A dragon shifter novel Chapter 24

Thornhill Academy

Alone In the Woods

The beam wobbles beneath my boots a thin line of wood suspended over a throat of black water. My hands clench at my sides, knuckles white, breath trying to steady. One slow foot in front of the other. That’s all it takes. Centre my balance. Don’t panic. Don’t be the joke. Halfway across, I feel the dampness in

the air, and I sneak a look behind me to the rune on the tree that. I’ve almost made it. Then a shadow falls over the far end of the beam. Cage has one boot

planted on the wood, the other braced on the bank. He’s got a smile. like a predator. He leans forward, fingers hooked over his knee, and the words pour out

of his vile mouth, taunting me with everything I’ve already heard. “Don’t get lost, little stray. Pathetic. Weak. You should just ” I don’t give him the

satisfaction of continuing. “Fuck off,” I say, hard and loud. His grin widens, wicked and flat. “With pleasure.” He kicks the beam swiftly, and the world flips.

For a second, everything moves in slow motion. A long, terrible arc. Neel the beam snap under my weight, and then the cold wind hits me like a physical

punch or a thousand needles at once. It steals the air from my lungs, slams the breath right out of me. Pain explodes in my sternum as I hit the water hard

enough to send stars bursting across my vision. Blackness claws at the edges of my sight, and my limbs feel suddenly foreign, heavy and useless. Panic tries to take me, the ice water wrapping my ribs, the cold squeezing my throat. For a fractured, stupid second, I think this is it.

The river doesn’t give me a chance to fight. The second I hit, it swallows me whole and spits me out like I’m nothing. The current roars around me,

churning, dragging, spinning me end over end. I try to kick, try to claw for the surface, but the water is stronger, colder, hungrier than I could ever be. Every time I break the surface, gasping for air, it yanks me under again. Branches whip past, tangling in my hair, scraping at my arms. Rocks tear at my knees and shins, bruising me raw. My lungs burn like fire as I fight for one breath, then another, then another. Move, Allison. Don’t you dare quit now. I twist and

catch sight of something ahead, an overhanging branch dipping low across the torrent. My chest screams, but ! lunge for it, fingers clawing through air and

spray. My hand catches, and bark rips at my skin as the current tears at my legs, threatening to drag me free. I snarl through clenched teeth, the sound

swallowed by the river, and haul with everything I have left. One arm. Then the other. My nails split against the bark as I drag myself up, coughing and

heaving water out of my lungs until I collapse on the muddy bank, shivering and raw. For a long moment, I lie there, cheek pressed against wet earth, the

river’s roar fading into background noise. Every breath rattles and every muscle trembles… But I’m alive. Alive, and nowhere near the course anymore.

I push up slowly, wiping water from my eyes. The woods stretch around me in every direction, dark, endless and unfamiliar. No rune–marked path in sight.

No other students. Just trees, shadows, and the knowledge that I’m far, far off track. My stomach sinks as reality clicks in. “Perfect,” I mutter hoarsely,

forcing myself to my feet. My clothes cling heavily to my skin, my hair plastered to my face. “Fucking perfect.” Cage hasn’t just tried to humiliate me. He’s

thrown me out of the race entirely, and now I’m on my own in the woods.

I stagger forward, every inch of me dripping, clothes heavy as lead. The river sparls beside me, a black ribbon cutting through the trees. “Fine,” I mutter, teeth chattering. “You dragged me this far, you can damn well take me back.“/I keep close to the water’s edge, following the current upstream. My boots slip in the mud, sucking at my steps, but I press on. If I follow it long enough, I’ll find the broken beam, the rune–marked tree, something, but the woods have

other plans. The further I walk, the denser the trees grow. Branches claw at my arms, blocking my path. Roots rise like snakes, tangling my ankles, tripping

me until my knees are raw. At one point, the ground itself shifts beneath me, softening into a swamp that forces me to veer left, away from the water. Every

time I try to push back, the forest pushes harder. Rocks jut out in impossible walls. Brambles close off the bank, sharp enough to tear through the fabric of my soaked kit. The river blurs behind curtains of trees until it’s gone altogether, the roar distant and fading. My breath comes fast, more from frustration

than fear. “Oh, of course,” I hiss into the shadows. “Wouldn’t want the stray to find her way back.” I shove through a thicket, branches scratching my face,

and step into silence. No river. No runes. Just the suffocating press of the woods and the realisation hits me like another punch to the chest. I’ve lost my

way back.

The silence presses in, heavy and wrong. My breath fogs in the chill, each exhale too loud in my ears. That’s when I hear a low growl, deep and wet, rolling

through the trees like it belongs to the forest itself. I freeze, and slowly, I turn. Two crimson eyes blink open in the shadows. Then another pair and another. The thing steps forward, dragging itself into the thin beam of light that manages to pierce the canopy. Its body is all sinew and shadow, patches of fur

clinging to grey skin that looks peeled back and burned. Antlers curve from its skull like broken branches, dripping with moss and rot. Its mouth gapes, too

wide, rows of jagged teeth glistening. Thats… not a shifter and definitely not a student. That’s a god damned wraith–beast. I’ve heard whispers of them in

the scrub lands, monsters that prowl the borders where magic bleeds thin. I’ve never seen one this close. I’ve never wanted to. It hisses, and the air around

me chills so fast my wet clothes stick to my skin like ice. My legs scream at me to run, but I know better. Turn your back, and you’re already dead.

It lunges.

1/2

1:00 pm

TMM

Alone In the Woods

Comments