Chapter 26
Isla
I cannot believe that shifterfae are real and that this is actually happening.
I’m starting to think that we’re cursed. We can’t seem to catch a break.
I’m riding as fast as I can away from danger when the first creature appears from behind a low ridge, almost directly ahead of us. Then another appears…and another.
No!
They pour over the ridge like dark water, spreading out across the mud and scrub. For a heartbeat, I think they’re wolves. Then I get a better look, and the comparison falls apart.
I have to blink a few times, my breath coming out in low gasps of horror because they’re much bigger than any wolf I’ve ever seen.
Much scarier, too. They’re even bigger than hy-wolves.
Their bodies are thick with muscle beneath matted fur so dark it seems to drink in what little gray light there is.
One of them snarls, showing rows upon rows of sharp teeth.
Their eyes are dull orange and seem to glow.
“They’re hy-weres,” Sebastian shouts as he runs Nox abreast of me. “More shifterfae. It looks like they’re coming in from all sides to be sure they intersect Snow.”
Hy-weres.
The word surfaces from my mother’s bedtime stories. The stories terrified me, but the reality is so much worse.
There are at least a dozen of them, fanning out on both sides of us as they run for us. They move with a speed that makes my stomach drop. Jack is giving me everything he has, his breathing coming in great bursts. But these things are faster.
“This way!” Sebastian shouts.
We veer away from them.
“Keep riding!” he yells, moving ahead of me.
I don’t have to urge Jack on; he picks up the pace, following Nox.
I glance back and wish I hadn’t. The hy-weres don’t seem to notice the mud at all. Their wide, splayed paws spread their weight across the soft ground, and they glide over it as though it were packed stone.
They’re gaining. I can hear them behind us…gaining on us.
They yip at each other. I go cold when I realize that they must be communicating.
I glance left. Three of them have broken from the main pack and are running a wide arc, curving ahead to cut us off. On the right, more are doing the same. They’re not just chasing us. They’re herding us.
Hunting us.
Goddess no!
“We have to go faster!” I yell.
“Give it everything,” Sebastian tells me, his eyes blazing.
I nod.
The problem is that Jack is flagging. His sides are heaving, foam flecking his mouth. He has a heart bigger than most, but heart alone won’t save us from what’s coming.
“We can’t outrun them,” I shout.
“Pull up!” Sebastian calls, turning back to me. “We need to fight,” he adds as he slowly pulls Nox to a halt, and I do the same with Jack. He slides in the mud as he drops from a gallop to a lope to a walk. I turn him to face the pack.
My hands are shaking. I reach down inside myself, past the exhaustion, past the fear, and find the well of magic that sits at the bottom of my chest. It’s not as full as I’d like. Too many days of running. Thank Kakara, it’s there.
I call fire to my hands. The warmth spreads through my fingers, and I hold it ready.
Sebastian draws his sword. “There are thirteen of them.”
“That’s too many.”
“I know.” He looks my way. “If I give you the warning, I want you to put Jack in a gallop and ride away.”
I frown. “You want me to leave you?” I shake my head. “No.”
“Please, Isla. I need you to listen to me for once.”
The hy-weres slow as they close in, dropping from a run to a loping walk. They spread out, encircling us with the unhurried patience of predators who know their quarry has nowhere left to go. Their ember-bright eyes fix on us.
“I won’t. We fight together.”
“Dammit, Isla,” he growls, his eyes on the hy-weres.
Several lower their heads. They growl and yip.
“Would you leave me here?” I ask him.
“Of course not.”
“There you have it.” I keep the fire burning in my palms.
“I enjoyed our time together. I wish we could have had a little longer.” His voice is soft amidst the chaos.
“Me too.” A thickness lodges in my throat.
“We’re ready, you bastards!” Sebastian yells, holding up his sword.
One of them lunges.
It comes from the right, a dark blur of muscle and teeth aimed at Sebastian. He swings the sword and catches it across the snout. The blade bites deep, drawing a line of black blood. The creature howls and veers away, shaking its immense head.
Two more come from the left. I throw my hand forward, and fire erupts from my palm, bright and fierce. One of the hy-weres takes it full in the chest and tumbles sideways, yelping. The other ducks low and keeps coming.
Sebastian kicks Nox forward. His horse slams his shoulder into the creature, sending it staggering. Sebastian brings the sword down hard across its flank. It screams, a high, awful sound, and retreats, blood streaming from its hind leg.
But the others tighten the circle. They press closer, snapping and snarling, testing us from every angle.
Every time Sebastian turns to face one, another darts in from behind.
I throw fire again, this time in a wide arc that scorches the ground and forces three of the beasts back.
Jack kicks out with his hind legs, catching a hy-were in the jaw with a crack that makes me flinch.
Good boy.
We’re holding them off, but only just.
Then the ground shakes.
It’s a different vibration than before. The earth itself seems to groan under the weight of whatever is approaching.
I turn in the saddle.
Through the gloom, shapes materialize. Three of them, moving abreast, carving furrows through the mud.
They look like huge bears that have been wrapped in bone.
Jagged protrusions jut from their spines, their shoulders, their skulls.
Every surface is covered in ridges and spikes.
They move slowly but with a certainty that is worse than speed.
They don’t need to be fast because nothing can stop them.
I can’t remember what they’re called. Only that they’re another shifterfae creature from my mother’s stories.
“Thornbacks,” Sebastian mutters, and shivers run up my spine.
We can’t win against these hy-weres, let alone a couple of thornbacks.
And behind them, weaving between their legs with a serpentine grace, come things I have no name for.
Long, sinuous bodies covered in scales so dark they look wet. Six legs carry them low to the ground, their bellies almost touching the mud. Their heads are flat and wide, with jaws that seem hinged too far back.
One of them opens its mouth, and a black mist billows out. It rolls across the ground like fog, and where it touches the sparse, dead grass, the vegetation disintegrates.
My mouth goes dry.
“We can’t possibly win,” I tell Sebastian, sounding defeated.
Sebastian says nothing. He doesn’t have to. I can see it in the set of his shoulders. He knows.
The hy-weres pull back, giving way to the larger creatures.
They’ve done their job. They kept us here long enough for reinforcements to arrive.
The thornbacks lumber forward, forming a wall of bone and muscle, while the six-legged serpent creatures slide through the gaps, their ember eyes locked on us.
I look at Sebastian. His jaw is tight. There are tiny wisps of shadow curling from his hands. Dark tendrils lick at his fingers like black smoke.
My stomach drops. If he uses his magic, he might kill us all. Even worse, the queen will feel it. Snow will know exactly where he is. Everything we’ve risked, everything we’ve suffered to get him out of the Shadow Court, will have been for nothing.
I reach across the gap between our horses and close my hand over his wrist. I squeeze once.
His eyes snap to mine.
“You should go,” he tells me. “I’m sure they’re here for me.”
“No.”
“Stubborn woman.” Despite everything, his mouth twitches. The shadows pull back.
He nods once, rubbing his thumb over the top of my hand.
I nod back, letting go.
One of the bigger hy-weres moves closer. The beast stands slightly taller than Nox.
“Stay back,” Sebastian warns.
I’m ready to use another fireball if need be.
I gasp when its body ripples, bones cracking and reshaping; fur recedes to give way to smooth golden skin.
Very soon, in its place stands a fae female.
She’s easily taller than me by a full head, probably more.
She’s naked and sculpted with lean, hard muscle.
Her breasts are high and small, partially hidden by dark hair that falls in tangled waves past her shoulders.
Her eyes are the same ember orange they were in her hy-were form.
She’s quite beautiful in a strange way.
One of the six-legged creatures shifts as well.
It happens so quickly that you’d miss it if you look away for a beat or two.
His shoulders and chest are broad. His skin is dark, his features sharp, his head shaved close to the scalp.
He moves to stand slightly behind the female, arms folded, watching us intently.
Neither of them seems bothered by the cold or the wet or the mud beneath their bare feet.
The female straightens to her full height and fixes us with a stare. “Lower your weapons.” Her voice is low, with a rough edge, as though she hasn’t spoken aloud in a while. “Lower them or die.”
Sebastian looks at me. I look at him.
He sheaths his sword.
I let the last of my fire die.
The female walks toward us. Her stride is long and unhurried, and the remaining hy-weres part before her. She stops at Nox’s shoulder. He prances a few times, but Sebastian gets him to quieten down. The female has her eyes locked on Sebastian.
“Get off the horse!” she commands. “Both of you.” She looks my way.
I scramble down, but Sebastian stays where he is.
“I can make you,” she says. “One of my weres can knock you from your seat. It would hurt, and your horse might not survive it.” Her voice has dropped low.