“Leave,” he snapped. “You shouldn’t be here. None of you should be here. You’re just going to make everything worse again.”
“We have six Arrows,” Florian protested, but the centaur didn’t look impressed. “We just need the last one, and we can end this.”
“Leave,” he repeated.
Florian stared at him for a long moment, considering. If he were to attack them, it probably wouldn’t end well—they had weapons, but the creature was huge. They wouldn’t get away unscathed, certainly. But they needed that last Arrow, no matter how they had to get it.
“Florian,” Kade said softly. He said nothing else, but Florian could hear all the unspoken questions behind the remark.
“What’s your name?” Florian asked, still looking at the centaur. He scowled in return.
“It doesn’t matter,” he said, taking another step toward them. Florian could feel Kade tense beside him. “Get out. Leave!”
“Listen to me!” Florian exclaimed. This time, he pushed his magic through his words; and although the centaur’s expression soured, he remained silent. “I know things got messed up last time anyone tried this. But we have a better idea of what we’re doing now. We won’t make the same mistake. And it looks like you’re suffering too. Let us help you.”
The centaur was quiet for another long moment, staring down at him appraisingly. Hope glimmered in his chest—then the centaur scoffed and looked away.
“You don’t even know what mistakes we made,” he retorted, though he sounded less likely to attack them immediately now. “You’re children, all of you. You know nothing. Nothing!”
“Were you there?” Florian asked, the possibility hitting him all at once. “Did you see it? Is that how that happened to you?”
The centaur flinched. He didn’t respond, but Florian was sure it was true.
“Tell us what happened,” Florian urged. “So we know what not to do.”
For a moment, the centaur was completely motionless, his one eye staring down at the ground as he seemed to consider Florian’s words. Then all at once, he turned away, hooves thudding into the earth as he galloped. Florian tensed, ready to jump out of the way; but he was turning aside and fleeing out into the Blight, further into the valley. The beetles were following him, Florian realized; they’d been hovering nearby during their entire exchange.
“Leave!” the creature roared as he ran. “Leave me alone and get away from here! Go!”
Florian took a few half hearted steps after him—to his credit, Kade followed without question—but it was hopeless. They would never catch up to him on foot, not when he had four powerful legs and such a massive stride. He watched the centaur disappear into the Blight, frustrated that he hadn’t even learned the creature’s name. Then he turned back to the others, who were watching him with varying degrees of incredulity on their faces.
“That... could have been worse,” Florian offered. Rune snorted and Kade smirked, but Koji’s expression remained worried, his eyes scanning the distance. That caught Florian off-guard—usually he was the quickest to laugh or smile. “Any thoughts on what we should do?”
“What happened to him?” Koji murmured, shaking his head. His brows furrowed deeply with worry. “How is he living in the Blight like this?”
“Doesn’t matter,” Rune said, shaking her head. “He has the Arrow, and we need it.”
“It might matter,” Florian protested. “If he was part of the original group that tried to end the Blight... I mean, knowing that there was a survivor somehow—that alone is huge. That wiped out so many people, and everyone thought that the group who did it all died. If he can tell us what happened, we at least know whatnotto do, right?”
“If,” Kade echoed, sounding unconvinced, and Florian sighed, nodding. Itwasa big if. The centaur seemed completely unwilling to talk to them, and he had no idea how to get him to even listen. “We can’t rely on it.”
“I know,” he said. “But we should try.”
“And the Arrow?” Rune interjected. “Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think he’s going to exactly hand it over with a smile, you know? That shit must have been in his eye for a hundred years. If he could have pulled it out, he would have by now.”
“I was thinking the same thing,” Koji said faintly. “I don’t see how we can do this without killing him. And it’s not like he’s a monster. He’s like us.”
Florian had been trying not to think of that part yet, but it was the truth. No matter what they could try to get the creature to speak to them, it would be with the backdrop of him knowing they needed the Arrow stuck in his skull, and that they would, most likely, have to kill him to get it. The thought made his chest feel cold.
“Florian,” Koji continued, catching his attention again. “Who’s Aderus?”
“Oh,” he stammered, realizing they would have had zero context for that part of the exchange. “In a memory Thaddeus had, Soleil mentioned him... I think he was the king of the horse shifters, or at least he was an important person. They were talking about some kind of trade agreement he was trying to pitch? I just thought that maybe...”
He trailed off, unsure of how to explain the connection his mind had made of the Blighted panther shifters they had discovered what felt like a lifetime ago, and the horse half of the centaur who had at least recognized the name Aderus. If the panther shifters could stand and walk upright, maybe a Blighted horse shifter could be stuck in a halfway point between his two forms, creating his centaur-like appearance.
“I thought the same thing,” Kade offered quietly, and Florian gave him a small, relieved smile. “It reminded me of those panther shifters. The Blight had... changed them. Maybe he was a horse shifter. I don’t know this Aderus, but I know there used to be a horse kingdom around the Summer Court, so it would make sense.”
No one responded for a moment, absorbing the information. Finally, though, Rune spoke.
