Kimberly's Trial by Night
The forest was merciless.
Lucien hadn’t given me time to rest. My wounds from Derrick’s wolves still bled beneath hastily wrapped cloth, my ribs ached with every breath, but none of it mattered. At dawn, he had led me deep into the wilderness, far beyond the caves, far from the familiar trails I once roamed as a child.
He stopped at the edge of a ravine, the air sharp and biting, the trees looming like watchful sentinels. His shadows receded, leaving only the silence of the wild.
“This,” he said, voice calm, “is where your next lesson begins.”
I looked around warily. “There’s nothing here.”
His lips curved faintly. “Not yet.”
Before I could ask, the shadows slithered from his hands, spreading across the ground like liquid night. They sank into the earth, in
