What danger? Who comes?
But the tree was no more forthcoming than that. It wasn’t malicious exactly, but it wasn’t friendly either, lost in a bitterness she didn’t have time to explore. She pulled her hand away and wiped it on her breeches, trying to shake the sensation.
Was it Casrian’s men who were coming? She hoped so. Maybe he’d found some sign of them on his circuit of the camp and was even now heading back to find her. She hesitated for a moment, wondering if she should turn back. Before she made up her mind, the smell hit her, musky and deep, an animal smellshe recognized from that creature that had chased her off the cliff.
Warily, she pulled the bow from her shoulder, grabbed an arrow and crouched low, sweeping her gaze around her, down the trail leading to the stream, up the short hill on her right, glancing behind her. There was nothing but dappled sunlight, the tall straight trunks of the trees, a carpet of leaves in gold and brown. Distantly, she could hear the sound of water moving over rocks, but the animals were still silent.
The silence stretched and she held herself still, waiting. When nothing moved, she started to retrace her steps, searching the woods as she went.
She’d taken fewer than a dozen steps when she saw movement out of the corner of her eye.
There.
A creature stood in the hollow between a dip in the land and a fallen tree. Half-wolf, half-horror. Hungry yellow eyes fixed on her.
She nocked an arrow.
Everything in her screamed at her to run. But she knew—deep down she knew—that thing would catch her before she made it back to the camp. Catch her and rake those deadly claws down her back, bury those wicked teeth in her neck.
And what if she made it back to camp? Casrian wasn’t there. Even if she made it to Copper, would he be able to outrun the thing? Her heart thudded as another creature came into view, slipping through the shadows from the direction of the swamp.
“Steady,” a quiet voice said behind her. “Don’t move.”
A shudder of relief rocked through her.
Casrian.
“The sun burns their skin,” he said in a bare whisper. A leaf crunched beneath his weight as he shifted closer. “Keep to the sunlight. Back up slowly.”
She wasn’t in the sun. The hill ahead of her blocked most of the light. The shade from the oak tree blocked the rest.
Keeping her eyes on those two unnatural creatures, she forced herself to take a single step back.
“Keep coming. It’s all right. You’re almost there.”
The thing on the right advanced, head low to the ground, moving in a weirdly serpentine way for something that was shaped like a wolf. Like its bones weren’t quite solid.
She took another shaky step back.
The one on the left stood up. Its upper lip pulled back on one side, revealing finger-long fangs that dripped with saliva. There were too many teeth in that mouth. A wolf didn’t have that many teeth.
She took another step, almost falling when her foot landed in a hole. She took another quick step to steady herself and the one on the right tensed like it meant to lunge.
A hand closed around her arm and jerked her back. She was pressed against a solid chest for a moment and then released with a gentle push. “Go back to the camp.”
The creature on the right attacked, seeming to fly across the distance separating them.
Casrian stepped forward to meet it because he had no sense of self-preservation at all. His sword caught the creature in midair, cutting it down with a strike that looked effortless. The stench burned her nose. Bitter, cloying rot. Death. Blood. Meat.
She scrambled back as it fell to the ground, but the other creature was already moving.
“Cas,” she shouted.
She steadied her bow and fired. It was pure muscle memory, but the arrow flew true, burying itself into the thing’s shoulder. It jerked, so it could feel pain, but it kept barreling toward them. She pulled another arrow from her quiver.
Casrian wrenched his sword free from the first creature and turned. His sword came down again, cutting into the barrel chest, tendrils of black smoke spilling out of the wound. It cried out in anger and pain, the sound piercing her ears. It landed in a crouch, one arm pulled up to its body, but it hadn’t gone down.
The one on the ground was still moving, its body writhing even with the black blood gushing out onto the leaves. It rolled, getting its feet under it.
