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“Don’t apologize to me,” she warned, unsure why she was more offended by his apology than anything else. “I don’t need your pity, all right?”
Ryson remained silent as she returned to her spot on the ground. She curled up with her back facing him, hugging her clothes to her body.
The apology burned. It burned worse than any harsh word he’d ever said.
He’d thrown the talisman; he’d stopped her from going back to the Kalex camp; he pushed her constantly, and yet she never wanted to hear him apologize again.
Chapter 14
Into the Shadows
IN HER DREAMS, Clea traveled again. Through the roots of the forest, she was formless and free. A message reached into the expanse.
I’m here, the roots said.
Clea awoke with a jolt, her breath white in the moonlight, the coals slumbering dimly under the ashes of the campfire nearby.
“Find me,” she finished the phrase from her dream, hand clasping for the medallion under the fabric of her shirt and the weighty confirmation she’d awoken with.
The medallion had invited the beast to the Kalex village.
The dream had been the same when she’d fallen asleep in Althala’s tent. It had been a clue of things to come, one that she’d forgotten in all the chaos. Now, it repeated itself.
Gripping the medallion tight against her chest, she scanned the campsite. They’d camped at the edge of a large clearing, and the snowy landscape was vacant beyond a massive totem at the other side of the clearing. It was a wall of twisted steel with several holes blown through it and looked unnervingly like a beast in the dead of night.
Ryson was gone.
She replayed last night’s argument, wondering if she was still dreaming. Maybe this was just some taunt of the forest, confronting her with the fear that the medallion was drawing in the worst of the world.
Maybe it wasn’t just her fears.
Maybe the lesser beasts were keeping their distance out of self-preservation. Maybe the worst was still yet to come. Maybe she was realizing all this too late.
Her thoughts buzzed, each new worrying possibility mimicking the racing pace of her heart.
“Ryson?” she whispered in alarm, and noticed one of his daggers protruding from the ground next to her, the intricate silver hilt reflecting the hue of the coals. She tugged it out of the frozen earth as she slid her bag over her back, easing up onto her knees.
“Ryson?” she whispered louder into the night.
Silence.
She jolted up as he walked from the darkness, silver eyes flashing with every blink. His expression sent an immediate surge through her.
“What’s going on?” she asked, searching the clearing again as she scrambled to her feet. “Forest beasts?”
He didn’t rush to speak, cinching his cloak tightly around her and pulling the hood over her head. “I’m afraid it’s worse than that,” he whispered but didn’telaborate, immersed in his own thoughts in a way she’d never seen before.
Kalex?she thought, but even that answer seemed unsatisfying in the wake of the stillness that captured Ryson’s urgency. Before she could ask, he spoke up again.
“Without any reason, they’re headed straight for us and from miles away,” he explained.
“The medallion,” Clea rushed the words in sharp contrast to his measured dialogue, trying to form the full explanation from her dream. “Ryson, the medallion.”
“I think so,” he agreed grimly without her having to explain further. He took a measured step away from her. There was a strange sense of reserve in his posture as he examined her. She waited for the words that might give her some understanding of their impending fates.
What was worse than forest beasts? Worse than what they’d encountered in the Kalex village? Ryson wasn’t even pushing them to escape.
“Ryson?” she questioned, trying to prompt something from his stoic exterior. “What is it?”
