Chapter Seventy two

NOLA REYNOLDS

Something had followed me from the Lycan’s palace, into the shifting shadows of the forested valley beneath. Something that stayed in the dark leakage of the trees, shifting every time I blinked or looked away.

It made the blood pound hotly between my ears as I backed up into the carcasses of trees, paying no mind to where I was going.

“Hello?” I called out, after turning to stare at the slender skeleton of trees, my wolf eyes squinting as I peered over the underbrush.

Crickets.

I gasped, choking back a whimpered howl and striding forward, weaving past the sharp tips of the branches that seemed to take an odd fancy to my eyes when I was almost certain I had seen the shadow of the gargoyle hybrid hunched between the trees.

I had looked back after my fall to make sure it wasn't following me and was surprised to find that the kinks of its milk-gray back were rigidly facing me, with only the decagon of its head twisted impossibly in my direction.

Could it have gotten here th