AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I had hope when I woke up this morning... But it was quickly smashed, stomped on, and lit on fire when the princes decided they were going to join my hunt.
Not just one... Both of them.
They’re noisy. They talk constantly. And I hate it.
This trip would have been more pleasant with Ada and Rin. Or Ada and Madigan. Or all three of them... Because at least they know how to walk silently.
It’s like Ecaeris and Lyell want the entire village to know where we are. They’ve grated on my nerves until every sound rolls across my darkened vision in obnoxiously bright colors. My hunt flees with its tail tucked, leaving me with nothing but my aggravation and a headache.
“Are you seeing anything?” the Mongrel prince asks.
“No. The hunt is done,” I growl, kicking at the stack of branches Cotear left in his camp near the coast. All that does is make my toes throb.
“He just disappeared?” Ecaeris continues, aiming a skeptical look my way.
“No,” I drawl, agitation thick in my tone. “I can’t focus while you two are chatting like ladies in the village. This is why I hunt alone.”
Ecaeris rolls his eyes like I’m being dramatic. “This is not why you hunt alone.”
“You’ve grown used to the silence,” Lyell says, picking through a small pile of charred wood. “Try to push through our noise.”
“Do you even know why we’re out here?” I inquire, trying to fight the primal part of me that needs to finish this hunt.
The Shade prince lazily shrugs. “Ecaeris told me the issues with your new queen. I offered to help.”
“Then go help over there,” I snap, pointing to a clothesline Cotear hung between two trees. “Both of you.”
Ecaeris holds up his hands, sensing my hostility. I’m doing all I can to rein it in, but it’s like capturing the ocean in my hands. I need Ada; her presence would calm the animal within me.
Once their quiet chatter is at a distance, I try to hone my vision onto the footprints Cotear left. I see three sets of them, each leading in a different direction... But the discrepancies are starting to show themselves. He’s getting sloppy. And while they are his tracks, not all have the same weight or length between paces.
I’ve seen this before, though it’s been a long time. It definitely wasn’t in our territory.
“Fuck,” I snarl under my breath. “Check the trees. Look up.”
“What is it?” Ecaeris asks, scanning the canopy above us.
“Cotear is a Howler,” I whisper, turning my grayed vision skyward.
His tracks illuminate in the tree branches, a dozen feet between each step. He’s been using his air element to aid him in jumping from one place to the next, to stay hidden while he leaves false prints.
“But how has he been throwing me off?” I wonder aloud as the information paints a new scenery.
“He’s spreading his element,” Lyell answers, understanding more than I expected. “Using the air to move his shoes along the forest floor while he pushes himself upward to the safety of the canopy.”
I nod my agreement. “That’s what I’m thinking, too. He’s never left tracks that show he’s moving upward, but I suspect that’s because the other points would have been higher than these branches.”
“You didn’t know he was a Howler?” The Shade prince frowns at our surroundings, attempting to see more than the surface evidence.
Ecaeris shakes his head. “As far as I can tell, he’s been with the Mongrels all his life. We’ve spoken to a few people, but no one knew he had any elemental power. His parents were merchants, and everyone thought he was born while traveling between the tribes.”
“They hide it so well,” Lyell complains. “We’ve had a few Howlers scoping out our village from the mountain tops. They like the cliff edges where we have little access, but they haven’t attacked, so I assumed they were just keeping tabs on my mother.”
“This is a problem,” I tell them, scanning the dense trees outside of this tiny clearing. “He could be anywhere.”
“We need to go,” Ecaeris confirms. “Anywhere includes the village, and he’s already proven more difficult to track there than here.”
“Let’s circle back to his home,” Lyell suggests. “See if you can find his tracks in the trees or the roof. We can open a map when we get back.”
