The woods were dead silent...too silent. Even the wind held its breath. Then the forest cracked alive as a monstrous boulder ripped through the air, smashing straight into the deer sprinting desperately between the trees.
The impact was brutal. Bones snapped. Flesh tore. The deer’s cry died in its throat as it collapsed, twitching violently on the dirt, blood soaking into the roots like the earth itself was thirsty for it.
A slow set of footsteps approached...unhurried, deliberate, like the owner already knew the ending of this pathetic escape attempt.
Fergus’s shadow stretched long across the forest floor as he stepped out from behind a towering pine. His smile was lazy, cold, wicked...like a man greeting an old lover he planned to ruin again.
“There you are,” he drawled, voice smoot
