Chapter 9: The Empty Forest

"Where did you go?"

Lyra’s voice was barely a whisper. The cold morning air swallowed her words right away.

Her eyelids were heavy and stiff from crying all night. A pale gray light crept through the tall pine trees, making the woods look grim and lifeless. The morning cold bit deep into her skin. She shivered so hard her teeth rattled.

She was lying on her stomach in the wet grass. Every muscle in her legs and back ached with a deep, throbbing pain. Her skin felt tight and filthy, covered in dried mud, sweat, and flaking blood from the night before.

She reached out her right hand without opening her eyes.

Her fingers dragged across the ground, looking for the warm, heavy body that had held her down for hours. She thought she would feel his broad shoulder or his hot chest. She thought she would hear that weird, terrifying double heartbeat pounding against her ear, or feel his hard fingers grab her waist to pull her back down.

Her palm touched nothing but cold, wet dirt.

Lyra’s breath caught in her throat. She slid her hand further across the ground, scraping her skin over sharp pine needles and frozen leaves.

There was nobody there.

She forced her head up, dark hair falling all over her face in dirty, wet clumps. She blinked hard to clear her vision, staring around the dark clearing under the big oak tree.

The spot next to her was completely empty.

The strange, dangerous man was gone. He had vanished into the woods like he was never even there. She looked all around, but there was no sign of him, no sound of heavy footsteps, and no moving branches in the distance.

Lyra pushed herself up onto her elbows. A sharp pain shot through her hips, making her gasp out loud. She sat up in the mud, clutching the torn front of her dress over her bare chest with shaking hands. Her heart pounded fast against her ribs as she stared at the empty patch of grass.

"Hello?" she called out softly. Her voice sounded small and pathetic in the big, quiet forest. "Is anyone there?"

No one answered. Only the cold wind blew through the trees, knocking drops of water off the leaves and onto her bare shoulders.

She looked down at the mud beside her. The ground was pressed down deep where his huge body had been lying. She saw a few long, dark hairs stuck to a tree root, and a faint smear of dark blood on a leaf where his bad wound used to be before it magically healed.

He had really left her.

He had taken what he wanted by force, pinning her to the dirt until his fever broke. He had whispered all those soft, sweet promises in her ear while holding her tight. He told her she was his mate. He promised to build her palaces and keep her safe from every danger in the world. He spoke so gently that it broke her heart, making her cry until she finally fell asleep in his arms.

And then, as soon as the sun started coming up, he just got up and walked away. He left her naked, sore, and alone in the freezing mud.

She didn't mean anything to him. The thought hit her hard, making it tough to catch her breath. Those sweet words were just the crazy talk of a feverish beast using her body to fix his own sickness. He didn't care about her name. He didn't care that she was just a human girl with a life and feelings. She was just something he used to stop his pain, thrown away the second he felt better.

A wave of hot shame rushed over her face, hurting worse than the cold air.

Lyra pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her thin arms around her legs. A hard, painful sob burst out of her throat. She buried her face against her knees, rocking back and forth in the cold dirt as tears ran down her mud-stained cheeks. She felt dirty and ruined, marked by a monster who treated her like trash and walked off without looking back.

The forest stayed dead quiet around her. A few morning birds started chirping high up in the branches, not caring at all about the girl crying on the ground below them.

After a long time, her crying turned into quiet, shaky gasps. She knew she couldn't stay sitting in the mud forever. If she stayed here, she would freeze to death, or wild animals would smell the blood on her skin and come hunt her down. She had to go back home. She had to walk back to her village, wash her skin clean in the river, hide her ruined clothes, and try to forget this nightmare ever happened.

Lyra dragged her feet under her and tried to stand up. Her legs were trembling so badly she had to grab onto the rough bark of the fallen tree just to keep from falling straight back into the dirt. A sharp, burning sting flared up between her thighs, forcing a quiet whimper from her lips as she took her first painful step forward.

She stopped and looked back one last time at the spot where they had been lying together.

A gust of morning wind blew across the clearing, picking up a handful of dry leaves and dropping them over the deep mark in the mud. As the leaves settled, the wind carried a heavy smell past her nose—a dark scent of pine, rain, and wild thunder that belonged entirely to him.

The space beside her was completely empty, leaving only crushed leaves and his fading scent lingering in the freezing air.