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I stiffened as Runa looked in my direction, her amber gaze searching nothing as the wind teased tendrils of her braid and whipped them against her cheeks.
I froze.
Oh no.
The breeze had changed.
We’d been downwind.
Now—
“We changed it.” The air element laughed. “The beasts should have a fighting chance, don’t you think?”
An awful lowing sounded, a grunting roar that echoed through the mass of brown. The pulsating brawn of so many beasts below suddenly jolted as one. Horned heads came up, fur bristled, black-wet noses sniffed the sky.
A giant bull appeared on the outskirts of his herd, towering over most of the females, pushing his offspring aside as he inhaled our scent and prepared to do battle. To protect his family from usurpers.
The Nhil hunters scrambled, yelling commands instead of using their silent hand signals, forced into the hunt sooner than they’d planned. The calm tone of the afternoon lulled by long walking and luke-warm autumn sunshine shattered.
Everything happened so fast.
Too fast.
The ground rumbled as hooves began to move.
A steady pounding as hundreds of bison all flocked as one, gathering speed and thunder in the valley below.
The small rise was no protection.
The loss of the high ground and being able to shoot down on the unsuspecting herd was gone. A tidal wave of bison swept closer and closer toward the hill, coming faster, faster, faster.
Hunters scattered.
They fanned sideways, wisely running from the thicket, knowing they’d never outrun a bison straight on. Syn and Zetas ran too, triggered by the ever-building rumble of hooves and husky roars.
The air became alive with a stampede.
My eyes locked onto Runa, frozen beside Tral and Solin.
She wasn’t safe there. None of them were.
I dropped the air shield, letting her see me.
Her gaze instantly found mine, wide and panicked. “Darro—”
I broke into a run, intending to grab her and whisk her out of harm’s reach.
But the bison kept charging.
Soon they’d reached the hill and start to climb.
“You need to run!” I shouted, summoning a cushion of shadows to fly to Runa’s side.
Aktor suddenly yelled a Nhil war cry and brandished his spear at the sun. His skin etched with fire from the sky and in a suicidal idiotic decision, he ran to meet the stampede. “Go, Father! Get to safety. I’ll scare them into running in the other direction!”
What?
What the fuck is he thinking!?
“Aktor, don’t—” Tral shouted. “They’ll trample you!”
But it was too late.
The stupid, stupid male leapt off the crest, his fur wrapped feet skidding and tripping down the short hill. Clouds of dust rose around the bison as they added speed now they’d caught sight of their enemy.
Nhil hunters changed direction, sprinting toward the herd again, preparing to help one of their own. Arrows flew, aimed at heifers and braying juveniles, trying to scatter the charge. Niya screamed and committed to a fight she would not win. Leca ran beside her, their legs blurring into one as they vanished over the rise and gave chase after Aktor.
A bison roared as someone’s weapon lodged into its flank.
The sharp scent of blood tainted the air, and...the world went black only to return in drenching, dreading colours.
Aktor ran headfirst toward the bull.
He cocked his throwing arm.
His spear soared with its blackbird feathers.
It struck the wizened bull in the shoulder, barely stabbing through thick winter hide and fat summer muscle.
The bull skidded to a snorting stop.
The herd broke into a fork, flowing in two rivers up the hill, leaving their patriarch to kill their enemies.
The bull’s horns glinted. His front hoof pawed.
He launched himself at Aktor, who stumbled in his stupid foot coverings.
Aktor tried to fight.
But it was over before it began.
The bull gorged him with a roar.
Aktor screamed and jerked as his middle was pierced.
A spray of crimson.
Ropes of intestines uncoiling.
Ribs snapping.
And a stomach-curdling screech as the bison punctured his lungs, impaling him, presenting him to the sun in gory triumph.
Aktor’s blood dripped down the majestic bull’s face; ribbons of guts dangling, white strings streaked a ruby red.
And then...a shattering.
A breaking.
A spirit-pulverising slicing.
Runa’s heart gave out.
Linked to Aktor.
Bound to his lifeforce.
She choked,
clutched her chest,
jerked with death throws,
and then toppled silently down the rise.
She landed in a dusty, broken heap beneath the roaring bull’s hooves.
Glassy-eyed.
Gone.
GONE!
For a second, I couldn’t believe it.
My heart stopped beating.
I turned to ice.
“Runa...”
But...she didn’t get up.
She didn’t breathe.
Didn’t blink.
And the bull brought his hoof down upon her skull—
An earthquake exploded out of my chest.
Something snapped inside me.
A vicious, feral snap where darkness rushed in, blackness sank deep, and I tumbled into everything I’d been running from. Something woke deep within, shattering chains I’d wrapped tight so, so long ago. Agony I’d never felt before tore through me, building and building, crumbling and collapsing every concept of who I was.
I embraced every pain.
I turned my back on the living.
I became vicious death and merciless decay.
Shadows ruptured out of me, tainted with murder, moving with killing swiftness.
