Page 46 of Daughter of the Dark

“Tried to steal,” Reyes interrupted.

“—wouldn’t have worked. They would have known it wasn’t mine when I tried to leave.”

“Right.” There was a hint of something like remorse in his voice. “You would have been detained and imprisoned.”

And executed.

Solana had experienced two out of three, plus an added bonus of torture. While she could have done without it, she was grateful to be alive, that the opportunity for escape had been handed to her with little sacrifice expected. “Have you left Supay before?”

“No,” Reyes said quietly. He offered nothing else, but Solana found she was less eager to ride into the dark than she thought she would be. The air felt different—dangerous—and she didn’t know whether it was because of what lay before them or between them.

A path bisecting the trees stretched into the gloom. The horse’s head bobbed with impatience. Solana held the reins steady, mind churning with possibilities. If Reyes was right and her gift belonged solely to her, then she was an island unto herself. Set apart.

If she was right and her gift could be easily shared, then the burden of responsibility would no longer be hers, but neither would the burden of power.

Reyes had called her dangerous. Perhaps he was right.

The hand resting on her waist tightened, his fingers digging lightly into the soft flesh above her hip bone in encouragement.

“Ready?” he asked, voice soft.

Solana suppressed a shiver, kicked her heels into the horse’s side, and they were off, the balmy wind blowing back any reservations or doubts. They rode until the trees thickened and they couldn’t see the sky, until the path narrowed, then disappeared, and they were forced to dismount and walk.

“We’ll leave him here.” Reyes guided the horse to a thick tree, whispering into his ear as he stroked his neck. The horse stayed without a tether. “So he can run if there’s danger.”

She liked that he offered the information without her having to ask. That he considered every scenario, and not only the ones where they emerged victorious. Confidence that wasn’t confused with unrealistic optimism. Solana hated to admit there was something to admire, but it was getting harder and harder to ignore.

“Here,” she said, holding out her dagger. “So we’re ready.”

The moonlight dappled his face so that she could only see his profile, but it was enough that she saw the curve of his lips slightly diminish from the press of his mouth. They hadn’t had time to make a second dagger, much to his frustration. Reyes hesitantly took it from her and then handed her his own. “If anything goes wrong,” he said gravely, “run. Don’t try to be the hero.”

“I’ve never tried to be a hero a day in my life.” She fisted his dagger, simple but sturdy, and turned back to the forest, the thrill of the hunt like a greedy fire burning away anything else she might have felt. “Let’s go kill a muki.”

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

It was hard to deny how good it felt to hunt beside Reyes, who walked beside her through the forest like a wraith, silent and quick and deadly. Not even the creatures of the night heard them or suspected a threat. They carried on from tree to tree and bush to bush, glowing eyes and flapping wings and scuttling underbrush. All was normal, until it wasn’t.

Reyes hissed and came to an abrupt stop. Solana whipped her head to him and found him staring down at the dagger lying flat in his palm, the stones in the pommel glowing faintly like fresh blood in firelight. She whirled around and slowly eyed the dark, inspecting every shift of shadow, every whisper of movement.

It was the chirp of insects that told her all she needed to know. Or, more accurately, the lack thereof. The forest fell deadly silent and then a black blur darted from one tree to the next. At her back, Solana felt Reyes shift into a defensive position, the tendrils of his gift soothing and cooling the ball of impatient energy that fluttered beneath her chest. Later, she’d need to ask him about it, but for now, she drank it in and braced herself for a fight.

It came at them like a rabid animal, teeth and talons bared, a snarl echoing in its wake. Solana ducked and, without thinking, struck out with Reyes’s dagger. She caught its side and grimaced when it screeched with fury. Now it was angrier than before, if that were possible. It skidded to a halt, muscles rippling, before turning its head only in a slow circle, like an undead owl in the shape of an oversized human, its bulging eyes all-seeing and wild.

“Fuck,” Solana breathed. Moonlight struck half of its face, and Solana saw that its teeth weren’t bared—the skin was simply missing. There were only muscles and tendons and decaying bone. A tongue shaped like a snake’s licked the air as if tasting them, and then it charged again, running backward, limbs and joints popping in and out of place and propelling it forward as if it were on strings.

“Reyes,” Solana warned.

The demon jumped, unlike anything she had ever seen, and flew over them, landing directly behind so that they were forced to spin around to keep it in their sights. And then it burst forward in a flurry of shadows and mist.

An arm swiped out and knocked Solana onto her back. Before she hit the ground, the thing collided with Reyes, sending them both sprawling into a jumbled mass of limbs. They rolled to a stop with the demon on top, and it paused with Reyes pinned beneath its arms. It leaned in, its mouth a gaping maw.

Solana was too far—it would rip Reyes’s neck open by the time she got there. She scrambled to her knees, reached inside of her to that place of surrender and power that allowed her to yank the tether she felt flapping wildly about, and stuck out a mental hand.

The demon’s head snapped to the side. Its fathomless eyes latched onto her. The holes that were its nose flared, its tongue slipping past its missing cheek and tasting the air in her direction. The familiarity in its eyes was both terrifying and enthralling, drawing her in until she felt the overwhelming urge to call it closer.

And then the moment shattered with a roar, violently shoving Solana back to awareness as Reyes swung the dagger into the base of the muki’s neck. Chest heaving, she held its gaze, watched the life drained from its eyes, its body and unbridled fury softening and slumping into a heap of death.

Breath held, Solana waited for the tide of sorrow to pull her under. It flooded in with the force of churning waters, disorienting and unfamiliar, breaking down every barrier in its path. Instead of bracing herself against it, Solana became the water. She ebbed and flowed, tossed and turned. The burning rage, the sharp relief, the unyielding torment, she absorbed all of it with hands and heart wide open.