Page 13 of Shadowed Summer Sun
Looking to the sky, I determined that I hadn’t lost much time and noticed a patch of tall, pale blue hay stalks just behind Jack’s house. Rage flared in my gut, and I sent a conjuration of flame and destruction coursing through the small field.
The fire crested into the sky, a bluish-green tint coloring the flames as they consumed the entire patch. Jack bellowed from inside the Ramshackle Hut. No doubt he could muster it up once again, and I’d be all too happy to return and burn that one to the ground too.
Chapter Four
Ask For Permission Before Stepping Into A Resting Place. Pay The Souls Their Due & Respect.
CottlewickLakesatinthe middle of the Vinemire Forest, but part of it existed in the Guarded Wood. I looked at Badb as we crossed into the Southern Trees. The thick trunks and branches here were nearly black as night, and a cool weight to the air settled over me as I passed under the expansive canopy.
This was a place of Shadow, and there would be no avoiding it.
His claws raked over me as I pushed past the thick bushes and vines with no clear path to guide me. Jack’s attack still lingered in my veins, but it passed quicker than expected, and everywhere the vines slashed against my skin, I felt more of the poison drawn from me, nullified in the Earth.
But they didn’t stop. Claws and vines tore and grabbed, hunting for as much of me as the King could get them into. Raised red lines crisscrossed over my arms and chest, unseen slashes burning beneath the skirts that covered my legs.
Badb had flown higher, above the thick trees where she could safely navigate, and I felt naked without her presence beside me as the forest itself took up his will.
The Darkness grew, and icy wind blew over my skin, prickling my flesh. It was everywhere, touching me with a corporeal weight that made me stumble, struggling for purchase within the thick undergrowth. I pressed on past the dense trees, seeking out the Hidden Graves and the entrance to the Guarded Wood.
The black of the Shadows was thick, an inky fluid that slithered around and through me. The Hidden Graves could only be found if I stopped looking, so I kept walking, delving into the deepest parts of the wood where the Shadows ate up the forest floor.
As I made my way through a Shadowed wisteria’s branches, they clung to my clothing, black claws tearing through the Darkness and seizing me.
“Ssssuuummmeerrr…“ The King of Summer’s End whispered into my ear, his hot breath drifting over my neck.
I arched and closed my eyes as the sensation coated me, his presence nearly suffocating as he grasped my body through the branches and shadow claws. My head spun, my heart pounding like a freight train.
The vined grip on my arms and legs demanded more, fisting me harder, more desperately. I hissed through the intoxicating pain as it stoked something burning inside me like gasoline on the pyre. Opening my eyes, I could see more of the King’s form solidify from his Shadows. He towered over me, large hands easily wrapping around my waist.
The pounding of my pulse reached my ears and drowned out the sounds of the forest. I trembled, pulling against the thorny grasp the King had on me.
“Ssssuuummmeerrr…”
“I can’t… The threat…”
Managing to break free, I sprinted deeper into the trees. He was there, waiting in each of the long Shadows that dripped from the trees, tall, potent, and hungry. I ran faster, and it did nothing to put ground between us. Adrenaline coursed through my blood, my breath rushing in and out of my lungs and the muscles in my legs burning. I scanned the space before me, breathless and struggling against an endless number of vines. There had to be a clearing or path somewhere, an escape from the Shadows.
I saw something, an area where a hazy sky penetrated the trees. I took off for it, slicing against the vines as I pushed through, but I only made it a few yards before something hard caught my shoe.
Soaring toward the ground, I landed with a hard thud. Pushing myself up off the ground, I looked back and found a square bit of stone nearly consumed by the Earth. I brushed away the leaves and moss at its base, revealing a much large structure than expected. A name and twin dates were carved into the granite. The worn symbol of a cross decorated the space at the top.
“A headstone.”
There were several more all around me and up farther ahead.The Hidden Graves.My pack lay next to me, flung to the ground as I fell, and I hastily searched for my pyrite stone, dipping it in the little liquid remaining of my holy water.
Holding the stone to my heart, I spoke to those resting here. “Apologies, Quiet Ones. I seek entrance to the Guarded Wood and must find the 100 Steps. Please allow me passage through your resting place and take this gift to ease any of your sufferings.”
I pulled from deep inside, forcing life into the dormant blooms that lay trapped under the thick undergrowth of the wood. Three white lilies crawled up through the grass and opened in front of the center tombstone among the Hidden Graves.
They bloomed, their long petals opening wide to reveal a sunny yellow center with long stamens that gradually began to perfume the air with their heady aroma. The grave they sat in front of read, “Constance Hart. June 21, 1873, to June 21, 1901,” and a sun decorated the space where a cross might be.
She’d been twenty-eight, born on this very day, and died too. A deep set pang in my chest radiated across my ribs, but then I was suffused with a warm sensation like bathing in the Sun. It seeped into my bones, and I smiled as an unseen hand squeezed my shoulder.
“Thank you, Constance.”
But as I attempted to stand, the King’s clawed hands reached through the gravestones’ Shadows.
‘I’ve been granted access, dammit. Let me complete my tasks!“ My shouts were muffled against the thick fog that hung around me.
