Elena Vasquez's Arc

Chapter 1 of 11

Elena heard the commotion before she saw him. Voices rose from the edge of town, urgent and sharp. She stepped outside and saw the crowd gathering near the old trading post. A man staggered between the buildings, one arm wrapped tight against his chest. Mud caked his clothes. Blood seeped through torn fabric at his shoulder. The crowd parted as he stumbled forward, and Elena moved closer. His face was gray with fever. His eyes moved without focus. Then he turned, and she saw it — the burn on his forearm, raw and weeping. The same mark people had whispered about for weeks. The same pattern she'd been hearing described in fragments and half-finished sentences. Now it was here, walking into her town on shaking legs. He collapsed against the rotting dock posts at the river's edge. The wood groaned under his weight. Moss sloughed off where his shoulder struck. Elena knelt beside him and pulled back the torn sleeve. The burn was worse up close. The edges glowed red like coals still burning. The pattern formed a circle pierced by arrows, and where the skin had split, something darker than blood wept through. She'd seen burns before. This wasn't one. This was a brand that kept burning. The man's pack slipped from his shoulder and hit the planks. Purple light blazed through the canvas. The crowd stepped back as one. Heat rolled off the pack in waves. Through the fabric, Elena saw the outline of a skull glowing bright enough to hurt her eyes. The whispers hadn't mentioned this part. They'd talked about the mark, about men who came back changed or didn't come back at all. Nobody had said anything about something they brought with them. She looked at the crowd. Their faces told her everything she needed to know. They'd talk about this in private, one by one, the way they always did. But right now they wanted her to decide. The man groaned and tried to sit up. His branded arm trembled. The pack pulsed brighter. Elena stood and faced the others. "Get him inside," she said. "And don't touch that pack." The curse she'd been trying to name had just walked into town wearing someone else's skin. Now she had to find out who invited it in.