Shattered Souls (Guardians of the Maiden Book 3)

Part 1 – Captive

The Shadow was coming.

Dyna felt its presence behind her as she ran into the night. The relentless blizzard whipped around her, blinding her vision as her numb feet sank into the thick snow. Keep going. She had to keep going. A faint white glow rose beyond the dark forest.

She only needed to get to the Hyalus tree. It would protect her.

Her mother once told her its light held great magic. The thought elicited flashes of her mother’s torn body, Thane falling into smoke, and her father…NôvelDrama.Org content rights.

Tears froze on Dyna’s lashes. He died protecting her with a smile on his face. His voice still echoed in her mind, telling her to keep running.

Her heart lurched with utter fear at the roar sounding in the distance. Dyna pumped her legs faster. Her body spasmed from the cold, her lungs burning. She was almost there. The tree seemed to call her as if it was exactly where she needed to be. Oh please, let her reach it.

The frozen forest seemed to stretch endlessly, but the white light grew brighter and it pushed her numb feet onward, until she stumbled out of the trees and came before the Hyalus. It glowed so bright, its glass leaves shimmering like glass stars in the night.

Dyna whimpered in relief. She made it—

The ground vanished in her next step. She screamed as the earth sucked her down into the darkness and her body hit the bottom of a steep ravine. Sharp pain shot through her ankle and knee. Any attempt to stand made her shriek. She couldn’t walk, but she wouldn’t die like this, not when she was so close. Biting back her cries, Dyna clawed back up the ravine. Icy mud burned through her bleeding fingers, desiccated roots cutting her legs.

When she reached the top, something moved behind her.

The sound of claws on stone seemed to scrape her skin. Dyna’s heart sped, her breath heaving in the air. A low, crackling growl rumbled within the trees, stealing the air from her lungs. Terror clamped on her limbs, freezing her in place, but she couldn’t stop herself from looking over her shoulder at the molten red eyes watching her from the darkness.

The Shadow found her.

Dyna couldn’t scream or call for help. No one would come now.

She curled into a ball and squeezed her eyes tight. Claws skittered across the ground, inching closer. And closer. Her heart nearly gave out at the sound of the growl above her head. Cold smoke brushed against her cheek, wafting through her hair. She covered her mouth to smother her screams.

A sudden beam flashed through her eyelids, and the Shadow roared in pain. Its cold smoke whipped away in a freezing gust. Dyna held up a hand to screen her vision from the blinding light streaming through her fingers. The Hyalus tree. It blazed with light so bright, it kept the demon at bay.

It was protecting her.

She stumbled to the tree, and one of its low-hanging branches seemed to reach out for her. As soon as she took it, the branch gently wrapped around her hand and pulled her close. The tree’s light flared as bright as the sun, washing away the darkness in a swathe of white.