Scarred Beauty by Jennifer Silverwood

Author:Jennifer Silverwood
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Tags: A Wylder Take, Volume Two
Publisher: SilverWoodSketches
Published: 2016-11-25T05:00:00+00:00

DESPITE WYLL’S SLOW gait, Vynasha did not see any trace of her nephew and the wild woman after she left her painted reflection behind. She shuddered and knew she would never come to this place again. But she was grateful to Resha for carrying Wyll this far, for doing what she could not.

Don’t think about it now.

Underneath a canopy of snow-laden evergreens and soft sunlight she could finally breathe, the madness exposed in the cave left behind. No fresh snow drifts masked the tracks leading back to the village. Wyll and Resha’s retreat, too, was barely marked by their scents lingering behind.

Erythea’s majik tugged at her consciousness.

Follow…

This time she grudgingly obeyed. There was time later to brood over the fact a child’s majik could sway her so easily.

Home…

She ran through woods so deep it would be easy to get lost, to miss all signs of life in apparent barrenness. Before Vynasha had been changed by the curse, she’d lost her way, saved by the grace of two humans. Now she kept watch on the space between the trees as she ran through patches of loose snow and wondered what happened to Wolfsbane. There hadn’t been time to ask, not that she expected Resha to tell her. But if Wolfsbane had killed Erythea’s mother as the twins claimed…

Don’t think about it now.

Vynasha squashed the emotions wriggling up inside her back down until she was hollow, cold and empty as the sky above. Every exhale brought her closer, their scents fresher.

Shouts and screams and snarls pulled her closer to the village.

Erythea’s curse eased the closer she drew until the nagging tingling sensation was gone, replaced by Vynasha’s terror. The scent of smoke, frightened people and majik filled her nose, dim shapes darted ahead. Screams from other villagers sounded from all directions as people hid away in their homes.

“Run!”

“It’s here!”

“—find Baalor!”

A blood-curdling wail drowned out the other voices as a spark of blue light flashed through the forest. Vynasha knew what she would find even as she broke through the tree line, even as she took in the devastation and the chaos her choice had wrought.

Ceddrych and the twins were nowhere to be seen, but several elderly men and women hung about the edge of the road, swords in their hands. The three half-sized, bearded men hefted axes in their hands. The man with ebony skin and horns stretched out an equally dark longbow and took aim. Their weapons would not be enough, not against one of Grendall’s beasts, though at least they were prepared to defend themselves. Some still ran for the relative safety of their walls, while the rest stared in horror at the village center.

A foul, grating howl reverberated on the air and the hair on the back of her neck stiffened. Vynasha shuddered as she pushed her way through to the road and time slowed.

Broken clods of earth and bloody snow surrounded a monstrous furred creature further up the road. The creature was a malformed cross between bear and something other and much larger than any of the pack.

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