Chapter 32 Shadow Ban

• The forest was unnervingly quiet. The kind of quiet that gnawed at the senses and made even seasoned warriors like Maelrik uneasy. He crouched low in the thicket, his dark armor blending with the shadows of the towering pines. His men—more than two dozen of Tharion’s finest hunters were spread out in a semi-circle formation, bows drawn and arrows nocked, their eyes locked on the clearing ahead.
• In that clearing stood Lucas.
• The boy was motionless, his hood drawn low over his face, his cloak shifting gently in the breeze. Agnes and Bulb stood at his sides, but even from this distance, Maelrik could see that Lucas was the centerpiece of this confrontation. The boy radiated power—Maelrik could feel it even without magic. And yet, there was something off. Something that tickled at the back of his mind.