I inch down the grassy slope, gaze nipping at the rise on the opposite side where twists of smoke lick at the darkening sky, the smell of ash and burnt flesh clogging my lungs.
The distant sound of popping, crunching bones hammers nails into my kneecaps, threatening to make me stumble.
It’s still there.
Stillfeasting.
Irilak are smudged into shadows of the jungle, tucked within its safe confines, seeming tentative to flit forward and feed despite the heavy clouds blotting the light.
Surely they’ll come forth soon. Suckle the Vruk into a dehydrated lump of flesh and bone.
I hope.
Watched from the jungle’s gloomy guts by countless pairs of eyes that scrape across my naked skin, I move forward, heart in my throat and stomach in knots. I sneak beneath the tree Gael and I ate peaches beneath and wrap myself in her cloak, stuff my blade into my bag, then edge back up the rise one stolen step at a time, stealing glances over my shoulder.
Just a little farther.
Grass tickles my shins as I quicken my pace and dash toward the drain that stabs beneath the city wall, just picking a path over big, slippery stones when the hairs on the back of my neck lift.
A full-body chill rips across my skin.
I swallow. Look over my shoulder to see the Vruk skulking over the knoll beyond the orchard in long, robust strides, nose dug into the grass, whuffing at the soil.
Fear knifes into me.
Another prowling step, and it lets out a low rumble that rakes up my spine, then slowly lifts its head, maw smeared in the gore of the men I just slayed.
A web of lightning forks across the sky as our eyes clash, ricocheting off its catastrophic stare.
My foot slips on a patch of slimy muck.
I fall hard, cracking my knees on the stones to the tune of a slashing growl that cuts straight through me. Hands slamming down, my necklace falls from my grasp, lost in the filthy water.
The ground begins to tremble, like a thundering heart is hacking at the soil beneath me, and I look up to see the beast lunging across the glen in great, barreling strides.
Coming straight for me.
Digging between the stones in clawed, frantic motions, I snatch harrowing glances of the approaching beast—bounding closer …
Closer …
My fingers tangle with my chain, and a relieved breath fills me with the power to clamber up and scramble over the unrelenting chaos of the slippery stones, toward the drain’s illuminated mouth that looks too small for that beast to fit through.
Please be too small.
A blow of hot air attacks me from behind. Tingles explode from the soles of my feet, lashing up my legs and spine, and I release a strangled gasp as I duck my head and dive past the opening, water splashing up my shins with every frantic step.
The ground beneath me stills, and a sharp sound splits the air, like the metal grate is screaming. There’s a distant thud, and the lantern light chasing me through the drain is dimmed in smashing increments until it snips out entirely.
A deep, foreboding rumble blasts through the shaft, infusing my skin and sanding my bones.
It’severywhere—all around me.Throughme. Breaking down the very fiber of my being.
My legs threaten to crumble, palm slamming against the curved stone edge, and I dare to look back into the pall of darkness …
Gruff whuffing sounds saw down the space, and my heartbeat scatters.
“Oh my—”
