Chapter 64: huge wall
Dylan swallowed hard, his gaze darting away, clinging to that blurred memory from the day before.
That nightmare... it hadn’t been just a dream. The shape the girl had taken in that world — that twisted reflection, that nightmare silhouette — it wasn’t nothing. But he didn’t have enough keys, enough bearings yet to connect the dots. Not yet.
And still... he should have seen it coming. Élisa had said it, damn it. Only her tribe lived in the area. So what the hell was a girl doing there, alone, calm, in the middle of one of the most unstable zones in this damn forest?
Even the three of them had nearly died there. Multiple times. And a kid? Seriously?
He swallowed again, feeling the weight crawl up his throat. A bitter taste of guilt. And total confusion.
Then he lifted his eyes. Slowly. And locked onto the ink-black orbs of the creature.
The Rivernyx stared back without blinking. No breath. No ripple. Just that unfathomable gaze, two black bubbles suspended in water, like the universe itself had forgotten to animate them.
She was there. Draped in rotting algae, in ancient silt, half-serpent, half-witch. Her green, glistening skin was marbled with violet veins that pulsed under a ghostly light. Flaccid fins, like dead wings, quivered at her sides. Her twisted arms clung to pieces of driftwood like bones, like relics from forgotten carcasses. And her hair, heavy and matted, still oozed swamp water and moss.
She didn’t look alive. Not really. More... persistent. A mistake no god had dared to correct. A myth left to slumber at the bottom of the lake, for everyone’s sake.
And she was staring at him.
Not with hate. Not even with curiosity.