I awoke to the sound of chanting in the distance, rhythmically low, increasing with each beat of a heart. My eyes flew open to darkness and the cloying heat of our primal tent, Kael's sleeping form at my side, his chest rising and falling as his breath hummed along in sleep. An owl hooted outside the tent walls. Placing my beatng hand over my chest I drank in the wild rhythm of my racing heart. Somewhere out past these flaps, deep in the jagged guts of the tree-city, the cult was at worship. And I knew we were close.
Kael stirred, lifting his head. "Lila?" he mumbled, his voice slurred with sleep.
Wiping my head, I slung my legs over and got up, dressing in my travel leathers. "They are doing a sacrifice," I whispered. "A child… I can feel it."
He propped himself up, alert-eyed and ferocious. "Show me."
