The gap wasn't wide.
From where Kael crouched, the "safe" ground ahead looked like a wound in the forest — a strip of green framed by blackened trunks and smoldering undergrowth. It should have been inviting. Instead, every instinct told him it was a kill zone.
"They've left it open on purpose," he said.
Elara's eyes tracked the subtle movements in the trees. "Archers?"
"Not just archers." Halric sniffed the air. "Metal and oil. Traps."
The boy pressed closer to Elara's side, gaze fixed on the thin smoke curling upward from the burned edge. It twisted like a beckoning hand.
They want you to step inside, the abyss whispered, sly and eager. And so you should.
Kael's lips tightened. "If we walk into that strip, we'll be in their sights."
"Then we don't walk," Halric rumbled.
Kael studied the terrain. The burned ground to the left sloped into a shallow gully, the ash soft but not too deep. To the right, the fire still smoldered, its embers glowing faintly through the mist.
"We go through the gully," he said. "Low, fast, no sound."
Elara frowned. "And if it's mined?"
"Then you'll hear me first."
They moved.
The gully's ash was damp from the earlier rain, sucking faintly at Kael's boots. Every step was a careful negotiation — too fast and he'd lose footing, too slow and they'd be spotted. Above them, faint rustles in the trees marked the passing of something — scouts, maybe.
Halfway through, a metallic click froze him.
He looked down. A thin wire lay across the ash, nearly invisible.
Halric swore under his breath. "Trap."
Kael motioned for stillness, then knelt. The wire ran to a small, soot-blackened canister half-buried in the ash. He didn't know exactly what it would do, but the smell of oil leaking from it told him enough.
He eased the wire free and laid it flat, then stepped over. The others followed, breath held.
The gully rose toward the green strip. Kael's eyes swept the slope, noting every patch of cover. They had seconds, maybe less, once they broke from the hollow.
"Run when I say," he murmured.
They climbed.
The first arrow came before Kael even reached the top. It struck the ash inches from his hand, hissing into the damp soil. The second buried itself in Halric's pauldron.
"Now!" Kael barked.
They surged forward.
The air turned deadly in an instant — arrows hissing, ropes snapping upward to drop weighted nets. Elara twisted under one, cutting it free before it could drag her down. Kael kept low, eyes fixed on the far treeline.
The boy stumbled. Kael grabbed him by the collar, yanking him upright. An arrow grazed his thigh, hot pain flaring. He didn't stop.
They were halfway across when the ground erupted.
A roar split the air as a section of earth collapsed inward, revealing a pit lined with sharpened stakes. Kael veered left, shoving Elara ahead of him. Halric didn't even slow — he planted a boot on the rim and vaulted clear.
They broke the far treeline with the hunters only seconds behind.
Kael didn't turn to fight. Not yet. He led them into thicker brush, weaving through trunks until the sound of pursuit grew fainter. Only then did they stop.
Halric leaned against a tree, chest heaving. "That wasn't a gap. That was the bloody front door."
Kael nodded grimly. "An ash gate. Burn them on one side, lure them through the other. Close the circle."
Elara checked the boy, brushing ash from his hair. "Then we're still inside their hunt."
Kael's gaze turned north, where the trees grew darker and denser. "Not for long. They'll think we're running east. We go north instead. No trail."
Always away, the abyss sighed. Always delaying the kill.
Kael ignored it, but deep down, he felt the truth of its words. Running would not end this. Sooner or later, the circle had to break — or he did.
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