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Back Forsworn
Chapters (53)
  1. Map of Kingdom of Finfalla and Surrounding Area- Western Half
  2. Map of Kingdom of Finfalla and Surrounding Area - Eastern Half
  3. Map of Kingdom of Finfalla and Surrounding Area - Full Map
  4. Important Trigger Warning
  5. Prologue
  6. PART I
  7. One
  8. Two
  9. Three
  10. Four
  11. Five
  12. Six
  13. Seven
  14. Eight
  15. Nine
  16. Ten
  17. Eleven
  18. Twelve
  19. Interlude: The River of Life
  20. PART II
  21. Thirteen
  22. Fourteen
  23. Fifteen
  24. Sixteen
  25. Seventeen
  26. Eighteen
  27. Nineteen
  28. Interlude: Fallow Fields
  29. PART III
  30. Twenty
  31. Twenty-One
  32. Twenty-Two
  33. Twenty-Three
  34. Twenty-Four
  35. Twenty-Five
  36. Interlude: Of Man and Monster
  37. PART IV
  38. Twenty-Six
  39. Twenty-Seven
  40. Twenty-Eight
  41. Twenty-Nine
  42. Thirty
  43. Thirty-One
  44. Thirty-Two
  45. Thirty-Three
  46. Thirty-Four
  47. POSTLUDES
  48. Postlude 1: Lana Vica
  49. Postlude 2: Ludo Vica
  50. Postlude 3: Cainan
  51. Acknowledgments
  52. An excerpt from Heartsworn, Volume II in The Forsworn Oath, available for preorder now!
  53. PART I

Anger filled him. How dare that foolish urchin put him at risk? The boards were there for a reason: to keep the dangers of the night outside where they belonged. And yet she’d practically opened the door for the nightdemon and rang the dinner bell! It wasn’t right. Such behavior simply couldn’t be tolerated in times such as these. Someone needed to do something about it. He needed to do something about it.

And he would, but not now. First, he needed to fix what she’d broken. Grumbling, he was about to head for the door to retrieve his hammer and box of nails when a sound caught his attention. It was a sort of scritching, scratching, scraping sound that seemed to originate over his head. He looked up, almost expecting to find something gnawing on the ceiling. Instead, he saw nothing, the sound continuing. Was it those damn squirrels in the attic again? The last time they’d burrowed their way inside to keep warm, they’d made a major mess. And who had to clean it up? He did, that’s who!

He lifted the trio of planks once more, craning his head at an odd angle to try to get a glimpse of the roof. The window was embarrassingly dirty, but then again, cleaning things hidden by planks of wood had been the last thing on his mind lately. Through the smears, however, he saw something. In the darkness of the cloud-smothered night, it was hard to make out its shape, but he could see its movements. And as it moved, that scritching, scratching, scraping sound clawed through the ceiling to his ears.

What the void? he wondered. It was too large to be a squirrel or a bird. Then he laughed, because of course it wasn’t one creature, but several, parading across his roof like they owned it. Well, tomorrow they’d pay for being so brazen; he’d set a dozen traps and catch them all in one fell swoop.

Except then the group of creatures came closer and a swathe of moonslight pierced a crack in the clouds, illuminating the night’s secrets. Loris’s mouth fell open as he stumbled back in horror, forgetting about the wooden planks, which whacked him in the back of the head as he slumped back, using arms and legs like a crab to retreat from the horror that now glared at him through the window. Eyes glowing like golden orbs. Long snout offering a dagger-filled sneer. Long, bristly whiskers carving at the windowpane.

Loris crashed into the inside of the door, which he’d made the mistake of closing upon entering the room. He couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move, transfixed by the evil staring in at him, an evil that now reared its head back and then—

CRASH!