Fire & Metal, #1
Metal Slinger
by Rachel Schneider
Contents
Chapter 32
Overview
Jovie and Acker camp beside the Dark Forest, share histories, and confront unspoken feelings as Jovie admits her involuntary mind link. Sven tracks them, but Messer arrives and engages him. At the forest’s lethal border, Messer and Sven vanish inside; refusing to abandon Messer, Jovie enters, and Acker follows.
Summary
As night falls near the Dark Forest on the Kenta–Roison border, Jovie fails to summon light and listens as Acker warns that no one who enters the forest returns. He shares how Vad once betrayed their battalion, costing lives, and confirms Hallis is alive but maimed. Their travel fatigue and uncertainty about home weigh on Jovie.
Restless, Jovie wanders; Acker confronts her about regrets and their future. Pressed, Jovie admits confusion about expectations. Acker reveals his feelings by touch, prompting Jovie to confess she can slip into his perspective, especially with contact. Acker reassures her she’s nothing like Vad and moves to kiss her—until danger interrupts.
Sven arrives as a panther shifter, tracking them by scent. A midnight-blue bird spots him, and Messer appears, shifting into a leopard and ordering them to run. While Messer and Sven clash, Jovie and Acker sprint along the Dark Forest’s white-barked boundary, pursued by Sven through thick fog.
At the border, Acker prepares to fight, but Messer tackles Sven at the last instant. Their entangled bodies tumble through an opening into the Dark Forest, their screams cut short. Acker insists no one can be saved from within, yet Jovie refuses to abandon Messer and pleads for Acker’s trust.
Choosing loyalty over safety, Acker embraces Jovie and falls backward with her into the Dark Forest’s pitch-black interior, accepting the peril alongside her.
Who Appears
- JovieNarrator and newly awakened Heir; reveals mind link with Acker; chooses to enter the Dark Forest.
- AckerProtector and healer; shares Vad’s betrayal history; affirms feelings; follows Jovie into the Dark Forest.
- MesserShapeshifter ally; arrives as a leopard, battles Sven, and drags him into the Dark Forest.
- SvenFia’s son and panther shifter; stalks Jovie and Acker, fights Messer, is pulled into the Dark Forest.
- BlueMidnight-blue bird that spots Sven; its presence helps reveal the ambush.