushrooms from his palm. “How do I know these aren’t poisonous?” I arched a questioning brow.

“The ring. The band will glow if there is poison near.”

I held the mushrooms near the ring. It did not change colors. A weight lifted off my chest. I smashed the fungi into a paste and placed it on Caiden’s tongue.

“I need you to chew,” I commanded.

Caiden mashed the yellow mush lazily.A grimace crossed his face, but alertness returned to his eyes.

“Energy mushrooms,” Tharan said, wiping his hands on his pants.

“Thank you, Tharan.” I rubbed Caiden’s chin with my knuckles.

Caiden got to his feet, brushing the dirt off his white pants, stained with blood.“Thank you. Both of you.” Caiden nodded to Tharan before giving me a dimpled smile.

“We should go while the sun is still high in the sky. It will take us hours to reach the border of the elven lands.”As Tharan headed toward the forest, a trail of blood leaked from his leg.

“You’re hurt,” I said, pointing to the gash.

“It’ll be fine,” he said, keeping pressure on the wound. The winter wind bit my exposed legs as we trudged toward what we hoped was safety.

The Forest of Needles was aptly named—skeletal trees reached for the ashen sky like twisted, bony fingers. Leafless branches, barren of life, clawed at the air as if frozen in a perpetual state of agony. A thick, suffocating stillness permeated every living thing, broken only by the occasional creaking and groaning of the lifeless limbs in the wind. The air itself seemed to carry a whisper of melancholy, as if the very essence of life had been drained from the surroundings. Gnarled trunks cast long, foreboding shadows playing tricks on my mind.

With every step, the snow burned my bare skin. Caiden offered me his coat. I took it gratefully, burying my nose in the fabric smelling of bergamot and leather.

The sound of Tharan’s teeth chattering drowned out my own.Shivering worse than me, his wine-red hair whipped in the icy wind—a slight limp in his gait from the fight.

“We need to stop and light a fire. Tharan and I will not make it much further,” I said, wrapping my arms tighter around myself.

“We must cross the border before nightfall. There’s no telling what hunts in these woods once the sun is gone,” Caiden said, not bothering to look back at me.

I gave Tharan my bestI’m sorryeyes.

He mustered the best smile he could.

An eerie sense of calm inhabited the forest.

“We’re just passing through,” Tharan whispered under his breath. “We will be gone soon.”

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