Crescent

13

There were very few people Vera trusted to fight alongside her. Although Zeno was Subject 000, the perfect homunculus created for the sole purpose of killing the monster of the forest, she had no grounds for trust that he could handle any sort of fight to stand on. After all, the only reason she had lost to him was because of her wounds from her previous fight with the creatures in the forest. Having him there didn't imbue her with any greater confidence.

But when the lanky creature charged, its maw hanging open in a wild shriek as its body rippled and changed into the burly figure that had attacked her before, time slowed. It crashed into the stairs head first and sent splinters up into the air around it as they cracked beneath its massive head. It should have collided with Zeno, but he had disappeared in the blink of an eye. The air crackled with the electric pulse of magic, powerful enough to snap the air from her lungs. Vera unsheathed her sword, clenching her jaw, and leveled it at the creature. She couldn't let his disappearing act distract her.

The creature raised its head with a grunt, shaking debris from its face as its gaze wandered the room, lip curling to reveal vicious fangs designed to tear through flesh. Unlike the first creature she had faced, its ears were perfectly sculpted fae ears, rounded into the slightest point like her own. Thin, wispy strands of black hair spilled from a fading hairline in frayed tangles. Its face was misshapen, its jaw jutting out too far as if it had broken off from its face, but its profile was eerily fae-like. A long, jagged scar cut across its face, over the bridge of its nose and down past its jaw to the throat. Around the scar, the flesh was white, webbed with veins, but within the mark itself, it was a deep midnight that glittered with tiny stars and dust of mana—the same as Zeno's hands.

Yet what stole her breath away were the eyes. The white sclera of one was the same dark blue as the cut, but the irises of both were bright azure, common among moon fae. Around the creature's eyes were the soft curves of fae markings, a delicate brush of sapphire that followed the edge of its eyelids.

Vera froze beneath its gaze. Ice shot through her veins and pinned her in place. Why would a monster have the face of her people?

The creature lunged up the stairs, jaw hanging open for a taste of her flesh. Vera startled, but before she could move, Zeno dropped from the ceiling and slammed his heel into the creature's head. It cracked into the wood once more with enough force to pitch Vera against the banister as the floor splintered beneath her.

Get up. Zeno grabbed her wrist, his face grim. You can't afford to be distracted. That's how you end up dead.

She let him pull her down the stairs, skirting the creature as it moaned and pushed to its feet, dripping white blood from a myriad of cuts and splinters in its misshapen face. Her gut twisted at the sight. "But that's a—"

Monster, Zeno cut her off. The word reverberated so strongly in her mind that he might as well have spoken it. Carved from bitterness, spat with years of hatred, it was enough to shut her mouth. His white eyes turned to her, narrowed and bearing a glare sharp enough to pierce her chest. That is a monster.

Gritting her teeth, she filed her argument away for later. He was right to shut her down, but she wouldn't let him get out without explaining himself. There was more he wasn't telling her, and the state of the warped fae in front of her was proof of something else at work in the west woods. Something darker than the murder of her people and the destruction of the fae's primal source of magic.

The creature pawed its face with bony hands, fingers much too long to fit its boxy palms. It glanced longingly up the stairs, back to them as it carefully extracted its body from the broken mess of wood Zeno had dropped it into. Thanks to their efforts, the way to the second floor was cut off entirely by a significant gap in the stairs. The creature stretched its neck to peer down the upstairs hallway; its mournful whine shifted to a low, threatening growl as it whirled to face them. Malice flashed through its mismatched eyes the moment they landed on Zeno. It leapt over the remains of the first few steps and charged across the room.