Chapter 49 — The Camp
Darius had been walking for hours.
He knew that because his body told him so.
Normally, he wouldn't have been able to feel exhaustion like this.
His hybrid body simply didn't work that way.
Cuts healed almost the moment they appeared. Bruises disappeared before they had time to become painful. Even silver, one of the few substances capable of interfering with his regeneration, couldn't stop his body for long.
But something was different inside the Veil.
Darius looked down at his arm.
A shallow cut ran across his forearm.
It was still there.
His eyes narrowed.
The wound was closing, but slowly.
Far too slowly.
He touched it with two fingers.
"…That's not normal."
He knew his own body.
This wasn't silver.
None of the creatures he'd fought had used silver.
Yet his regeneration was behaving as though something was interfering with it.
Darius continued walking, but his expression grew increasingly serious.
Then he noticed something else.
His legs felt heavy.
Not simply tired.
Heavy.
Every step required more effort than it should.
He could feel the weight of his own body pressing against the ground.
That had never been something Darius normally thought about.
His body was built for speed.
Movement was natural.
Weight was something he manipulated without thinking.
Now every step reminded him that he was carrying himself through the Veil.
Darius stopped.
He looked around the enormous forest.
"…What is this place doing to me?"
There was no answer.
Only the distant sound of something moving between the trees.
Darius slowly clenched his fist.
The thought that followed was one he didn't want to entertain.
If the Veil could interfere with his regeneration…
Then the creatures living here weren't simply dangerous because they were powerful.
They could actually kill him.
Hybrids Vamps even werewolves.
Anything that relied on supernatural regeneration could potentially be brought down here.
Darius looked at the blood staining his clothes.
For the first time, the endless bodies he'd left behind began to look different in his memory.
Those creatures hadn't been easy kills.
They had forced him to fight seriously.
And every fight had made him weaker.
"…So that's why."
He looked deeper into the forest.
"This place is changing the rules."
Darius continued forward.
He couldn't afford to stop.
Zak was still waiting.
The others were somewhere ahead.
And whatever the Veil was doing to his body, he would have to survive it.
Hours later, smoke finally reached his senses.
Darius stopped.
His eyes narrowed.
Smoke.
He moved toward it carefully, eventually reaching the top of a small slope.
Below him was a massive camp.
There were dozens of figures moving between tents and fires.
Darius immediately recognized the pointed ears.
Fae.
At least, they looked like the Fae he'd encountered before.
He didn't know enough about them to understand the differences between their groups, and he wasn't about to assume everyone in the Veil followed the same rules.
Then he saw the prisoners.
Darius's expression changed instantly.
Mira, Kin, and 3 fae.
They were being escorted through the camp with their hands bound in metal restraints.
Darius's hand moved toward his blade.
His first instinct was simple.
Get them out.
But then he remembered the cut on his arm.
The weight in his legs.
The creatures he'd barely managed to survive.
And the sheer number of people inside the camp.
Darius slowly lowered himself behind the enormous root beside him.
"…Not yet."
Mira looked angry.
Kin looked exhausted.
The three young Fae looked frightened.
Darius watched them disappear deeper into the camp.
His jaw tightened.
He didn't know who these people were, or why they'd captured them.
He did know how much the Veil had already weakened him, But he knew one thing.
He wasn't leaving without them.