The fear is a steely taste twinging in the back of my mouth.

It coils down my throat, curves around each disc in my spine as I peer through the open cabin door, heart dropping to the pit of my stomach.The fog crawls closer. It seeps through the trees, swallowing them in its embrace.

A year ago, I'd have thought of it as nothing more than than a low cloud--like the perpetual fog that hangs over the forge in winter.

But the scars on my ankle tingle as memories echo through my head. The screams of Samu, the whisperings of my father, Jyro--they all crash together creating a cacophony of defeaning alarm bells.

The cloud does not rage or rush. It is deathly still, threat inconspicuous.

"Freya?" A whisper comes from behind me.

It snaps me from my trance. I turn back to Cadence, sitting on the floor of the carriage wide-eyed as she looks up at me. With her legs to her chest and tear-stained cheeks, she reminds me of a child.

"What's going on?" she asks.

My mind races at a million miles a second, but my mouth won't catch up. I stare at her dumbly, waring between an explanation and trying to find a solution. Killian would know what to do. He doesn't waste time staring at the threat, motionless. But the fear of the unknown paralyses me.

I know it can harm. It destroyed an entire country, tore families apart. I've seen its destruction; I've experienced it. But there's so much about the cloud that I don't know.

Outside, a low shout reverberates through the wood. Cadence flinches, eyes darting to the entrance. "What was that? Why have we stopped?"

I follow her gaze back to the treeline. The cloud has seeped from the forest edge onto the path. The way it moves, snake-like along the ground, makes it seems alive.

The temptation to bolt tugs at me. But there's too many unknowns--like the direction of the cloud, where Raven is, whether Cadence will follow.

What would Killian do?

He'd known what that storm was when it struck Veymaw. At the rumbling of the sky, the colour of the clouds--he'd taken me from the forest to his cabin. Shelter. And even as the cloud wept into the streets, Jyro was the only victim that night. Jyro and me.

My heart hammers as my brain orders my limbs into motion.

I lurch forward from the cabin, swinging my body outside to reach for the wooden door latched on the outside. Sweat beads at the nape of my neck as I fiddle with it, trying to detach it from the outside of the cabin. It comes free so suddenly I lurch backwards into the carriage as it swings shut, rattling the walls. The sheet flaps flimsily against the wooden door before stilling in the absence of the breeze.

My eyes flit around the rest of the carriage, searching for gaps in the wood, but come up empty. It doesn't stop the thudding of my heart as I sink to the floor opposite Cadence.

Cadence stares at me like a stranger, the fear creeping back into her gaze.

"Stay quiet," I whisper.

She hesitates. "Is there someone out there?"

An image pulses through my mind--the infected, crouched over that deceased horse. "Not someone, something."

Her brows pulls together as she stares at the once opened door. Aside from the shout, nothing disrupts the eerie silence. Only our laboured breaths fill the space. It had been the same way during the storm in Veymaw, the silence had felt so loud as I wandered through the trees.

Until I heard my father.

"What something?"

I blink at her, torn between telling a lie to comfort her and telling the truth. But in the silent terror, it's the truth that escapes. I don't want to face it alone.

"It's called the cloud," I whisper, as if speaking it too loudly will invite it through the pores in the wood. "Ereon created it as a weapon to use against Torinne during the war. But he's lost control of it. It's what killed Jyro during that storm. Not me. The cloud. Ereon."

She takes a shaky breath, eyes never straying from mine. "How do you know?"

"Because it almost killed me."

My words hang in the air like smoke, making it hard to breathe. The cabin walls seem to compress in on us.

There's a loud shout. High pitched and familiar. Blood drains from my face as Cadence and I meet eyes. It wasn't in my head. She heard it too.

"That was Raven."

"You heard that too?" I ask.

"Of course I heard it it was--"

Raven screams again. Cadence lurches forward, towards the cabin door. "Cadence, wait!"

The door swings open, whacking the side of the carriage. Within seconds the cloud wafts in, causing Cadence to stumble. I reach for her, wrapping my hand around her wrist to tug her back as it crawls inside.

"Cover your mouth!" I demand, helpless as I throw my sleeve over my mouth and nose, unsure if it will do anything at all.

"Raven needs out help! We have to help her!" she screams.

"I-I know but... but--"

"We have to help her!" She doesn't bother covering her mouth. I refuse to release her wrist, the blood pounding in my ears. "Freya! Let me go, you're hurting me!"

In my grip, her forearm turns white beneath my fingers. Her eyes widen as she tugs more fiercely, but I refuse to release her. Until, her eyes glaze over, something else drawing her attention as she stops resisting and turns to look outside.

"What was that?"

I hesitate, trying to tune into the outside noise. "I don't hear anything."

She looks back at me. "I think it was my--" The blood drains from her face. "Mum!" she screams. "Mum!"

She's out before I can stop her, yanking from my grip and out into the cloud.

My heart hammers against my chest as I consider following. Fear keeps me pressed to the side of the carriage, even as the cloud seeps in, swirling in the air and choking around my throat. I want to curl into a ball, burrow my face in my knees, squeeze my eyes closed.

But Cadence.

I'm out of the carriage in less than a second, each breath laboured as I choke in on the cloud, it's humid arms welcoming me into its embrace. It's deathly still, deceptively calm almost. I stand feet glued to the spot.

This time, when a scream breaks out, it's undeniably Raven.

I don't run. I barely walk. My movements are sluggish and paranoid as I move further from the carriage until the cloud swallows it whole and I can't see anything anymore.

"Cadence?" I call, my voice shaky. "Cadence, where are you?"

No response. I push further forward, the memory of Samu's screams echoing through my head, the voice of my father haunting the forest. It makes my stomach ache, heart pulse, body tremble.

My bones crawl beneath my skin. The air is thick with moisture. With each heaving breath, it gets harder to take the next. In the distance, a bone chilling, agonizing howl--half human half wolf--echoes through the mist. It makes my stomach clench, bringing back rancid memories of the infected as it feasted on the horse.

"Let me go! Please!"

I freeze. The voices sound like they're coming from all around me. Senseless, I turn from side to side, unable to tell which direction it's coming from. But the voice is unmistakeable. Cadence.

It screeches again, this time from my left. I swing around, pushing forward, sweat beading at the nape of my neck despite the chill to the air as I crawl towards the sound.

"Freya, help me! Please, help me!"

My entire body halts, a chill crawling down my spine. I swing directionless trying to pinpoint the voice. It's lower than Cadence's calls, weaker.

Samu.

His next scream leaves no room for speculation. It shakes the bones inside my body. I turn and sprint in the other direction, movements more frantic, rushed, desperate to reach him, to stop the screams, stop the pain, hold him in my arms.

But they continue to echo in the forest, no matter which direction I go.

"Samu!" My throat feels raw. Everything within a kilometre radius will know my direction as my scream bounces off the trees, but I don't care. "Samu!"

The pleading comes from all around me. In my head, to the left, to the right, from above. It bounces off the walls of my brain, an echochamber of agonizing screams as I dart from left to right, my movements frantic and sharp as I shift directions. The trees appear before me with seconds to notice, tearing at my skin, drawing blood.

He's everywhere and nowhere at once. I can't find him.

It's not real.

A small voice whispers through my mind. I twist my neck sideways, as if somebody has sideled up beside me. But there's no one there.

It's not real.

I sink to my knees, back against a trunk, squeezing my eyes shut in the thickness of the cloud.

It's not real. It's not real. It's not real.

The voice is louder this time, rivalling Samu's screams. I crawl towards it in the chamber of my mind, grasping for the voice as something solid to hold onto, but it only seems to slip through my fingers. I try to think of Samu amid his screams. Unconscious. On the coast, beneath Sanaa's watchful gaze.

It isn't real.

I saw him when I left. He wasn't awake. Him being here is an impossibility, and yet, the screaming calls to me all the same.

It isn't real.

The voice turns into my own, louder this time, drowning out Samu's until his is no more than a whisper. The blood returns back to my fingers, that bone-chilling sound dissipating until there's nothing left other than Cadence's screams.

It takes every fibre of my being to muster the strength to stand. My legs wobble, and even in the thick of the cloud, it feels pitched black. But I push forward, towards the sound, body quivering in the remnants of Samu's calls.

But I don't hear them anymore.

In the back of my mind, there's a moment of hesitation--how am I to know that's really Cadence? How am I to know any of this is real?

Cadence is here. I know that.Samu isn't real. Cadence is.

I hear her again just moments before seeing her, another gut wrenching call that pierces my ears. She thrashes directionless in the centre of the cloud, her eyes wide and petrified, hair littered with sticks. At her feet, a body. My eyes trail up the pale legs, blue skirt, stopping before I get any further, my stomach convulsing.

Raven.

"Cadence."

I reach for her. She doesn't even register my presence, continuing to swing her stick haphazardly in the air at an invisible threat. Blood stains her torn dress, more blood than before. But I see no wounds. Horror washes over me as I take another step closer, reaching to put my hand on her arm.

The second our skin makes contact she screams and lurches the stick towards me. I duck at the last second, stumbling back into the tree. But Cadence doesn't give me even a moment to recover, thrashing the stick in the air, the pointed edge dangerously close to my throat.

"Cadence, stop, it's me!"

She doesn't.

I manage to knock her feet from under her, sending her cluttering to the floor, the stick falling from her hands. I lurch towards her and wrap my arms across her body, despite her thrashing, nails digging into my skin, piercing and drawing blood.

"Let me go!" Raw and desperate, she threatens to break free.

"It's not real!" I shout. "It's not real! I'm here, it's okay!"

"Let me go!"

Instead, I stumble back into the tree, keeping my arms securely around her as I sink to the ground, focusing all my energy on holding her still. Blood lingers in her hair and skin, the smell of decay hanging over her.

"It's not real," I whisper, voice lost in her screams. "It's not real."

I squeeze my eyes shut as other voices seep into my head.

It's not real.