Chapter 29

The Blackwood Forest did not welcome visitors; it merely tolerated them until it found an opening to strike. Julian stepped past the initial line of gnarled oaks, the canopy thickening overhead until the sunlight was reduced to sickly green shafts. He didn't rely on his eyes alone. He pushed his awareness outward, activating his Psionic Sight. The world shifted into a spectrum of auras and mental echoes. To his left, a cluster of thorny vines pulsed with a low, predatory hunger—some kind of...