Page 48 of Blood & Claw

Still, she didn’t lower the blade. Instead, she waited.

By the time the eastern sky began to pale, her shoulders sagged. Dawn. At last.

The night creatures would crawl back to whatever holes they hid in.

Gods, she was tired. She glanced around once more.

Where had Dale gotten to? His horse was still here, nonetheless, so he couldn’t have fled.

She rose stiffly, joints protesting. Too many sleepless nights had left her head woolly and her eyes burning. If she closed them now, she feared she might simply fall over.

Cold water would wake her.

Stepping carefully over the line of salt, she made her way down to the loch. The surface lay smooth and grey beneath the first weak light of dawn.

She crouched, set her knife aside, and splashed icy water onto her face. The cold hit like a slap. She gasped and splashed again, rubbing hard at her eyes. That helped.

Leaning forward to douse her face once more, she froze.

The water had changed.

Still as glass—but something moved beneath it. A long shadow sliding toward the shallows.

Gasping, she reached for her knife. Her fingers clutched around its handle, just as the shape rose.

Water peeled away from a low, sinuous body as it heaved itself onto the stones.

Ailsa gasped.

Where was that bloody bodyguard? She really needed him now.

The beast was huge—long as a horse—and slick with loch water. Its head swung toward her, black eyes fixing on her with terrible intent.

Ailsa darted sideways along the bank. She’d forgotten she even held a knife. How could she wield it against something like this anyway?

The creature lunged. Jaws snapped where she’d been standing a heartbeat before.

Her pulse roared in her ears as she backed toward the fire. Think. Think!

If this thing killed her, Kayla was also done for.

The beast paused, head tilting.

For an instant, they stared at one another.

Ailsa watched the muscles bunch beneath its slick hide—and marked the pulse fluttering beneath the pale skin of its throat.

Her own pulse should have been racing, yet it had slowed.

Her vision sharpened.

Her breathing seized then, fingers tightening around her knife grip.

Gods. Not this again. No! I can’t—

The creature struck again, and instinct took over.

This time, she moved toward it.