CHAPTER 23

While Damon slept , Scar had left Damon in bed . She hesitated at the edge of the woods, his hunting bow in hand. The polished wood was familiar under her fingers, a supple curve that had served Damon well for years.

Still, she stroked it nervously with the pad of her thumb as she looked into that dense thicket of trees. It was uncanny how shadows seemed to creep from beneath those

branches. Even with the sun warm on her back, she shivered.

There was no choice but to step into that forbidding place. She knew it, and yet she couldn’t quite bring her feet to move- her sturdy leather boots stayed planted on the pale,

spring-green grass like she’d grown roots. It had been a hard winter. She’d gotten skinny during the frozen months, and if she wanted to keep herself in coin and bread, she had to bring in game. She needed space to know the extent of her powers space too away from the goblins and wolves. This black, dark forest was the last place they might be. People avoided it on prin