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In the ht, a narrow bea froy that I have been feeling for the past few days suddenly intensifies a dozenfold, sending a sharp stab of pain through my chest that reasp The others do too--they roans and clutches his head, while Raffaele hunches over and winces Ahead of us, Maeve falls to a kneel, while Teren stabs his sword into the snow and leans against it My illusions flare, sending sparks of dark silhouettes dancing through the snow around us
This is the origin, the point where Laetes had once descended froy of the i into our world, where the Dark of Night fory Where the story of the Elites began Even without Raffaele, I can feel the energy eod--War and Wisdom, Fear and Fury, Aiano, touch his ar flickers in the forests of the valley At first, I think it ain Dark shapes, silhouettes that look like monsters
Except that Teren also turns to look at them He raises his sword at the same time Maeve does "What is that?" he asks
As the words leave his mouth, one of the shadoanders out of the forest and into the clearing Itnoise with its teeth I recoil in horror The creature has no eyes at all, only two soft, eht once have been, and a wideprints in the untouched snow In its wake hovers a blanket of fury, an energy so dark and vile that it makes e fro their lips
"They are drawn to our energy," Raffaele whispers, his eyes wide
Monsters, the whispers of the dead tell lance back at the e came More shadows stir in the forests behind us They are suddenly everywhere, drawn out by our powers The clicking of their teeth echoes through the trees
Run
We all break into a sprint toward the beaht Our sudden movement causes several of the creatures to swivel their heads in our direction--they sniff the air, then pull their s They bolt
My breath cos In front of me, Lucent stuoes down Maeve pulls away fro some room between herself and Teren, then twirls her blade Her eyes narrow into slits She bares her teeth, hefts the weapon as one of the creatures draws near, and swings at it
The creature snarls and lunges toward her Maeve’s sword slices right across its gaping jaws, slashing deep into each side of itsA shudder of fury and fear ripples throughwith the creature Maeve herself winces too
We both align with the Underworld These creatures are monsters from the immortal realm, creatures that are a part of us, connected to us
Maeve slashes at the creature again This ti into the snow There it twitches, while Maeve continues to run "Hurry!" she shouts Behind her, the creature starts to rise again
Teren fans out to our other side As we hurtle between the trees toward the blue beaht His swing is so powerful that it slices straight through the first creature’s neck, decapitating it, before hacking deep into the second creature’s chest The first falls writhing in the snow, spilling black blood everywhere, while the second screaasp at the rush of pain from its death, stuers to us, hauls us to our feet, and iano darts away fro creature behind us, draws a pair of daggers, and stabs them deep into the creature’s face Another jolt of pain courses throughas the creature collapses, shrieking
I reach the valley first Here, the trees are so close together they seein point As we run, I look through the trunks and see st the snow, fleeting and distorted My face is pale, my hair a stream of silver I look panic-stricken
"Watch out!" I shout at Raffaele as a creature barrels through the maze of trees toward us Raffaele jue its face in between a split trunk It snarls and claws for us through the narrow gap, fangs snapping Raffaele stumbles backward and falls in the snow A sword streaks out of nowhere to cut the creature nearly in half It’s Teren, both hands gripping the hilt of his sword tightly, standing over Raffaele like a strange guardian More creatures leap for hi them back Another creature dies by his blade
"Move," Teren snaps over his shoulder at Raffaele "Don’tHe leaps to his feet and continues running for the bea knife and stabs one more creature
Then another leaps out in front of us, landing deep in the powder snow It turns its sightless sockets on us and sed rits her teeth, then brandishes her oord and swings at the creature The whispers burst to life in my head, and I can almost understand what it wants It focuses on me