Chapter 19: Envious Bitches
The sun was just beginning to rise, its first rays sweeping away the darkness like a gentle but unstoppable tide. A cool breeze brushed against the damp leaves, carrying the scent of wet wood—tainted by the acrid, nauseating stench of hobgoblin corpses piled up from the previous day's carnage.
And Dylan... hadn't closed his eyes all night.
Not just because of the bodies around him. But because of the meditation. His mind on high alert, his body in constant tension, he'd spent hours purging himself, filament by filament, of every trace of negative energy lodged deep inside him. An inner battle—slow, demanding.
As the first light of dawn finally touched his face, the last dark thread slipped out of his body. He felt it like a shadow leaving his gut. He let out a trembling sigh of relief... but then came a strange sensation, like fingers tiptoeing across his shoulders.
He gave a weak smile, thinking it was Élisa messing with him. He was about to tell her to quit it—when he opened his eyes.
Élisa was fast asleep, her head resting on his leg.
His heart jumped into his throat.
A flash of clarity. A spike of danger. In one swift, almost instinctive motion, he grabbed his knife and stabbed whatever was crawling up his back.
Élisa jolted awake as Dylan shot up.
A spider. Massive. As big as a human head, its legs flailing in the air, twitching as it flipped onto its back from the impact. But it wasn't dead. The blade hadn't sunk deep enough.
Dylan grimaced, drawing his pistol in one fluid motion, ready to fire—