Chapter 99: The Assassins

The sun is setting into a grim shadow over the horizon by the time we make it back to the thick wall of brambles that marks our way out of the end; darkness is seeping into long inky claws over the tips of the trees, sucking the last of the warmth out of the air and bringing with it a chilled edge of deathly despair.

Only a cold blooded killer could find any sort of solace in this forest now. 

Part of me wishes I left earlier, if only to avoid the depressing notion that I now have to trek back to the palace in complete and utter darkness. Of course, there is always the option of casting out my flames to illuminate a path, but at night time- the time of creatures who feel no pain and vampires who hunt their prey for just as much a sport as they do a necessity, that idea isn't exactly sitting well on my mind by the time we had to bid Kal goodbye.