Chapter 109

Briar’s POV

The Shadowlands looked exactly like their name suggested—a realm where darkness seemed to be more present than anything else.

I could smell it in the atmosphere, feel it against my skin the moment my feet touched the dark sands, pressing down on us like a living thing.

The air itself tasted wrong, like ash, but there was no ash in the air. Just a gloomy dark look. The clouds were grey and dark. Buildings halved, some with roofs but without a foundation. Floating in the air because of some sort of magic.

"Stay close," Kai whispered, his sword already drawn, claws extended, eyes golden brown as we moved through what had once been a forest. The trees here were twisted into unnatural shapes, their bark black as charcoal and their branches reaching toward the sky like skeletal fingers.

We’d been planning this reconnaissance mission for three days, poring over maps and magical signatures until we’d finally identified a weak point