“Fine.”
Emeline scanned the ashy grove, searching for a path that might be difficult for a giant horse to follow. She remembered the voices of the trees. The way they’d warned her about the shadow skin.
He was close enough to seize her, and from the look in his eyes, that seemed to be his plan.
“Tell me where to go,” she told the trees.
South, they murmured.Follow the river.
“Who are you talking to?”
When he reached for her, Emeline dodged and ran.
SIX
HE AND HIS HELL-BEASTgave chase, thundering behind, yelling for her to stop. Branches snapped and bracken crunched beneath the horse’s mighty hooves.
Emeline flew south, where the silver trail was thinnest between the decaying trees, making it cumbersome for her pursuers to follow.
There seemed no end to this dead place. Ashy white aspens and rotted cedars rushed by as she ran. Too soon, her path arrived at an open thicket. Emeline stumbled, wasted precious seconds regaining her balance, then kept going.
The horse and her rider caught up.
They flew by Emeline’s side through the clearing. Labored breaths filled her ears; pounding hooves echoed in her bones. Emeline’s legs burned beneath her.
She kept running.
In a burst of speed, the horse rushed ahead. Her black hide flickered as she wove in front of Emeline, who swore she saw twisting flames flare across the animal’s flanks. The horse turned to face her, blocking the way. Emeline skidded to a stop inches away from her chest.
Rearing up on her hind legs, the horse pawed the air above Emeline’s head with ember-bright hooves, eyes raging a hellishred. Emeline’s heart thudded like a kick drum as she stumbled backwards. Her foot caught on a raised root and twisted beneath her. Losing her balance, she fell, hitting the ground hard. Pain flared in her elbows—which took the brunt of the impact—and she hissed through her teeth, “Ow!”
“Are you really such a fool?” Swinging himself down from the horse, he advanced on her. “You cannot outrun us. Nor can you be in these woods when night falls.”
Emeline tried to scramble backwards, away from him, only to find herself stuck, her Blundstone lodged snugly in the very root system that tripped her.
When she tried to tug herself free, she couldn’t.
Dammit.
She maneuvered her foot out of the boot, intending to escape that way, but froze when a cool shadow slid over her.
Emeline glanced up.
He crouched down.
She lay beneath him now, on a bed of ashy leaves, propped on her elbows. He held himself over her as restrained fury blazed across his face.
“Get on the horse, Emeline, or I will be forced toputyou on the horse.”
Above him white branches rattled, and silvery leaves tumbled to the forest floor, like snow falling from the sky.
“I’m afraid of horses,” she told him. “I’m not getting on one.”
It was mostly true. Certainly true when it came to horses with raging infernos for eyes.
He ran a hand through his dark hair and released an irritated breath. “Lament is well trained and well behaved.”
Emeline glanced over his shoulder, to where the golden-eyed horse watched them.Lament.A vision of flickering flames roseup in Emeline’s mind. Had she imagined that fire as the horse descended on her?
