The forest beyond the shore was wrong.
Sunrei felt it the moment they stepped beneath the gnarled branches the way the air clung too thick, the way the leaves whispered secrets in a language just beyond understanding. The trees grew in spirals, their trunks twisted like screaming faces frozen in time.
Kaelis wiped sweat from her brow, her thigh wound still oozing. This place is sick.
Cael didn't answer. He'd been silent since the Dreamer's warning, his fingers tracing the scar where his brand used to be.
Sunrei's own brand itched, the new markings pulsing in time with his heartbeat. The Eclipse is coming. He didn't know what it meant only that the words filled him with a dread he couldn't name.
A branch snapped.
All three of them froze.
The forest held its breath.
Then
A child's laughter.
Sunrei's blood turned to ice. He knew that laugh.
Lithriel.
But when he turned, there was only a crumbling stone archway, half-buried in ivy. Carved into its surface was a mural a figure in silver robes pressing a brand to a kneeling man's wrist.
The kneeling man looked up.
His face was Sunrei's.
Kaelis sucked in a sharp breath. What the hell is this?
Cael stepped forward, his hand outstretched. It's a memory. One of the old waystations.
Sunrei's throat tightened. Waystations?
Places where they marked us. Cael's fingers brushed the carved figure Lithriel. Where they changed us.
The mural shifted.
Stone cracked as the figures moved, the scene unfolding like a living thing. Lithriel leaned down, her stone lips brushing Sunrei's ear.
You volunteered, she whispered.
The archway collapsed.
Dust billowed, revealing a hidden path lined with bones. At its end stood a lone figure Ryvan, his sword drawn, his eyes glowing violet.
But it wasn't Ryvan.
Not anymore.
Kaelis's knives were in her hands before the dust settled.
Ryvan no, the thing wearing Ryvan smiled. It was wrong, that smile. Too wide. Too many teeth.
Prince, it crooned. How kind of you to return.
Sunrei's brand burned white-hot. What are you?
The thing tilted Ryvan's head. What you made me.
Then it moved.
Faster than should have been possible, it crossed the distance between them, its sword flashing. Sunrei barely dodged, the blade slicing air where his throat had been.
Kaelis lunged, her knives aiming for Ryvan's ribs
The thing laughed, and backhanded her into a tree.
Wood splintered. Kaelis slumped, dazed.
Cael grabbed Sunrei's arm. Run!
Sunrei didn't argue.
They fled down the bone-lined path, the thing's laughter chasing them like a living thing.
The path ended at a cliff.
Below them stretched a valley bathed in crimson light, its center dominated by a massive crater the Moon's Cradle.
Cael panted, his missing brand scar pulsing. We can't fight it. Not like this.
Sunrei's hands shook. Then what do we do?
A rustle behind them.
Kaelis stumbled into view, her face bloody. Distract it.
Before Sunrei could react, she shoved past him straight toward the thing wearing Ryvan.
It smiled. Little healer. How
Kaelis drove a knife into its eye.
It screamed, a sound that wasn't human, and backhanded her again.
Kaelis flew over the cliff's edge.
Sunrei's heart stopped.
Then
A hand grabbed hers.
Cael, half-hanging over the edge, his teeth gritted. Help me!
Sunrei lunged, grabbing Cael's arm just as the thing wearing Ryvan turned.
Its remaining eye fixed on Sunrei.
You always were weak, it hissed.
Then it lunged.
Sunrei didn't think.
He let go.
The three of them plummeted into the valley below, the thing's scream following them down.
Wind roared in Sunrei's ears.
Then
Impact.
Blackness.
Sunrei woke to the scent of burning flesh.
His brand was on fire, the new markings searing into his skin like brands of their own.
The Eclipse is coming.
The whisper was louder now. Closer.
He sat up, his vision swimming.
Kaelis lay nearby, her breathing shallow. Cael was gone.
And standing over them
Lithriel.
Her silver hair gleamed in the crimson light, her robes untouched by dust or blood. She smiled, and it was the most terrifying thing Sunrei had ever seen.
Welcome home, Prince.