The forest screamed. Not with a voice. With wood. With roots. With ancient things shifting beneath the earth. The moment Aurora severed the grasping hands with the Veil, every tree in the clearing groaned. The sound rolled through the darkness like distant thunder.
The trapped man collapsed onto the ground. Breathing hard. Crying. Alive. For now. Aurora immediately moved toward him. "Can you stand?" The man nodded frantically. His face was covered in dirt and blood. Fear poured from him. Pure fear. The kind that stripped people down to instinct.
"They took them." The words burst from him. "They took all of them." Aurora frowned. "Who?" The man looked toward the forest. Toward the darkness between the trees. His body visibly shook. "The voices." A chill swept through the clearing. The Veil pulsed uneasily. Aurora had a feeling she already knew the answer. "The singing." The man's eyes widened. "You heard it?" Nobody answered. Because they had.
The man grabbed Aurora's arm. His fingers dug painfully into her sleeve. "They followed it." The terror in his voice sounded genuine. "My wife." His voice cracked. "My daughter." Aurora's stomach tightened. "They heard singing." The man swallowed. Then looked toward the darkness again. "They walked into the trees." Silence. "I tried to stop them." His breathing became ragged. "They wouldn't listen."
The forest groaned again. Louder this time. The sound seemed to come from everywhere at once. Lucien immediately turned. His silver eyes scanning the darkness. The expression on his face changed instantly. Danger. Real danger. "Aurora." His voice was sharp. Urgent. "We need to move." That alone was enough to alarm her. Lucien rarely sounded worried.
The ground suddenly shifted. Everyone stumbled. Roots erupted from the soil. Not growing. Moving. Aurora's eyes widened. The roots slithered across the clearing. Like snakes. Like veins beneath flesh. The rescued man screamed. One root wrapped around his ankle. Another around his wrist. A third shot toward his throat.
Aurora reacted instantly. Silver threads exploded from her hands. The Veil sliced through the roots. The forest screamed. A genuine scream. High. Ancient. Inhuman. The sound blasted through the trees. Birds erupted into the sky. Branches snapped. The earth shook violently. Then everything moved. The forest attacked.
Roots burst from the ground. Branches swung downward. Entire trees bent toward them. The clearing transformed into a nightmare. "Run!" Lucien's voice thundered across the chaos. Nobody argued. They ran.
Aurora grabbed the terrified survivor. Gideon pulled Elara away from a snapping branch. Their mother stumbled. Darian caught her immediately. The forest pursued them. Aurora could hear it behind them. Wood cracking. Roots tearing through soil. Ancient things awakening. The darkness between the trees no longer felt empty. It felt populated. Watching. Moving. Hunting.
The singing returned. Soft. Gentle. Closer now. The lullaby drifted between the trunks. Aurora hated how beautiful it sounded. Part of her wanted to follow it. The realization terrified her. The Veil flared violently. Pain shot through her chest. The temptation vanished instantly. The singing wasn't a song. It was bait.
Ahead of them, the returned continued marching. Unaffected. Uninterested. Thousands of pale figures moving steadily toward the mountains. The forest ignored them completely. The realization struck Aurora immediately. The forest wasn't attacking the dead. Only the living.
Another root burst from the ground. Gideon barely avoided it. The thing wrapped around a tree instead. The trunk shattered. Wood exploded outward. The entire tree crashed into the path. Blocking their way. Everyone skidded to a halt. Aurora's heart hammered. The forest had cut them off.
The singing grew louder. Then she saw them. People. Standing among the trees. Dozens of them. Men. Women. Children. Watching silently. Aurora's pulse quickened. Survivors. For one brief second hope sparked. Then she saw their faces. Every one of them smiled. The same smile. The smile of the returned. The smile she'd come to hate.
The figures stepped forward. Their movements looked wrong. Stiff. Jerking. Like puppets controlled by invisible strings. The rescued man screamed. "No." His voice broke. "No, no, no." One of the women stepped into the moonlight. Aurora immediately understood. The man's wife. The expression on his face confirmed it. The woman smiled warmly. Lovingly. Then she began singing. The lullaby.
The man's legs buckled. Tears streamed down his face. "Emma." The woman extended her hand. Still singing. Still smiling. The man took a step toward her. Aurora grabbed him immediately. "Don't." The warning came sharply. The man looked torn apart. Heartbroken. Desperate. The woman continued singing.
Another figure stepped from the darkness. A little girl. No older than eight. The man's daughter. The sight nearly shattered him. "Daisy." The little girl smiled. Then held out her hand too. Aurora felt sick. The forest wasn't hunting people. It was using them. Using memories. Using grief. Using love. The realization horrified her.
A dozen more smiling figures emerged from the darkness. Then dozens more. Then hundreds. Watching from between the trees. Singing. Smiling. Waiting. The forest was full of them. Lucien suddenly stepped forward. For the first time since Aurora met him his composure vanished.
The shadows around him erupted. Darkness spread across the ground. The temperature plummeted. The smiling figures immediately stopped singing. Every head turned toward him. Every smile faltered. Aurora stared. She had never seen Lucien like this. Power radiated from him. Ancient. Terrifying. Beautiful.
The forest recoiled. Actually recoiled. Trees bent away from him. Roots withdrew into the earth. Even the singing stopped. Silence crashed across the clearing. Lucien's silver eyes gleamed. Not human. Not remotely human. For a moment Aurora understood something she had forgotten. Lucien wasn't a man helping them. Lucien was one of the things the world had once feared. And tonight the forest remembered that too.
Far ahead, beyond the endless trees, a deep booming sound rolled from the mountains. One. Then another. Then another. Like massive doors slowly opening. Caelum stopped walking. For the first time in hours. The returned stopped with him. Thousands of dead turning toward the peaks. Waiting. Listening. Smiling.
And somewhere beyond those mountains something had just awakened.