Her throat grew tight.
‘You know how to kill something with a knife?’ he asked.
‘No,’ she lied.
‘Aim for the jugular; the carotid. Right here.’ He pointed to his neck, below the ear. ‘If they’re too tall, try the inside of the thigh. Either will do.’
She swallowed.
She was doing this for him as well as her. For her mother; her family.
Because he deserved to have someone to protect him the way he protected everyone else.
She wished she could kiss him goodbye, but it was impossible. Dangerous.
Forbidden.
She found herself suddenly panicked at the thought of not saying something more.
‘I’ll be fine,’ she mouthed.
Of course you will, his eyes seemed to say.I’ve seen you in action.
Her lips quirked up, even as her stomach shimmered with unease.
And then he winked at her.
It was such a surprise her lips curved up.
‘She’s ready,’ Kyan announced to the others before asking, ‘Who’s your mark?’
Nicole took a deep breath, put her hand on her knife, and summoned all the attributes of the huntress within. ‘The descendant of Úaithne.’
CHAPTER SEVENTY-FOUR
Bells
BELLS RAN, CHASING THE DARK SPRAWL ONLY SHE COULDsee coiling between skyscrapers on a wide, busy street teeming with human pedestrians, cars, and yellow taxis.
New York.
The Wild Hunt looked just like it did in the paintings Nicole had shown her, so much more visible in the daylight. It cleaved through the sky, inky and sparkling amid vibrant electronic advertisements, as if the essence of all the supernatural souls stored within gave it a dark luminescence.
Assaulted by light and colour and so many people, Bells staggered as she ran straightthroughsomeone, near falling into the street.
For a moment, this vision had felt so real she’d forgotten she couldn’t touch anything.
But she had no time to think about that.
She had a Hunt to chase.
Ahead of her, it swarmed and slammed down onto the streets, an invisible glittering mass that travelled like a storm of horses. People moved, as if suddenly disturbed by a blast of lancing cold, but saw nothing.
Bells bolted after it as it charged ahead. She tried to dodge people before swallowing her unease and running headfirst through them instead, following as the Hunt veered to the left between buildings.
Her lungs protested, but this was their only chance—
‘Hey!’ Bells shouted as she staggered into the mouth of a side street,where the darkness coiled over the form of an unmistakably inhuman corpse.
