Jayden crouched on a thick branch high above the forest floor, the night air sharp against his skin as he pressed himself into the bark. His body was utterly still, but every nerve inside him was thrumming. He perched like a predator waiting for the perfect strike, his glowing pupils narrowed, tracking the waltzing shimmer of blue light drifting deeper into the forest.
It was close to the north ridge now. Closer than it had ever been.
Jayden's trap lay in wait not far from where he perched. He had set them at the narrow entrance of the northern ridge of the forest… just outside a murky swamp where five Tremor Gators were sprawled in half-slumber, their thick reptilian backs blending seamlessly with the muddy water. Beneath the surface of that swamp, hidden beneath the damp, sucking mud, Jayden had buried the sharpened stakes angled like the teeth of a beast. Their points jutted upward unseen, a diabolical snare designed for one outcome: to impale whatever blundered into it.
