The instant my feet left the bark and struck the ground, I flowed forward like a shadow torn loose from the tree, sprinting toward the inner side of the dungeon—deliberately opposite the direction where the patrol guards slumped in their half-dead sleep—because while their eyelids drooped in careless ignorance.
They never realized that three pairs of dark red eyes had paused to stare at them for the briefest heartbeat before slipping away, leaving behind nothing but a crawling chill that they hastily blamed on the night air, convinced no sane soul would dare approach this place unless they were actively courting doom.
Moments later, I stood just outside the dungeon's gateway, still as stone, scanning everything one last time with obsessive precision, refusing to miss even a fly out of place, because it was already deep into midnight and I knew Gustav would almost certainly still be asleep, vulnerable, unaware, dreaming whatever shallow dreams a creature like him was capable of.
