Chapter 40: The Dark Road that Leads Me Home

The shadowed path that leads to the manor, on that particular day, was more winding and long than Jake had remembered. He had left Gale and Mimi in their warm room at the inn, along with the safety they brought with them, in favour of treading towards a home he now realised would never belong to him.

Alexcyn’s body was stronger and taller than Jake’s original body was, and for a strange reason he regarded it now in every reflective surface he could as he treaded down the road, looking at his rough hands of in front of him and the brown curls and silver eyes hat stared back at him. What he refrained from looking at, however, was the branded R that stared at him.

It was hot on his skin, and he remembers clawing at it in that spot at the forest, when Palis had told him of its true origin. He’d left nothing but harsh scratches and red skin behind, the brand never once moving from his skin as it mocked him in its silence.