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Enid traced one quick line up Avenay’s middle finger to her wrist, then stood and met Dryston at the edge of the camp, ready to protect them from whatever the night would bring.

Chapter 12: Enid

Darkness swirled behind Enid’s eyes and forged copper filled her nose. She shifted, trying to open her heavy lids, but it felt like trying to push a boulder up a mountain. She mumbled, writhing her body against the weight of her limbs. The smell grew more and more pervasive, acrid and spoiled, making her stomach turn. It was familiar, too familiar.

She let out a cry and sat up. Had it been a dream? She placed a hand over her racing heart and gave a shaky laugh. Then a low curse. She’d been on watch duty with Dryston and she’d fallen asleep? Why hadn’t he woken her? And where in the darkest pit was he?

Soft light filtered through the leaves, hitting like glints of gold as the leaves swayed in the breeze. She jumped to her feet. This was the rock she’d been sitting on last night, but there were no signs of the others, no signs of a camp.

And the smell persisted. She looked around her feet. Dark splatters stained the dirt, dripping and running in a line through the trees. Bile rose in her throat. Was it blood? If so, whose was it? She dashed down the trail, following it for a while, desperate to find the end, desperate to see it wasn’t anyone she loved.

Not Dryston. Not Kaemon.

Not Avenay.

They couldn’t be dead. Surely, they couldn’t be dead.

Don’t think of that. Focus. Focus!

She shook her head and kept following the trail, nausea building with each step. The drops got bigger, more frequent. Finally, she burst through a hedge of brush to a little clearing. Bodies lay strewn on the ground. Arrows sticking out of them, blood dripping from their mouths, their proud, leathery wings cracked and broken.

Her colony.

Her parents.

She bent over and vomited. This was a nightmare. It had to be. So why did it feel so real?

It was that day, eleven years ago, when her life had been turned upside down. There was the moon temple in the background, the one they had performed the rite in.

“Enid.” It was her mother’s voice.

She stared at the ground, horror gripping her.

Don’t look.

“Enid!” It was her father this time.

She clamped her eyes shut, shaking. No. No. She couldn’t do this. Couldn’t see this. She already saw it enough in her memories and nightmares. Whatever was happening here was too real.

Something grasped her ankle, gripping hard as all the voices of the bodies rose up, familiar voices, guttural and groaning, chanting, “Enid. Enid. Enid. You left us.”

She yanked her foot away and stumbled back, finally looking up, finally facing the scene before her. It was the same one she always saw. Her colony was dead, and her parents were dying in front of her. A Hunter came out of the woods, her dusty blue cape floating about her, picking up stains of blood. But it wasn’t one of the Hunters from thatday. Onora stalked towards Enid, that harsh gaze looking her up and down.

“They died. But you lived. How? Why do you deserve to live while they rot on the ground?” she asked, her voice cutting like a blade.

Enid’s eyes shot to her parents. They lay crumpled, blood dripping from her mother’s mouth. Her hand reached towards Enid, eyes pleading, trying to speak, but only a muted noise escaped. Enid’s body seized up, her limbs going tense, then trembling. Her senses flooded and everything came into acute focus, blurring anything on the outside of it. Just her and her dying parents, the smell of their blood mingling with the dirt, the sound of their gasping, rattling breaths.

Hands touched her, sliding up her back to her shoulders, grasping and pulling her back. She screamed, but another hand covered her mouth, bloodied with dirt and grime. She tried to shake the grip, to scratch and claw, but it only tightened, strong arms twining around her again and again like rope. The embrace hardened more, and her pulse pressed painfully against all the spots where the phantom body touched her. She screamed and screamed into the rough hand, breath labored, her eyes falling shut as darkness consumed her world, her mind, her heart.

Why do you deserve to live while they rot on the ground?

Enid’s mind repeated the words like a mantra, each one cutting deeper than before until Enid’s soul felt as if it were draining of all its life force, dotting her inner world with more blood than covered the ground.

“Enid!” The voice was faint, as if rising through water. It came again, rippling along all of her senses, but it couldn’t block out the scene before her, the arms around her. She let out a scream, her voice filling the wood as she fell to the ground, tangling with the other bodies.

Chapter 13: Avenay

Seraphina’s face was serene, too serene.