“Calem!” I made a move to run to him, but Leena had already taken off. She sprinted toward him, coming to a skidding halt just as the beast shook him off. Shouldering his body as it slumped to the ground, she placed herself between him and the beast.
Red-hot fury clouded my vision.
If you don’t kill her, we’ll have to intervene. The last thing you want is something unfortunate to happen, say, to one of your friends?The man’s threat ricocheted in my brain. One day. One day I had dallied, and this is what I got. A soft, jarring chirp shattered my focus, and I spotted the same bird from Midnight Jester perched on a broken palm frond.
Fucking Charmers.
The Scorpex shrieked again and shifted in the sand to bring its mandibles within piercing distance of Leena.
Leena.I dove into darkness and charged toward her, praying I’d reach her before this monster destroyed the person who could change my world.
A stunning rosewood light erupted from Leena’s frame, the same wondrous glow she’d emitted when taming Felicks. Warmth radiated from her center, and she stood tall before the beast. The fear I’d glimpsed in her eyes earlier had disappeared altogether.
“Go home. You don’t want to be here.” Hers was the firm tone of a mother reprimanding her child. This beast wasn’t even hers, and yet the love in her voice was real. Tangible. Something foreign and long forgotten stirred in my chest.
The beast shuddered. Sand shifted beneath its feet, and it sank lower into the ground.
It’s going to pounce.Darkness flowed, and I closed the remaining distance across the sloping sands in an instant. She was within my reach. I just needed to grab her, to bring her flush with my chest, and welcome her into my world of shadows.
Her light sharpened, battling against my darkness, and she reached out to place a gentle hand on the beast’s head. “Go.”
A heavy moan escaped the creature’s mouth and threatened to split my heart in two. Suffocating sadness poured from the Scorpex, and it whimpered beneath her touch. With a sharp gasp, Leena’s body started to tremble.
Intensified light shot outward from the space where her fingers made contact, and the groaning of a heavy door opening filled the night air.
“What…?” Leena didn’t move. All she could do was stare at the subdued beast beneath her.
Kost sped toward us with Ozias on his heels. “What’s happening?”
After a moment, her light faded, and the door creaked closed, taking the beast with it. Slack-jawed, Leena turned to face us. “I tamed it. I shouldn’t have been able to do that.”
Questions bubbled to the surface of my mind, but they were lost in the sudden wet gurgle spilling from Calem’s lips. “Fuck, that hurt,” he said.
“Dumbass. Noc told you to back off.” Nursing his broken arm, Ozias peeled back Calem’s tunic with his good hand and cringed. Dripping with blood and impossibly deep, a gaping hole covered in viscous green venom dominated the right side of his chest. “That will take a while to heal.”
Leena kneeled before him. Deft fingers swept across his wound. “He didn’t dislodge his barb. Good. Felicks can help seal the wound, but you’ll need to crush up some piffa root and pack it in there first. That will take care of the poison.”
“Great.” He tossed me a sheepish look. An apology for not following orders.
I steeled my anger. “You’re lucky it missed.”
“We’ll take him back.” Kost looped one of Calem’s arms around his shoulders, then glanced at Ozias. “We need to set your arm so it heals properly. We wouldn’t want to rebreak it later.”
Ozias winced. “Yeah, all right.”
“I need to check on the Scorpex.” Leena stood slowly, brushing stray grains of sand off her bare legs. Dressed in cutoff, skintight linen breeches and a sleeveless tunic, her body was covered with sand. A sinful bead of sweat dashed down her thigh, and I braided my fingers together to keep myself from wiping it away. Gods only know where that would have led.
“I’ll wait here for you.” After everything that had just happened, leaving her alone wasn’t an option.
Kost stared at me for a moment before relenting. Calem’s pained grunts spurred them into motion, and as one, the three of them disappeared in a plume of shadows. There was silence, save the constant backdrop of the ocean waves. As if the monster had never been sent in the first place. As if we weren’t evading bloodthirsty Charmers.
If I didn’t act quickly, this was bound to happen again. My comrades or Leena? My curse or freedom? The answer was harder than it should have been.
A quiet trill sounded from a nearby tree, and my gaze snapped to the bird. The damn spy. I summoned the last undried droplet threatening to coagulate in my palm. Sharpening my blood into a fine needle, I sent it flying. It struck the bird square in the heart, cutting off its final chirp with sickly finality.
Leena tracked its descent with her gaze and flinched when it crashed into the earth. She’d probably hate me for killing a beast, but I didn’t need her to like me. I needed her alive. I needed myfamilyalive, and tonight, some bastard had threatened that.
My bounty, my terms.I hoped he got the message.
