Page 29 of The Last Guardian

I wanted to leave. But my legs gave out. My whole body leaned against him; his arms tightened around my back.

“Are you sure?” Zaidkiel frowned, helping me keep my balance.

He glanced down at my hands, which were now clutching at his arms. Quickly, I withdrew my hands from him, but Zaidkiel still had a firm grip on my waist; his hands tightened around me.

“I’m expected elsewhere. Let me go,” I insisted in a trembling voice. “Please,” I begged at last.

Something hard and broken crossed his eyes. Stars, his eyes. They were brighter than ever, so beautiful…

Focus!

Zaidkiel didn’t move, hesitating over whether to let me go; his gaze flickered in the darkness, and it lingered on mine for a moment. Searching my eyes, as if he could see behind every layer of lies, as if he could see my soul, a battle played out in his gaze.

But Zaidkiel released me at last, and the moment he let go, my body cried out for a little more support. A little more of his warmth. His eyes stopped on me and settled on my neck for a moment. Could he see the blood sticking to my skin?

No, it was too dark.

After what felt like an eternity, Zaidkiel stepped aside to let me pass, and I didn’t hesitate. I walked past him and went to the far end of the gardens. I glanced back a few times to make sure he wasn’t following me. Once I was certain I was alone, I strode away to the edge of the woods.

And then I ran.

MY HEART THUMPED in my chest, resonated in my ears, and my mind slowly made sense of what I was doing right now—fleeing the only home I had ever known.

Abandoning the people I held dear, my brother, my sisters, Lyra. What was I doing? What would become of me now? Where would I go?

Talking to my father about Haedeon was impossible; he wouldn’t believe me. I could have talked to Arthur, but I knew he couldn’t do anything. I was on my own.

Alone.

The world frightened me; I had never felt so lonely as in this palace, not since my mother’s death. But I had never truly been alone, had I? Not physically. I still had my family—a family I was abandoning.

But if I stayed, I would die. I knew I would.

My steps became slower and slower as I passed through the trees, going deeper into the woods. The wound on my neck burned as fiercely as the one on my wrist, where Haedeon’s nails had sucked my blood. How could someone drink people’s blood? And how was it possible that his nails fed on me too?

With only the moonlight’s glow, the woods took form before my eyes, what I was able to glean from it. A blur shadowed my vision—from the loss of blood, my tears, the pain… everything. But I could see the thriving trees and their lush green leaves.

The deeper I went, the more lifeless the woods became.

Maybe it was because my strength was slowly fading away, sleep beckoning to me like a sweet promise in the night. Still, the trunks were no longer vibrant brown but had faded to a gray hue—no more green leaves. The trees were black—bloated as if something were dying inside.

And the smell, what was this smell? Like damp soil mixed with something sour. Each breath felt bitter, thick, leaving a metallic taste in the back of my throat.

Rot. The woods were rotting. Nausea rose again, as I steadied myself against a tree, the trunk wet and spongy against my skin.

Ugh, what was happening around here?

Slow dripping echoed, growing louder by the second, mingling with the wet sound of my footsteps on the waterlogged ground—as if the soil itself were trying to escape from here too.

As time passed by, an itchy feeling settled on my skin, as if the air were seeping into my pores and devouring me from the inside. Rot taking root within.

I tried to push myself to keep going, but my muscles failed me, and I fell at the foot of a tree—my back against its damp trunk. I couldn’t. My body wouldn’t work anymore. I closed my eyes for a moment, trying to find peace, to calm me, but everything kept coming back. Flashes.

Teeth. Blood. Pain.

Fear.

A dark garden.