Chapter 171: The Mark of the Forgotten God

The fire crackled and spat softly in the center of their camp. Their followers were gathered around, gazing at the unusual mark now seared onto Daisy's chest. It glowed softly, like a second heartbeat within her. Lleus had his arms around but near her. "Daisy, what did happen?" She shuddered in his arms. Fatigue clouded her thoughts. "I. I don't know," she gasped. "I was hurled into a void, and this man—this monster, not man. It was an old god who had been forgotten, or so it said." Viktor and Alfonso shared a troubled look. "A forgotten God?" Darius echoed, voice once more disbelieving. "That's. that can't be. The old gods died or retired centuries, centuries ago. They're. they're no longer even spoken of anymore." Lleus's jaw was set. "Apparently something waited its time for decades." Daisy's hand emerged, her fingers tracing the design on her fingers, up across her breast. It was still there, a faint mark. "It made a bargain with me. but I never swore an oath." Alfonso's eyebrow twitched. "What kind of bargain?" Her head swayed back and forth. "I don't know. I was a fool one moment not wanting to be Returned, and then. torture. And now this." Her hand waved vaguely in the direction of the mark. Lleus's wolf growled at his heels. His nature was yelling in his ear that something was wrong. Daisy was still Daisy, always—whatever that was—and yet. and yet otherwise. Something behind. "We need to know what this monster did to you," Viktor said to her. "And then." The Night Watch They continued walking, the pain too much to bear for longer than a minute. Daisy assured Lleus she was fine, but he saw how she limped when she walked, how she held her chest with one hand. Something inside of her, whatever this god had transformed, had been rearranged. By midnight, they found another rocky outcrop and set up a temporary camp. The fire flickered low as Lleus sat by Daisy's side, his eyes scanning the darkness for any threats. She shifted, glancing at him. "You're watching me like I'm about to turn into a monster." He didn't deny it. 'I don't trust things that leave marks like that," he admitted. She smirked faintly. 'Neither do I." She stood before him across a gulf of unspoken, stifling horrors. Then she drew a deep breath. "I don't feel different, Lleus. Just. haunted." Relief swept across his face. "I know that you are. But whatever it is, it isn't done yet." She nodded, fists tight around the canteen. "I just want to know what it is." The wind carried a whistle across the dunes, a reminder that the desert was never truly silent. Viktor and Alfonso sat a few feet away, sharpening their claws 'We should take turns keeping watch," Viktor suggested. 'Something about this place doesn't sit right." Alfonso grunted. 'When does anything ever sit right?" Lleus agreed, standing. 'I'll take first watch." Daisy frowned. 'I can stay up—" 'No," he interrupted. 'You need to rest." She smiled tiredly. "Ever vigilant, Alpha, as always." He laughed. "Someone has to be." The others slept, but Lleus did not sleep and looked out over city lights, with wind sighs distant and beastial cries inhuman out there in the night, out beyond the dunes. On his portion of the stake, fire-warmth-in-mind-too-had been conceived flame blazed. Blue flame sprang from smoldering pyre, and fire itself sprang in black, casting shadows on the stones. Lleus was crawling up to his knees, hand reaching for sword hilt. But he'd not gotten halfway on fours when Daisy had been awakened. And she spoke. Not in her voice. "The world is changed. the dead past. the damned return again." Lleus sat. "Daisy?" Tensed her body, the mark on her breast aflame with renewed fire. Blue fire danced its course. "They hunt the lost one. the king of the dead. the storm breaks." The voice was many-voiced, several voices within a voice. Lleus had his arms around her shoulders, relaxed hold. "Daisy, wake up." Her eyes flared wide, ablaze with the same preternatural blue as fire. She stiffened for a moment—then fire washed over her and her body slackened. She coughed spasmodically, shut eyes twisted in shock. "What—what's been done to me?" Lleus's grip was steady. "You tell me." She lifted a trembling hand and grasped her head. Shocked. "I—I dreamed. A poison storm. Boiling blackness under the earth. Something's stirring, Lleus." Viktor and Alfonso fell in burning feet, having heard the screams. "What is it?" Viktor growled. "She had a vision," Lleus growled. Daisy bowed her head down. " it wasn't no dream. I know that. That thing hurt me. burned me for somethin'." Darius frowned. "Now we got a stinkin' seer?" Lleus glared at him. "Daisy's not cursed." Alfonso breathed deeply. "Then whichever direction the trail is, we'll have to run. Something in the otherworld stirs." Daisy shuddered. "And I'm as sure as I'm standing it's for me." They rode again at dawn. The world was grave, sand dune to rock and to sorrow. Earth stiffened step by unwilling step as if there were eyes left behind that could not see. Daisy couldn't move her head, gasping on the edge of consciousness. She didn't make a sound. She hadn't meant to frighten them, but she knew. They were being followed. They reached where there had been a village at noon. Pillar that had burst along the earth like a backbone spine, and a heaviness of air in some sort of decay. Alfonso wrinkled his face. "This is death." Viktor paced back and forth across the grounds. "Let's just get this over with already." But by no means departing. A noise in the wreckage—a low grinding snarl. Lleus drew his sword. "We are not alone." A shadow hugged shattered walls. And another. Daisy drew a sharp breath. "They found us." They came out of darkness. Gaunt, impossibly thin monstrosities with vacant eyes, creaking grinning skin. They moved with spasmodic step, twisted faces twisted in horror. Darius cursed. "Shadow beasts." The beasts moved in. Lleus plunged in, sword cutting through the leader, body crashing into black smoke. Viktor and Alfonso cut in, swords cutting through the pack. Daisy's racing heart. She drew her sword, didn't even blink when one of the creatures was right in her face. It did not kill her. It glared at her. Then—it bowed. She breathed. "What… Lleus killed the monster in front of him and spun to find the one in front of Daisy falling. His blood went cold. "Daisy—step back," he snarled, voice steel. But she could not. Because something in her head was speaking to her in a low voice. "You belong to us now." The monster's face was gray—the same pale blue that had burned her chest. And Daisy finally understood— She hadn't been branded. She'd been selected.