Chapter Thirty Amund
“Curfew is in effect,” Father says, leaning over the map. Two days have passed since I trained Edith, and I have nothing to show for it. That changes tonight.
Eight of us crowd around the table, the office too small for so many hunters. Since the attack, our patrols have doubled. Curfew was put in place for students so we can comb through each campus. No distractions. No mistakes.
“Amund, Valerie, you take the berserkr campus.”
I nod, exchanging a glance with Val.
Odds are Isaac will be on that campus if he’s out tonight. Which means Val or I will be the one to stop him. Of course, unless I capture the killer myself, I will have failed. It doesn’t matter to Father if the killer is caught. It only matters who catches him.
It must be me.
While Father continues handing out assignments, I try to focus.
He will be expecting results. It’s already been well over a week since Edith was attacked.
Nothing has happened since, but we’re also no closer to capturing the one responsible.
If I can’t catch Isaac tonight, hopefully Edith will confirm he’s the killer tomorrow.
We have to get him before he kills again.
“Shoot down any animal,” Father finishes, surprising me.
“What?” Dorian asks. “I thought we weren’t allowed—”
“You have my permission,” Father says. “No student should be out after curfew without an escort, let alone transformed. We have to nip this problem in the bud before the Unity Celebration. I don’t care how you do it. Just get it done.”
Dorian nods, his lips quirking into a satisfied smirk. “Understood.”
Looking around the room, I realize none of the other hunters will hesitate.
Except for Val. She looks as uncomfortable as I feel. Ever since Tala called her out, she must be having doubts. Not just Tala. Idris too. Perhaps even my argument in class as well. Maybe we’re finally getting through to her about berserkir.
“Dismissed,” Father says gruffly.
This is no ordinary night. No ordinary patrol. Shoot to kill. Father has never said that before. We’re not playing games anymore. The pressure is on all of us, especially me. None of us speak. Everyone is focused on the task ahead, running through our routes in our minds.
Outside, Val joins me. “You ready, Amund?”
“I always am,” I say, ignoring my own discomfort. “Are you?”
Val hesitates before nodding. “Let’s get this over with.”
The berserkr campus is quiet. No one in sight. I move as if I’m on a hunt in the Wilds, keeping my feet low and quick, surveying each area before proceeding to the next. My bow is ready. This ends soon, one way or the other.
As we patrol the grounds, moving silently through the shadows and stalking our prey, I can’t stop thinking about Edith. How she felt in my arms as I guided her hand toward my chest. She makes me feel vulnerable in ways I can’t explain.
One thing’s for sure. I can’t tell Val how I’m feeling about Edith. She wouldn’t understand. No hunter would. Except Idris.
Val frowns. “No sign of anyone.”
“Yet,” I add.
Static crackles over the radio, making us both jump.
“Help!” Dorian screams, sounding frantic. “Shit, we need some help!”
I press the button. “On our way.”
Radio static answers.
Val and I exchange a look. “The hunter campus.”
It’s hard to believe Isaac would attack in our territory.
The farthest away, we’re the last to arrive. The rest of the patrolling hunters are crowded on the training grounds. We join them, but no one moves a muscle. They’re all staring ahead in shock, mouths agape. Val and I have to push our way through, shoving shoulders aside, to get a better—
A hunter lies sprawled in the grass.
Blond curls. Pale skin.
Not Dorian.
Idris.
My heart stops. Isaac didn’t kill just any hunter. He killed our best. A hunter only my father could rival. How is this possible? I look around the frightened faces of my classmates. They must all be thinking the same thing. If even Idris could be killed… none of us would have stood a chance.
Dorian or any one of us could be lying there instead.
“This is what happens when we waver, isn’t it?” Val sounds shaken. “Show sympathy for a berserkr, and you wind up dead.”
“Idris was still one of us. Fucking berserkir,” Dorian mutters. “They should pay for this.”
“Damn right they will,” Michael says.
That’s the last thing Idris would want.
He was the best of us. As not just a hunter but a human. He wanted us to do better. Be better. Tears well up. I’ve looked up to Idris as long as I can remember.
Now I’m looking down at his disemboweled body. He wasn’t wearing his leathers when he was attacked. Maybe if he had been, his abdomen wouldn’t be ripped open like this, his organs on gruesome display.
“We can’t allow ourselves to forget what they really are,” Val says slowly. “Animals.”
Her words cut through me, cold and sharp. I know Father and others believe this is a wild berserkr. But as I look over Idris’s body, it doesn’t ring true. When wolves kill, they start by eating the heart, liver, or lungs.
Only his entrails are missing.
Wolves won’t consume the stomach contents of larger prey.
In the Wilds, it’s how we can tell if a wolf or bear berserkr was responsible for the kill.
Unlike wolves, bears not only eat the intestines, they begin with them.
But our killer is a wolf. I saw that for myself: It was a wolf that attacked Edith.
So if the entrails are the only thing missing… it can’t be a wild berserkr like everyone is saying. That would go against its animal nature. Which means Idris and I were right about the killer being a student. If only I’d warned him about Isaac…
Wait. Something is smeared on his chest. Idris is covered in so much blood, I nearly missed it. Three interlocking triangles. The same symbol Edith once asked me about. My stomach churns. The killer must have some greater purpose we don’t know yet.
Now even the hunters have become the hunted.