Chapter 379: The Howl That Shattered the Silence
Dren moved fast, with the tight, coiled urgency of someone whose nerves hadn't stopped vibrating since the moment his eyes had landed on that half-buried corpse in the snow.
"It's this way," he told Wesley, already cutting between two frost-laden pines, boots crunching sharply against the packed ground.
The Bloodstag's carcass lay abandoned where he'd dropped it earlier, dark antlers cutting against the white like jagged shadows. He hadn't even spared it a second glance when he'd bolted. His stomach still churned faintly at the memory of blue skin and a missing head.
Behind him, Wesley kept pace with long, measured strides, his expression drawn and alert.
"Slow down," Wesley muttered. "I'm not going to lose the body because you trip over a root."
Dren didn't slow much, but he did angle his path more carefully.
"It's just up ahead," he said. "I almost face-planted into it."
