Sienna Blackwood's Arc

Chapter 6 of 11

The fog reached the edge of the square and stopped. Sienna watched it pool against the cobblestones like water against a dam. The lanterns still burned, but the light felt thinner now, stretched across too much dark. Her scar pulsed once, cold and sharp, then went quiet. The beast came through the front door exactly as she'd planned. She heard the scrape of claws on stone, saw the shadow move past the doorway. Her hand closed around her sword hilt. But the creature didn't move deeper into the forge. It circled the frozen blacksmith once, twice, then stopped at the back wall she'd barricaded. The sound that came next made her blood go cold — not a growl, but the crack of stone splitting. She stepped into the doorway and saw the wall breaking apart under the beast's claws, red light bleeding through the cracks like veins. It had torn through her trap from the inside, opened three exits where she'd left only one. The beast turned its head toward her, and she understood. It had walked into her cage knowing it could remake the space into its own. Sienna backed into the square as the creature stepped through the hole it had made. Her armor took the first strike across the chest, leather tearing under claws that felt like frozen iron. She rolled left, came up with her sword between them, and watched the beast pace the perimeter it had just claimed. The forge was gone as a trap. The trap was her now, caught in open ground with a creature that had just taught her it could turn any space into hunting ground. Her scar burned hot, then cold, then nothing at all. She raised her sword and moved forward anyway, because the only thing worse than fighting it here was letting it choose where they fought next.