Liam appeared in midair between the trees.
For the first instant, there was only the violent pull of Mystica's teleportation spell releasing him into open space, his body suspended in a dark blur of branches, leaves, and cold night air. Then gravity remembered him. He dropped through the canopy, one shoulder brushing past a cluster of thin branches as his field uniform snagged briefly and tore free.
Liam twisted in the air before the fall could turn ugly, one hand grazing a trunk, boots catching against a lower branch just enough to cut his speed before he dropped the rest of the way.
He landed in a crouch on damp earth, one hand pressed to the ground, the other already ready to call a blade from his shadow if something moved.
Nothing did.
Only the forest breathed around him.
