Chapter Seventy-Four
Bells
BELLS RAN, CHASING THE DARK SPRAWL ONLY SHE COULD see coiling between skyscrapers on a wide, busy street teeming with human pedestrians, cars, and yellow taxis.
New York.
The Wild Hunt looked just like it did in the paintings Nicole had shown her, so much more visible in the daylight. It cleaved through the sky, inky and sparkling amid vibrant electronic advertisements, as if the essence of all the supernatural souls stored within gave it a dark luminescence.
Assaulted by light and colour and so many people, Bells staggered as she ran straight through someone, near falling into the street.
For a moment, this vision had felt so real she’d forgotten she couldn’t touch anything.
But she had no time to think about that.
She had a Hunt to chase.
Ahead of her, it swarmed and slammed down onto the streets, an invisible glittering mass that travelled like a storm of horses. People moved, as if suddenly disturbed by a blast of lancing cold, but saw nothing.
Bells bolted after it as it charged ahead. She tried to dodge people before swallowing her unease and running headfirst through them instead, following as the Hunt veered to the left between buildings.
Her lungs protested, but this was their only chance—
‘Hey!’ Bells shouted as she staggered into the mouth of a side street, where the darkness coiled over the form of an unmistakably inhuman corpse.
The hunter standing over it halted, wearing the same great caped hood and cloak as last time.
‘Please, you have to help me—’
‘The Hunt does not diverge from its mission,’ came the vague voice, the hunter returning attention to their quarry. ‘Run along, little Seer.’
Bells ran closer instead. ‘I know, but the Wake have kidnapped my sister and they’re coming after the Hunt next. They want to unleash it somehow and use all the dead creatures inside—’
The hunter’s pale hand hesitated while making a scooping action, as if cupping around an invisible candle flame. Then they shook themselves and moved back towards the Hunt’s dark, glittering cloud.
‘Wait! Please!’ Bells threw herself in their path. ‘I don’t know how they’re planning it, but I promise it’s true. You have to help me. She’s in there alone and I don’t know what they’ll do—’
‘I can’t do anything,’ they said, sweeping what must have been the soul from the deceased creature into the awaiting swarm behind Bells. ‘I’m bound to the Hunt.’
‘You can speak to the other hunters in there or something, please—’
‘I’m sorry,’ they said after half a second of hesitation. Striding past, their black cloak fluttered back to reveal a toned pair of legs clad in old-looking leather trousers.
This couldn’t be it. She had to be able to achieve something with these visions.
‘Stop!’ Bells reached out to grab the hunter’s cloak, but didn’t even grasp the fabric. She blinked to find her wrist locked in the stranger’s grip. They’d spun so quickly their hood had pulled back just enough to unveil the semi-shadowed features beneath, revealing—
‘You,’ Bells breathed.