My blood thins.
Of course she was.
“Shit,” I mutter, filling in the gaps myself. “Shit.”
I should have pieced it together. Laith mentioned she was securing the ships the day she left me broken and bare on a beach that’s never felt so cold.
A whip of wind stirs Zali’s hair, teasing the frosty ends past my face. “I’m sorry, Baze … I should’ve said something—”
“Whydidn’tyou?” I growl, and she breaks my stare, like ripping a scab from a wound.
“She had enough reasons to hate me.”
The words are detached, uttered in an empty, foreign tone I don’t recognize. Not from her.
“Why do you care so much?”
Pushing flat against the rise of packed snow, her hand drifts to the bronze sword resting against it. “I like her.” She taps a finger against the topaz-encrusted pommel, brow pinched. “She reminds me of someone.”
I study her as she studies the Vruks, this scroll burning a hole in my pocket. “Coming out here on your own, risking your life—it’s not the antidote to your guilty conscience.”
“I needed proof,” she murmurs flatly, flicking me a sideways stare that shines in the moonlight. “I’m nowcertainthis is the loose spigot to explain our overflow of fluffy mutts. But”—her upper lip peels back—”I’ve also learned why so many Fryst-born Vruks are making it past our defenses.”
“Which is?”
“The packs are much larger than they’ve ever been, with well-developed hierarchy systems. They’re growingtactful,”she sneers. “Watch.”
By the light of the moon, the pack slowly pools at the mountain’s base until they’re all safely down. One of the mid-sized Vruks nuzzles the snow and begins the volatile trek over what appears to be a smooth, unthreatening stretch of land.
The beast tests the ground with a fraction of its weight before committing to each prowling step—making for a slow, tentative journey. All the while, the others crouch and watch rather than burst across The Stretch the way the traps intend.
The approaching beast is halfway to us when the ground gives way beneath it, swallowing it in a large, snowy gulp. A shrill, bloodcurdling yelp echoes across the plains as it’s skewered on the hidden cavalry of spikes below.
Silence.
I swallow thickly, then watch in wonder as a smaller Vruk confidently prowls the same path the previous took, its steps growing more cautious once it rounds the spent trap and continues on across new, untested territory.
“They’re—”
“Growing smarter,” she whispers as the lone Vruk heels, tips its stubby muzzle to the sky, and releases a howl that shatters the crisp silence. “Unfortunately.”
The rest of the pack follows the track and spills across The Stretch in a single file gallop, kicking up a spray of snow from their thundering paws. I watch them draw closer,closer …sticking to their trodden trail, not setting a single paw out of line despite their fierce pace.
“They’re getting quite close, Zali.”
A brief pause, then, “The traps usually thin out the pack a little more …”
Aghast, I cut her a look.
She shrugs, standing, her withdrawing sword hissing its wake-up call as she pulls it free. “Your presence is timely, I’ll admit. How drunk are you?”
“Sober,” I mutter, the ground beginning to jolt beneath us. “Regretfully.”
“Well, sorry to pry you from your padded nest,” she says with a smirk, winking before she leaps out from behind the mound, making my heart lurch. Swift and sure, she whips her sword in a practiced arc that hacks through the thick, meaty neck of the first Vruk to bound across her path. Its front legs buckle, body collapsing against the ground in a jerking pile of matted fluff. Blood spills as it gurgles its dying breath, pumping in steaming spurts that ink the snow and the flutter of Zali’s cloak.
My feet are already moving when another lunges at her, talons punched free from its reaching paws—
I leap, midair, ripping my sword free from its sheath and slam it through the beast’s ribs, feeling muscle, bone, and organs give way to the pierce of it. We crunch against the ground in a burst of snow and blood and fur, making my teeth rattle. I’m still straddling it when we come to a stop—warm blood swelling up to meet my hands clenched around the hilt of my sword.
