Page 20 of Broken Veil
“I have you.” Duncan locked her arm with his. “I can feel them.”
Duncan might have felt them, but Carys could hear them now, the whispering voices, the childish laughter, the high-pitched squeals that sounded somewhere between an excited baby and a rare bird.
They walked the narrow pathway between two oaks, and as soon as they passed through, a shower of butterflies burst from the trees, whirling around them with bright purple-and-orange splendor, and between the fluttering creatures, the wisps were everywhere, darting here and there, cascading through the canopy and dancing in the dim, slanted light.
The sky grew darker, and the wisps glowed brighter.
The shrieks of laughter pierced her ears.
She clung to Duncan’s hand as if he was her lifeline, her eyes fixed on Naida even when ominous shadows loomed in her peripheral vision and she heard the flap of bird wings behind her.
Keep going. Keep walking. Don’t follow the wisps, Carys. They want to lead you away.
The last of the light fell away, and the darkness in the woods wrapped around them like a blanket. The air took on the bite of nighttime cold, and the wisps flew back to the safety of the gate, falling into the shadows as Naida led them through the tunnel of trees and into a meadow lit with the blue-green glow of luminous mushroom caps.
Carys took a deep breath, and the damp mist of the Shadowlands entered her lungs.
They were back.
CHAPTER FIVE
The party walked through the meadow and onto a forest path that Naida chose, weaving between the trees and heading up a small hill where white flowers nodded in the evening breeze.
“We’ll head to the human road,” Naida said. “This wood is small in the Brightlands, but it stretches across a massive territory here.”
The trees around Carys were twisted and ancient. Oaks reached to the sky, spreading their leafy branches and blocking out the sky.
The path was narrow and the forest dense, but long grasses grew beneath the trees, and luminous mushroom caps lit the way.
Glowing sprites jumped up from the grass as they passed, whizzing by Carys’s head and distracting her from the crawling sensation that lingered on her skin.
As soon as they reached a part of the forest with open sky, Cadell looked back at Carys.
“Go,” she said before he could ask.
Cadell looked silently at Duncan.
“I have her, lizard. Go and shake off your human skin for a bit.”
“I’ll be fine,” Carys said. “Stretch your wings and look for anyone who might be awake. See if you can find out what’s been going on the past few days.”
“They will be awake,” Cadell said. “Those who guard do not sleep.”
With that ominous-sounding pronouncement, Cadell’s human body shimmered into a gold shower and his true form emerged. He spread his wings and took to the sky.
Carys sucked in a quick breath at the lightness that filled her chest.
Duncan squeezed her hand. “You doing all right?”
Carys nodded. “I’m good.”
He leaned over and kissed her temple. “You want to go with him, don’t you?”
“Yes.” She didn’t even try to deny it.
Duncan angled his head and looked at her. “So go. Call him back. Go fly with your dragon for a bit.”
It was tempting. So very tempting. She looked down at her thin cotton shirt and laughed a little bit. “When I walked through that gate, I was dressed for summer in England. Do you know how cold I’d be if he was carrying me?”
