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Cynwrig bent and pressed his fingers against the ground. His face lost all color, and my heart just about seized.
“Run,” he said. “Now.”
ChapterTen
As one,we turned and ran across the cemetery, away from the gate and the village.Itwas too close to the forest, too close tothem.
Lugh crashed through some shrubbery, then leapt over a partially fallen metal fence. His jacket caught one of the rusted spikes, but he didn’t stop. The jacket tore, leaving behind a bright scrap of material that fluttered like a flag in the breeze. I grabbed the fence, clambered over it with a whole lot less grace than either man, then tugged the bit of material free. The Annwfyn hunted by smell as much as sight, but there was little point in making it easier for them.
We ran on, up the slope, through sparse forest and lines of fallen trees. Cynwrig made little sound, but Lugh and I might have well shouted our location, we were so damn loud.
It didn’t matter.
The Annwfyn’s howls now filled the air. They had our scent.
Terror flooded my body, lending my feet wings. I leapt over a fallen tree trunk, stumbled a little on the landing, and then raced on.
But they were closing in.
Cynwrig slid to a stop. When I faltered, he flashed me an angry look and growled, “Keep going.”
I obeyed. A heartbeat later, the ground began to shake, and I risked a look over my shoulder to see what was happening. Cynwrig had squatted on his heels and pressed both hands against the ground. The earth rose in a wave before him, its velocity and size increasing the further away it moved. It swept everything before it—trees, stone, fence, and even gravestones—as it raced toward the forest and the first few Annwfyn emerging.
I hoped it would be enough to stop them.
I feared it wouldn’t.
I swallowed heavily and ran on. The ground grew steeper and rougher, and my pace slowed. My breath was now harsh rasps that seemed to hang in the air, and my legs burned. Lugh paused long enough for me to catch up, then grabbed my hand and hauled me on, making the climb a fraction easier even though his speed forced me to concentrate on every step. When I did stumble, he tugged me up and on.
The roar of the Annwfyn briefly stopped, and the ensuing silence was eerie. Frightening.
Cynwrig reappeared. “We have five minutes, if that, before they come after us again.”
“And the barrier?” Lugh asked. “Did you sense its location through the soil?”
“At least four minutes directly ahead.”
Meaning it was going to be tight. Real tight.
We ran on. Sweat trickled down my face and back, and everything protested—not just my legs and my chest, but also my fingers from the tightness of Lugh’s grip.
It didn’t matter. Nothing would if we didn’t get to that barrier before the Annwfyn got to us.
We reached the top of the ridge and swept down the other side into a forest that held little in the way of damage, suggesting we were nearing the barrier. Lugh slowed, but not fast enough, and we both body-slammed into the thing. It sent us staggering back and we would have ended up on the ground in a tangle of arms and legs had Cynwrig not somehow caught us both and kept us upright.
Behind us, the hunting howls of the Annwfyn started up again. Those who hadn’t been swept up in Cynwrig’s wave had caught our scent.
And they were close.
Far too close.
I cursed, pulled out of Cynwrig’s grip, and drew my knives, stabbing one into the ground near my feet then stepping sideways to shove the other in the barrier just above my head.
The air shimmered as the barrier started to peel away from the silver, but it was too slow. Far too slow. I gripped the wind with my free hand, spun it around to form a whirlwind, then sent it scuttling back into the forest. It collected shrubs and tree branches on the way through, before disappearing over the ridge and beyond our line of sight.
I glanced back at the barrier. Almost big enough.
Behind us, the hunting roar of the Annwfyn changed note as my whirlwind smashed into them. Bodies were tossed into the air like confetti, but the wind didn’t catch them all. At least half a dozen had crested the hill and were sweeping down toward us.
