The Soul Eaters (The Thin Hex Line Book 1) by Gwyndolyn Russell (e reader txt) 📕

and boulders. Dirt and sand was replaced by older trees unable to stand. We were climbing a mountain of old life slowly being recycled into something new.

I can't believe I noticed it, but I saw an impression in the dirt. Rounded at the front, flat in the back. Whatever made it weighed quite a bit. There were a few more impressions just like it. We followed them.

The sky darkened. When we could view it through little openings in the canopy it was still fairly bright with colors shifting from the purple tinge to pinks and blues as the stars fell beyond the horizon. Under the canopy, the slight change in light was drastic. Shadows darkened and stretched further. We couldn't see our hands in front of our faces.

Our only light source was the concentrated beam of white light Nostra was able to project from his finger tip.

We found the source of the foot prints. A tall, noble creature with black bristly fur. A series of branches sprouted from its head and twisted up and back. A large nose it huffed out of. Six legs with four in the front and thick hind limbs for jumping and sprinting.

It focused on picking berries from a thorny bush. It couldn't get its teeth close enough without getting pricked, so it used a surprisingly long tongue to scooped up the berries.

We knelt down behind some bushes opposite of the creature. Yaaranam shouldered her rifle and aimed it center mass, right under its second arm.

She waited till its head ducked back down for berries. Then pulled the trigger. The sound of thunder cracked from the side of the rifle. The round went straight through and out the other side.

Orange dripped down its fur. The creature leaped straight into the air and took off.

"Fuck!" I said, jumping over the bush. "Follow it!"

We chased after it, following the trail of blood. It took us down a winding path even deeper into the jungle. We only caught glimpses of it up ahead, leaping from spot to spot.

When we saw it next it had keeled over next to a rotten log. Its head lifted from the dirt. It huffed, straining to breathe.

I let Yaaranam finish it off since I had gotten distracted by something I saw on the other side of the log. A faint black mist.

It may have been a horrible idea, but I stepped into it. The hair stood on the back of my neck. I covered my nose and mouth with one hand and used the other to touch the mist hanging at knee level.

Cold as ice.

It flowed like a waterfall from my palm. There was more creating a ring around a good sized clearing. Most of it had faded away. A small lake was fed by a calm waterfall a hundred feet high. The purple grass almost glowed pink in the fading light. A closer inspection revealed black blood everywhere.

It honestly looked like a massacre. It was splattered this way and that. The grass ripped up. Scrapes piled the dirt up. Water soaked into the soil and grass around the lake.

"It looks like there was a fight here," Nostradamus said.

Just a couple of feet from the lake was an impression in the dirt where all the grass wilted and bent outwards. Something had been laying there for a long time, curled up into a ball. A large boulder not much further away was scorched black and red, possibly from a fire.

Then I saw it. Patches of black fur.

"He's hurt…." I mumbled.

"Look at this!" Nostra pointed to the ground at the edge of the clearing.

Three toed footprints. Damn near as big as I was! Sunk into the soil a few inches. One set. Then two. Followed by the same kind of prints, but half the size and weight.

"What did you find?" Yaaranam asked, the dead creature tied up and slung over her shoulder. “Whoa...I’ve seen those before.”

“Where at?”

“The first location I was sent to when looking for my father. These were all over the place.”

“The eos have spread far…” Nostradamus sighed. “Everywhere we went we found more and more.”

“Did you see what made them?” I asked, heading back to the center of the clearing. There had to be a trail to follow. I saw Fenris’ foot prints; those heavy wolf paws. Lost them in the grass and water. I was not good at spotting those subtle impressions in the dirt. I did, however, find blood splattered on a tree trunk at the edge of the clearing. A few broken branches of something leaving in quite the hurry. A small pool of black blood.

I knelt down there and touched it. Still soft and tacky. With almost no pressure at all my fingers punctured the partly dry layer and into the cold wet stuff. Maybe all that howling earlier was Fenris in a fight? It had to be!

I followed the trail without a word. I figured Yaaranam and Nostradamus would try to stop me if they knew and I was not going to give them the opportunity to. I never really saw Fenris bleed before and it made my chest ache to know he was running around injured. Either he had thin blood, which still would not be good, or he was fatally wounded. He could have left me for dead multiple times in the past, yet he stayed with me through it all. I was not going to abandon him now.

Nostradamus and Yaaranam caught up to me with no issue. Nostra stayed at my side, using his light to keep our path visible.

"It's dark. We should all go back." Yaaranam said.

"She's right. We have no idea what kind of nocturnal life could be here." Nostra said.

Yaaranam gave a look around and groaned.

"Is this about that stupid valkyrie?"

"Excuse you?" I snapped.

"You fucking heard me. You want to go and find it, don't you?"

"It's none of your fucking business."

"It is my fucking business." Her lips curled back to show off those razor sharp fangs. "You're forgetting the mission at