Page 45 of The Hunter

“Telok, are you okay? Did it bite you?” Lacey asked, concern in her voice.

“Fine. No bite.” He sat back on his hindquarters, lifting his upper right arm, and looked down at the vithkha. The creature’s ruined head lolled, leaking dark green blood onto the branch.

Scrunching her nose, Lacey jerked her legs up and away from the blood, wrapping her arms around them. “Ugh, seriously, what is that? It’s like a cross between the predator and a snayk.”

“Vithkha. They hunt in trees, kill with venom.” Telok turned his arm to find the end of the creature’s tail. Grasping it, he began peeling the vithkha off, grunting whenever one of its underbelly hooks stubbornly clung to his hide. At the edge of his vision, he saw the two thornskulls move closer, but he did not look up from his task.

He didn’t know how a human would react to a vithkha’s bite, and after seeing what firevine venom had done to Ahmya and Ivy, he would do everything in his power to protect Lacey and ensure they never found out.

“I must give apologies,” Droztar said, voice low, as he brought his forearms together and bowed his head. “I was watching, but I did not see the vithkha. The blame is mine.”

Pausing, Telok turned his gaze to Droztar. His jaw clenched. He wasn’t concerned about the danger to himself—that was every day for him in the Tangle. But the danger to Lacey… That sparked fire in his gut, churning and scorching and furious.

Yet he knew he could not direct that anger at Droztar. It was far too large, far too hot, amplified by his care and possessiveness of Lacey.

And no matter how vigilant, no one was infallible, especially when it came to detecting silent, stealthy predators like vithkhas.

“No harm has been done this time.” Telok freed the last hook from his hide and flung the limp vithkha into the jungle. The creature had drawn blood only in a few spots, but the wounds were minor, not even worthy of a wad of silk. “Next time, we will all watch more closely.”

Straightening, Droztar pounded a fist on his chest. “With all eight eyes.”

Ayali thumped his shoulder with a big hand, making him rock. She chittered as he grumbled at her.

“You guys almost die up there?” Cole called from the branch below.

I should have thrown the vithkha at him.

“Yep! Just about got gankt by a predator bowuh kunstrikter!” Lacey replied.

“Wait, you mean like the predator?”

“Yeah.” Though Cole couldn’t see her, Lacey lifted her fingers to her cheeks and mimed mandibles. “Freaky mouth things opening up and all.”

“That’s fucking awesome!”

“Not fucking awesome,” Telok snapped.

Cole coughed and cleared his throat. “I obviously didn’t mean the almost dying part.”

“Not. Fucking. Awesome.”

“Don’t be a party poo⁠—”

Telok silenced Cole with a sharp hiss.

“—per,” Lacey finished with a smirk.

He glared at her. “Vi’jatai…”

She laughed, her eyes bright and sparkling, and the heat inside Telok diminished and shifted. This was how he wanted to see her—radiant and joyful. Not pale with fear in her eyes. That she was alive and well to laugh and smile now filled him with boundless gratitude.

My fiery little thorn…

CHAPTER 12

With the vithkha attack having awoken everyone before suncrest, Garahk called an early start to the day. The hunters gathered their belongings and descended to the jungle floor.

Again, Telok was unable but to focus on the feel of Lacey clinging to him as he carried her down from the tree. His instincts whispered at the back of his mind, urging him to succumb, seemingly sharpened to a new, wicked edge by the danger they’d faced.