Curse Breaker (2)

17

The fear is a steely taste twinging in the back of my mouth.

It coils down my throat, curves around each disc in my spine as I peer through the open cabin door, heart dropping to the pit of my stomach.The fog crawls closer. It seeps through the trees, swallowing them in its embrace.

A year ago, I'd have thought of it as nothing more than than a low cloud--like the perpetual fog that hangs over the forge in winter.

But the scars on my ankle tingle as memories echo through my head. The screams of Samu, the whisperings of my father, Jyro--they all crash together creating a cacophony of defeaning alarm bells.

The cloud does not rage or rush. It is deathly still, threat inconspicuous.

"Freya?" A whisper comes from behind me.

It snaps me from my trance. I turn back to Cadence, sitting on the floor of the carriage wide-eyed as she looks up at me. With her legs to her chest and tear-stained cheeks, she reminds me of a child.

"What's going on?" she asks.

My mind races at a million miles a second, but my mouth won't catch up. I stare at her dumbly, waring between an explanation and trying to find a solution. Killian would know what to do. He doesn't waste time staring at the threat, motionless. But the fear of the unknown paralyses me.

I know it can harm. It destroyed an entire country, tore families apart. I've seen its destruction; I've experienced it. But there's so much about the cloud that I don't know.

Outside, a low shout reverberates through the wood. Cadence flinches, eyes darting to the entrance. "What was that? Why have we stopped?"

I follow her gaze back to the treeline. The cloud has seeped from the forest edge onto the path. The way it moves, snake-like along the ground, makes it seems alive.

The temptation to bolt tugs at me. But there's too many unknowns--like the direction of the cloud, where Raven is, whether Cadence will follow.

What would Killian do?

He'd known what that storm was when it struck Veymaw. At the rumbling of the sky, the colour of the clouds--he'd taken me from the forest to his cabin. Shelter. And even as the cloud wept into the streets, Jyro was the only victim that night. Jyro and me.

My heart hammers as my brain orders my limbs into motion.

I lurch forward from the cabin, swinging my body outside to reach for the wooden door latched on the outside. Sweat beads at the nape of my neck as I fiddle with it, trying to detach it from the outside of the cabin. It comes free so suddenly I lurch backwards into the carriage as it swings shut, rattling the walls. The sheet flaps flimsily against the wooden door before stilling in the absence of the breeze.

My eyes flit around the rest of the carriage, searching for gaps in the wood, but come up empty. It doesn't stop the thudding of my heart as I sink to the floor opposite Cadence.

Cadence stares at me like a stranger, the fear creeping back into her gaze.

"Stay quiet," I whisper.

She hesitates. "Is there someone out there?"

An image pulses through my mind--the infected, crouched over that deceased horse. "Not someone, something."

Her brows pulls together as she stares at the once opened door. Aside from the shout, nothing disrupts the eerie silence. Only our laboured breaths fill the space. It had been the same way during the storm in Veymaw, the silence had felt so loud as I wandered through the trees.