The world became a narrow tunnel of pain and motion. My lungs were ragged strips of burning cloth. My ribs were a shattered bell clanging with every footfall. Kai’s arm was a bar of iron around my waist; it was the only thing holding me up. He did not speak. He did not need to. His body was a language of urgent command. He pulled me through the grasping undergrowth; his head constantly swiveling; his ears tracking sounds I could not hear.
The darkness was a living thing. It breathed with the rustle of unseen creatures and the distant, haunting calls of our hunters. The rogues were still out there. Their howls were fainter now; a persistent echo in the deep woods. They were searching. They were patient.
We ran until the sky began to soften from black to a deep, bruised grey. The trees thi
