Caelynn
Igroan and roll ontomy stomach. Stabbing pain shoots through my back, and several images flash through my mind. Rev, the wraith, the thorn wall of the Schorchedlands, trees with flesh-like arms trying to devour me.
I force my eyes open and cough. There’s pressure on every part of my body. Every muscle clenching.
Heaving in a heavy breath, I look around. A small fire flickers in the darkness, a large stone shelters one side of the small camp against the wind, which howls around us. I blink, finding Rev sitting on the other side of the fire wide awake.
“Rev?” I croak.
“There’s a potion beside you. Take it; it’ll help.”
I wince but reach for a small vail of red potion. I toss it back quickly. It burns, and I wince again but quickly my limbs feel steadier, the pain receding slightly. I force my body to sit up.
“Ahh! Sleeping Beauty awakens,” a rumbling voice calls and a smoky silhouette forms before me.
I groan again. “What the hell happened?”
“You, once again,” the wraith purrs, “tried to off yourself to save that fool. Stop doing that, will you?” He says it like I’m a child in class. I never did like teachers.
“How in the world did you end up in league with a wraith?” Rev says with a low and annoyed voice.
“I’m not so sure myself.”
The wraith grunts. “Go to sleep, children. We’ll have a long day tomorrow.”
I narrow my eyes and watch as he drifts off over the stone and disappears. I don’t know what to make of him. He wants me living, but it sounds as though he’s intending to help us complete Rev’s quest now. Or will he turn on us?
My eyes meet Rev’s beyond the fire. Every line of his face is harsh, his eyes angry. Despite the hate radiating off of him now—talk about déjà vu—he helped me. We’re no longer in that forest, which means he must have carried me out of it, set up camp, including the sleeping bag under me and the flickering fire between us. The wraith could not have done any of that.
“What are you doing here, Caelynn?”
I wince at Rev’s harsh tone and look down at my lap. “I’m surprised you went to so much effort to save me,” I say, changing the subject and brushing down the folds in my sleeping blanket.
“I shouldn’t have, and I don’t suspect I will again.” He pauses. “But I needed to know. Why in the realm would you enter through those gates knowing you’ll never return?” There is no sadness in his voice or expression as he says the words. It doesn’t bother him that I have a new prison in this evil place. He probably thinks I belong here.
He’s not entirely wrong.
“After what you said to me—“ His lip curls into almost a snarl like he’d love nothing more than to bite my head off. “How you’d have the nerve to face me again is beyond me. What could be so important that you’d doom yourself to come here? Do you wish to kill me and take the glory for yourself?”
I bark out a bitter laugh. “You think that little of me, do you?” I continue a dark chuckle. I’m not entirely surprised but can’t deny a bit of disappointment. He didn’t see through my lies at all. He’s more than hurt and angry. He believed it entirely.
It was so easy to push him away.