2025-06-17 20:00:05
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Chapter 30
“Let me see the pendant.”Fenn’s voice cracked the morning quiet like a whip. We were still huddled by the stream where Bunny had washed the ash from his fur. The water flowed steadily, but tension crackled between us like a stray spark.I sat forward, heart pounding. “You want to see it now?”He didn’t move. Just stared at the pendant beneath my shirt. I felt its weight, heavy as a promise.“Evin,” he said, calm but hard. “I need to know what it is.”Bunny shifted beside him, ears twitching, but he stayed quiet. Watching. Judging.I took a deep breath. “Fine.” I unclasped my shirt just enough to let the pendant slip from beneath it. The bone carving—cracked crown hovering over rising flame—gleamed in the sunlight.Fenn blinked. He leaned forward, eyes flicking across the sigil. He swallowed and straightened. “Line-Bearers”.“Line-Bearers?” My voice trembled.He nodded slowly. “Old rebels. Defied the Binder kings. Carried these pendants as oaths of lineage and blood memory.”“Lineage?
Chapter 29
“Stay back! Don’t come closer!!”The words rumbled from my throat as shapes lunged out of the underbrush. The wildfolk—oath-broken humans twisted by dark magic—fell over roots and half-rotted logs, their bodies warped and eyes glazed with unbound hunger. They moved fast, grotesque distortions of humanity: limbs too long, joints bending wrong. One reached for me, and I stumbled, panic stabbing cold through my veins.Bunny exploded into motion, tearing through the plague-made forms with an animal ferocity I’d never seen. His shape flickered between fox and boy, claws slashing deep, killing and wounding in savage rhythm. He caught the tip of one creature’s arm and tore it open, black blood spraying the leaves.I pressed the pendant under my shirt—my hand trembling. The cracked crown over flame burnt cold against my chest. Instinct screamed to use it.But before I could move, another foul creature lunged. I raised my blade, but it knocked the weapon wide. Its nails scraped across my skin.
Chapter 28
“Look at this.”My voice sounded hollow inside the ruin, swallowed by cracked arches and draped moss. We’d been walking through the collapsed remains of what might’ve been a temple or a place of binding, silence so thick it pressed against our skin. The air smelt of damp decay, of stone longing to be whole again. Sunlight filtered through holes in the roof, spotlighting walls stained with colour—reds bleeding into blues, gold dripping into green. The place seemed alive, even though it was dying.Bunny stopped mid-step beside me, body trembling. He stared at the massive ward marks carved into the stone, then painted over in sickly bright hues. My heart thumped against my ribs at the sight: loops and knots of magic etched into ancient stone, not used to protect, but to erase. The colours looked like bruises—binding spells designed to strip someone of memory, of identity, of being.He staggered, pressing a hand against the wall for support. I rushed to his side, easing him down onto the
Chapter 27
“Do you hear it?”Bunny froze mid-step, tail twitching in the morning mist. I followed his gaze. Mist curled around the trees, dripping like slow teardrops. Yet there—on the edge of hearing—a wavering melody, softer than wind, deeper than birdsong.“Yeah,” I whispered. “It’s the hollow songs.”He didn’t answer. Instead, his ears pricked up, one twitching forward, the other back. I swallowed against the sudden tightness in my throat. Mira’s words from back at the cottage—about hollow songs echoing grief and memory—swirled through my mind. If the forest sings, it remembers. And if it remembers, it can trap you.“Don’t follow it,” Fenn had warned just last night. We’d shared the glade’s circle, the warded stones shimmering with runes older than any oath. Ashlan sat by the fire, humming a melody like a prayer that didn’t want to be sung. Fenn had pressed something into my hand—his braided rope, to remind me of roots and connection.“These songs…” he shook his head. “They lead to places no
Chapter 26
“Names burn quieter than oaths.”That was the first thing I heard when Ashlan shifted in the firelight, her voice soft and low as the leaves overhead.I didn’t turn. I just sat on the mossy stone, watching the glow catch her silhouette. The warded circle around us hummed faintly, like an echo of ancient power—quiet, strong, deliberate.“You said you were a binder’s apprentice,” I said.She nodded, her fingers tracing patterns in the dirt. “Yes. I learnt the words. The rituals. The smoke that erased voice.” Her eyes were hidden behind cloth, but I felt her look at me. “We were tasked with unmaking a boy like Bunny. They didn’t want me to watch.”I shifted uncomfortably. The word 'unmake' felt heavier than anything I’d heard so far. Closer to death than to binding.“He was shaking,” she continued, voice small. “Reminded me of a fledgling bird. Used his voice to beg for something. I knelt beside him and heard his throat break in half with the magic trying to force him. Some part of me sc
Chapter 25
“Look who showed up again.”His voice cut through the early dawn like a knife. I froze mid-stride, the leather knife grip sweating in my hand.Fenn stepped into view, spear resting over his shoulder, the woman beside him half-hidden in his shadow. She had ink-stained fingers curled over a blindfold, humming something I could almost catch. A melody, broken, half-lost, but present.“I didn’t expect company,” I said, voice rough with exhaustion.“Neither did I,” he replied, gaze flicking past me to Bunny curled near the campfire. “But trouble’s catching up. And I’ve got someone you should meet.”His eyes, the good one at least, didn’t shift from me. Behind him, she hummed again, a soft twitch in her lips.I waited for Fenn to introduce her. But he didn’t.“She’s Ashlan,” he said finally, nodding at the woman.She took a step forward. Ink-brushed hands pressed to her blindfold, fingertips damp and dark.“She knows me,” Bunny said low, stepping forward. The change in his voice was reflexiv
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