Page 60 of For the Strange and Surprising

“Then tell me, Ada,” he whispers, twirling a strand of my hair around his finger. “What made you come?”

“Connak.” I sigh, but I don’t look at him. “Stop trying to distract me. I need answers. I need to know more about what we saw today.”

His hand falls as he steps away from me. “That was a beast.”

“What was it, though?”

“I don’t know. It’s a beast, Ada. That’s like me asking you what a human is.”

I glance over my shoulder to see him watching me, gauging my reactions from a few feet away. “Where did it come from?”

“The island that surrounds us.”

“How did it get here?”

“I don’t know.”

I spin around to face him, needing more information than what he’s giving me. “Why was it so close to us?”

“I don’t know.”

“Is it going to come here?”

He shrugs, quietly confessing, “I don’t know.”

I can hear the concern in his voice, and I might share it too if I knew anything about the—

“Is it an animal or a humanoid thing?”

“I—”

“You don’t know?” I suggest, sarcasm heavy in my tone.

“I think they’re more animal than humanoid-thing, but I haven’t found one that can answer questions yet,” he snarks.

I ignore his attitude. “How many of them are on Spiran?”

He shakes his head.

“Can you tell me anything about them?”

Connak closes his eyes, running his tongue along his teeth. His internal debate is written all over his face. Then his shoulders sag.

“They aren’t pack animals, but occasionally we’ll see two or three in the same area. Their hearing isn’t great, though they do have a heightened sense of smell. We’ve never heard them communicate with each other, so we don’t know if they can. They’re aggressive and difficult to study without risking bodily harm.”

He waves his hand over his scarred body, and I feel like an asshole for pushing him.

“They’re creatures of pattern, circling the island until it’s mating season for the native animals. We don’t know what they want or why they’re here, though. We find tracks, but sometimes they just end with no warning.

“We haven’t been able to successfully capture or kill one in hundreds of years, not for lack of trying. Isolde killed one at the beginning of her reign, but the Shade queen destroyed the body.

“Before the Everwar dynasty, what little documentation that was done was written in a language that can’t be translated by any of the Mongrels. The queen has yet to find a scholar that even recognizes the archaic symbols. That’s all I know about them. Maybe Isolde knows more, but she hasn’t told me.”

“You track them?” I question in disbelief.

He rubs the side of his neck. “I’m a hunter, Ada. I haven’t found an animal that I can’t track.”

I lean toward him with wide eyes, pointing out the oh-so-obvious. “They attack you.”