Page 150 of Gilded

Her thoughts grew thick and heavy. Filling up with an uncanny sense of dread, coupled with … peace.

She lay back, her head sinking into the patch of moss that clung to the bank. She was surrounded by the smell of earth, and she distantly thought how odd that it could be both the smell of life and the smell of death.

Her lashes fluttered.

She gasped then, or tried to, though air wasn’t coming into her lungs like it should have been. Blackness was edging across her vision. But she remembered—she only just remembered.

She’d nearly forgotten. Her hand scrabbled through the mud, searching. She felt like her limbs were trapped in molasses. Where was it?

Where was?…

She’d almost given up when her fingers found the branch from the ash tree she’d left here last week. Madam Sauer had insisted it be ash.

Don’t let go.

She’d insisted. This had been important.

Serilda didn’t know why.

Nothing seemed important anymore.

The scratches on her palm stung dully as she tried to hold on tight, but she no longer had control over her fingers.

She no longer wanted control.

She wanted release.

She wanted freedom.

Visions of the hunt sped through her vision. The wind stinging her eyes. The raucous cheers in her head. Her own lips pursed as she howled at the moon.

The bellows of the night ravens sounded far away now. Angry, but fading into nothing.

She had started to close her eyes when she saw it through the trees. An early moon rising in the east, though dusk was still hours away. Competing for attention with the guileless sun, not to be ignored.

The Awakening Moon.

How fitting.

Or, if this did not go well—how ironic.

She wanted to smile, but she was too tired. Her heartbeat was slowing. Too slow.

Her fingers went cold, then numb. Soon she could feel nothing at all.

She was dying.

She might have made a mistake.

She wasn’t sure she cared.

Hold tight,the witch had told her.Don’t let go.

The silhouette of a black bird flashed through her vision, soaring northwest. Toward the Aschen Wood, toward Adalheid.

Serilda closed her eyes and sank into the ground.

She let go.