Chapter 16 Isi
ISI
The ground thundered beneath massive feet.
I spun, brandishing my stick, and saw my death charging down the muddy slope toward me.
The creature was wrong in every way that mattered.
It was too long, too flexible, its body undulating like a serpent with six legs as it ripped through a grove of stubby trees as if it wasn’t there.
Each stride covered an impossible distance, its limbs bending at joints that dislocated and reformed with wet pops.
Bone plates split its skull into sections, revealing a tri-sectioned maw that opened wide, lined with rows of needle-sharp teeth that gleamed with saliva.
Six black eyes tracked my movement with hunger, unblinking, ancient, filled with the promise of pain.
This was what had killed Fara.
And now it was after me.
There was no way I could outrun it, but damn, I wouldn’t go down without fighting with everything I had.
Terror tried to lock my muscles. My lungs seized.
The stick in my hands felt like a twig against the approaching nightmare.
I doubted this thing would deliver my death quickly.
It would take its time, savoring every scream.
The stalker’s claws gouged trenches in the muddy slope as it bounded closer. Twenty yards. Fifteen. Ten. I could smell it now, the reek of old blood and rot. My belly heaved, shoving bile up my throat.
It gathered itself to leap, its muscles bunching under its chitinous hide.
I shrieked and swung my stick…
A cat half the size of a small dragon exploded from the jungle to my left.
A bang like thunder echoed when the two creatures collided.
The earth shook beneath my feet, and it was all I could do to remain standing.
Trees older than kingdoms groaned and snapped as the beasts crashed and rolled, a blur of claws and fangs and raw violence that made my earlier fear about carnivorous plants seem like children’s nightmares.
The stalker shrieked, a sound like tearing metal that made my bones ache and my teeth feel loose in my skull. The great cat answered with a roar that lifted every hair on my body. Flames erupted from its mouth.
Firecat.
I’d only heard of them in myths, and now one battled right in front of me.
They rolled across the mud, tearing gouges in the earth deep enough to bury a man. Ancient roots thick as my waist snapped like kindling. Boulders cracked under the force of their impact. They were remaking the landscape with their violence.
I stood frozen, watching the monsters fight.
The creature was fast. Its impossible joints allowed it to twist and strike from angles that broke every law of anatomy. One moment it was beneath its opponent, the next, it had somehow flowed around to attack from behind. Its tri-sectioned maw snapped at the firecat’s throat, missing by a whisper.
But the cat was stronger, heavier, built for killing things that desperately needed to die. Every movement showed controlled violence, power held in check until the perfect moment to unleash it.
It was beautiful.
When its claws raked across the attacker’s hide, it left wounds that wept deep blue blood.
When its teeth dug into the creature’s flesh, bone cracked like dry wood.
When it blasted flames at the attacker, the fire scorched across the creature’s skin, bubbling it with blisters that popped and seeped.
The creature writhed back and lashed out, catching the great cat across the chest. Parallel wounds opened, deep enough to expose muscle beneath the fur. Vital red spattered the torn vegetation.
My heart lurched.
The firecat snarled. It moved fast, leaping, its huge jaws clamping down on the creature’s neck. The beast’s shriek turned to a wet gurgle as the cat’s saber fangs found the soft spaces between bone plates, as it roared flames into the wound, scorching through flesh.
They crashed through a stand of young trees, reducing them to splinters. The attacker’s six eyes rolled wildly as it fought to escape the crushing grip, the searing heat.
The great cat shook its head like a dog with a rat, and bones snapped. The creature’s movements became frantic, desperate. It was losing, and it knew it.
With a sound like leather tearing, the creature managed to break free, blood streaming from wounds in its neck. It staggered backward, no longer the confident predator that had hunted me down the slope. Now it was prey, wounded and terrified.
The firecat crouched, preparing to finish what it had started. Every line of its body spoke of lethal intent.
But Fara’s killer whimpered and fled into the jungle on unsteady legs. The thuds of its footsteps faded, leaving only the patter of rain on leaves and my own ragged breathing.
I stood, shaking, while my mind tried to process what I’d seen. My legs swam beneath me, and my hands trembled so badly I nearly dropped the stick.
That thing had been coming for me. It would’ve caught me. Would’ve torn me apart with its enormous teeth while its six eyes watched every bit of my suffering.
Like it had done to Fara.
My entire body shook with delayed reaction. My knees buckled, and I had to lean against a stump to keep from falling. The bark felt rough under my palm, real and solid in a world that had revealed itself to be far more dangerous than I’d ever imagined.
I’d nearly died. Would’ve died, if not for—
The firecat stepped across the torn earth with fluid grace, and I understood why the stalker had fled. This thing may be smaller than a dragon, but it was infinitely more terrifying. Where dragons were wings and fury, this beast was cold, calculated death wrapped in deceptive beauty.
Its coat was soot-gray, the fur slick with rain and darker stains that might be blood—its own or the stalker’s. Heavy muscles shifted beneath its pelt with each deliberate step. Every movement spoke of absolute confidence, of a creature that had never met anything it couldn’t kill.
A mane of lighter gray threaded with black hung drenched around its powerful neck, the strands clinging to its broad shoulders. Its long, muscular tail ended in a flare of hair that matched its mane. It swished back and forth.
But it was the eyes that made my breath catch and my heart skip beats it couldn’t afford to miss.
Ember-orange, they glowed through the jungle gloom like banked coals ready to burst into flame. There was something almost unworldly in those depths, something that saw and understood and judged. They were familiar in a way that made my heart twist in my chest, though I couldn’t say why.
Claws like curved onyx blades as long as my forearm flexed on the soft earth as it stalked toward me.
It radiated raw animal power that made the hair on my arms stand on end. This was what predators aspired to become.
And it was coming for me.
Every instinct screamed at me to flee, to put as much distance as possible between myself and this magnificent nightmare. But my legs wouldn’t obey. I remained rooted to the spot by something stronger than terror.
Recognition.
My very marrow whispered that I knew those eyes.
I backed toward the nearest tree, the stick still clutched in my white-knuckled grip. My heart flailed against my ribs so hard I was sure the creature could hear it, could smell the sweat that beaded on my skin. Every breath scraped like broken glass in my lungs.
This close, I could see the individual droplets of rain caught in its mane, could count the scars scoring its hide. Old wounds healed to silver lines.
And new wounds opened on its chest by the creature.
He bled for me. This magnificent creature had spilled his blood to save mine. He could’ve fled, but he’d stayed. He’d fought. For me.
He stopped a few paces away, close enough the heat radiating from his body slid down my front.
Soaked through and cold, I stood quaking like stone bitten by the first frost of winter. Staring into those burning eyes. His wild scent filled my nostrils, cedar and rain and something indefinably male.
The firecat studied me, his head tilting.
Then, with movements almost too gentle for something this large, he lowered his enormous head.
And licked my hand.
The rough warmth of his tongue on my skin sent a shock up my arm. My fingers tingled where his saliva left a warm, wet mark. The gesture was so tender, so unexpectedly intimate, that tears pricked my eyes.
This was how a predator claimed what was his, though this didn’t feel like dominance. I sensed this creature had fought for me, and he wanted me to know it.
My soul tilted sideways, part of me stretching toward him in the breathless silence.
I had the strangest, most dangerous urge to reach out and touch his damp mane, to run my fingers through his wet fur to feel the power that lay beneath. To press my face against his neck and breathe in his intoxicating scent until it filled my lungs.
“You’re hurt,” I croaked, reaching toward his wounds, though I had no idea what I could do to make this better. “I’m sorry.”
His head dipped forward and he released a low rumble from his chest.
As suddenly as he’d appeared, the great cat turned and bounded into the jungle.
I remained where I was, leaning against the tree, my body one big shiver.
Despite the shock running through me, I shook off the fear, scanned the jungle, and began noting landmarks. Fallen trunks, boulders, the shape of the slope. If the creature returned, I would be ready. My hands still tingled from the firecat’s touch, but my mind sharpened. I wasn’t helpless.
I ached to hold on to the memory of his gentle touch. His ember eyes haunted me. The way he’d looked at me, like he was seeing straight into my soul. Like he knew me.
“Isi?” The voice came from very far away.
I blinked, still staring into the green depths where he’d vanished.
“Isi!” Lexie’s cry echoed again, closer now, more urgent.
I startled, finally lowering my hands to my sides.
“Here,” I called. “Here!”