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The female sniffled and looked up at him with large, watery eyes, a hopeful smile twisting her lips, revealing the broken remains of her teeth.
“Yes, yes. Please. I want that. Can I go now?”
“Of course, Essi. Right away. We won’t delay a moment longer.”
Essi bowed her head, her body sagging with relief. She seemed unaware as he pulled a knife from his belt and slashed the blade over the woman’s neck. Arie bit her lip hard, stifling the shocked cry that rose to her lips, as Essi’s eyes widened in panic and horror. She stumbled back, her body twisting wildly as she choked on her own blood before finally falling to the ground with a dull thump. Her body convulsed once and then she was gone, her eyes staring vacantly at the tent’s ceiling. Arie stared at her numbly from where she remained sitting at the other side of the tent.
Merik glanced around, impatience drawn tight over his features as he hunted for a scrap of cloth. Seizing a bit of material, he wiped Essi’s blood off him as if it were a terrible inconvenience that he had dirtied himself in such a way. He dabbed at himself and tossed the rag aside before glancing over at Arie and chuckling.
“Do not look so disturbed, girl. Essi got exactly what she wanted. She’s among her people again. The ferals were all killed, all except for her, and her village destroyed. It was an act of mercy to take her life.”
“What did they do to you?” Arie demanded hoarsely.
Merik scoffed and shook his head. “They exist. Like the Ragoru, the ehurmu do not belong in our world. It’s their place to be destroyed to satisfy the Order of the Gracious Mother.”
“The Mother does not ask for such things,” she protested, unable to comprehend how anyone would believe such a thing.
The look he directed toward her was full of contempt. “What do you know? You have no insight into the desires of the Mother. Our clergy and the lady oracle reveal to us her will, and it is to that we adhere, not the madness of one who has allowed herself to be tainted by the monsters we are charged with destroying.” He paced toward her; his head cocked to the side as his eyes lit with fervor. “Do not be mistaken, if I had my way, you would be released to oblivion as well, your soul freed and purified from the taint that you welcomed into you.” He sighed in disappointment. “Alas, it is out of my hands.”
The flap of the tent shifted at that moment and a voice drifted in from outside. “Huntsman Elite Merik, a messenger has arrived on the trail from the Citadel. The First Elite Edwar wishes an immediate report on the condition of the target.”
“Very well. I shall be there presently,” he informed the guard, and the flap dropped once more.
Arie took advantage of his distraction and rushed the huntsman, her hand snatching at the pistol at his hip and dragging it free. Merik sighed and turned toward her, his eyebrows lifting as she pointed the weapon at him.
“And what do you think you’ll be doing with that?”
“I think I’ll be shooting you if you don’t let me out of here,” she replied, relieved that her voice trembled only a little.
He stared at her blankly and then moved so suddenly that it startled her. She squeezed the trigger, but it did nothing but click softly before the pistol was wrenched out of her hand and a sharp, open-handed blow was delivered to cheek that sent her sprawling to the ground. Clasping a hand to her face, Arie pushed up onto her elbow as she glowered up at him.
Merik smiled smugly down at her as he brushed a lock of hair off his forehead before drawing back on a small, upright piece of metal, and firing it into the ground beside her.
“Just a warning,” he pointed out as he re-holstered the pistol and smirked. “Now as I was saying—we will have to finish this charming discussion later. A guard will be by within the hour with your meal. If I were you, I would use this time to reflect on your choices and this second chance that you’ve been afforded.” With those parting words, the huntsman turned on his heel and exited the tent.
As promised, within minutes of his departure, an adolescent boy no older than sixteen entered and busied himself with dragging out the remains of Essi. Arie wanted to feel sorrow for the woman, but she remained numb. The only thing she was aware of at that moment was a sense of gratitude that she wouldn’t be confined with the body of the dead ehurmu. She knew it was callous, and that later the full horror of the situation would hit her, but her grief for Kyx was still too consuming for her to be able to feel anything more.
She sank down onto the padded mat and closed her eyes against the world as she wept bitterly for her loss.
Rager knew there was something wrong when he scented the blood a short distance from the cave, but when he arrived and saw his brother lying at the back of the cave in a pool of his own blood, Rager cast aside the rooter he’d found and fell to his knees. His heart felt hollowed out as if it had been cut from his chest. He was confused that there was no stink of an intruder filling the cave. There was no sign of anything wrong except that there was no sign of their mate, and his brother lay dying, if not already dead. Despair filled him and he moaned sorrowfully as he crawled forward and lifted his brother’s head into his lap. He smoothed a hand over one of the male’s ears as a loud impact alerted him to Warol’s presence.
“What has happened here?” Warol demanded, his voice biting with fury.
“Huntsmen, I think—or some unknown enemy,” Rager rasped and then shook his head slowly. “I don’t know. I just arrived myself and I can’t smell anything that doesn’t belong here. There are no scents but ours and our mate, but you see what I see—and Arie’s gone.”
“Is he…?”
His fingers dug through the thick fur of Kyx’s ruff to find the delicate skin beneath his jaw. There, Rager felt a weak heartbeat beneath his fingers. He let out a sigh of relief.
“No, he is alive. Help me Warol, we must tend to his wounds.”
Warol dropped beside him, lifting Kyx’s arm before meeting his eyes. “Are you sure Arie’s gone?” he asked, a painful note of dread in his voice. The male knew, could detect her fading scent as well as Rager could, but was obviously holding onto hope as he distracted himself by examining a deep wound in their brother’s side.
“There is no sign of her and her scent here is old and fading fast,” Rager said as he began to tend to Kyx’s head wounds. “It doesn’t even lead from the cave as it should have. It’s like she disappeared completely. The only trace scents of her are mingled with ours when we arrived. Whatever did this to him, it’s my hope that Kyx helped her safely escape in time. I don’t understand how her scent trail disappears completely, though.”
Warol’s mouth tightened, and he nodded. “Once we see to Kyx’s wounds, I will double-check and see if I can pick up a trail a little further from here, or some sign of what did this. There could just be something that is confusing the scent signatures around the cave, but there has to be some sort of trail. Nothing could approach and attack like this without leaving its scent, and if Arie got away there should be evidence of something. No one can just disappear. We will find her.”
Rager nodded as he focused on the task in front of them, his heart conflicted. He was just as worried as Warol, but he also knew that Arie would not want them to hunt for her before they cared for her third mate. She loved each of them and he could not bear the idea of her suffering the pain of one mate’s death. Nor would he forgive himself if Kyx should die because of his lack of attendance to his wounds.
