Chapter 21 #2
Kal released the man with a final thrust and returned to the rail. The grimalkin raised its snout, whiskers twitching. Its attention returned to the arena and the prey it undoubtedly sensed lurking nearby.
“Shift, Kitty,” he murmured. “You’ve got to shift.”
The grim stalked around the labyrinth of branches and crept toward the boulders on the opposite side.
Santhe stepped up beside him, equally transfixed by the scene below. Kal glanced at the timekeeper. Barely a fraction of the sand filled the bottom glass. Too slow.
The grim reached the first boulder. Kitty hid behind the second.
She edged toward the far side just as the grimalkin slunk around.
The colossal cat couldn’t see her, but it knew she was close.
From that distance, it could likely hear the blood gushing through her major vessels.
It paused, head raised, listening, scenting.
Its round eyes glowed even in the daylight.
“Why hasn’t she shifted?” Santhe asked.
Why indeed.
The grimalkin pivoted and leapt onto the closest boulder.
Kitty craned her neck, attempting to peek around.
The edge of her axe scraped gently against the stone.
Fool! She snatched it away, but not before the soft screech of metal reached the cat’s keen ears.
Kitty’s eyes squeezed shut, her face twisting with despair.
Santhe gasped and looked at him. Kal couldn’t meet her gaze. He knew her expression mirrored his own. Knew they reached the same conclusion.
Kitty was no Asterosian spy.
“Move,” Kal urged under his breath. “Fucking move.”
The grim moved first. It sprang forward onto the largest boulder, Kitty still trying to look around.
Up, you idiot woman. Look up!
The grimalkin lowered itself, shoulders churning, tail twitching, prey in its sights. Kal went rigid. Finally, Kitty glanced up, a cry escaping her lips. The grimalkin pounced.
Kitty stumbled back, axe swinging out awkwardly. A heavy paw collided with Kitty’s chest as her blade buried itself into smoky fur. A woman’s pained cry rent the air, skewering a fragment of Kal’s soul. The sound mingled with the great cat’s yowl.
Kitty fell under the feline but did not let go of her axe.
Another monstrous paw swipe missed her by a fraction.
The grim danced to the side, wrenching Kitty forward with the movement.
The axe came free from where it had lodged in the animal’s shoulder joint.
Kitty scrambled to her feet, red staining the dirt.
She wheeled and ran, dust kicking up in a furious cloud behind her.
Kitty reached the fallen tree and dove into the knot of branches.
The limbs tore at her clothes, ripping her shirt and pulling her hair.
The grimalkin snarled, swiping right behind her.
Kitty pulled herself deeper into the tangle of leaves just before the creature’s claws found her flesh.
The grim roared again, reaching into the hollow.
Kitty roared back at it, and Kal caught a flash of steel.
The beast retreated, paw bloodied, and Kal drew a breath.
Half the sand rested at the bottom of the hourglass. Five minutes, Kitty girl. Just five more minutes.
The grimalkin renewed its attempt to extract Kitty from her thorny haven.
It clamped powerful jaws onto trembling branches.
Wood snapped. Deadly claws pulled at the thicker limbs.
Leaves shook. Kitty swiped Daybreak again, and the grim dodged.
The beast tore a hole in the tangle and shoved its gaping maw through.
Its jaws came away bloody, something fleshy clamped between its teeth.
Santhe gasped and gripped Kal’s sleeve. Kal squinted, heart lodged in his throat. Something pale and skinny hung from the grim’s jaw. A finger? Had it taken her hand? Fucking gods…
Behind the creature, Kitty wrenched herself free from the tree. One hand gripped her axe. The other…pressed to her collarbone. Intact.
“It’s a rat,” Santhe exclaimed. “She fed it a dead rat.”
Kal’s eyes shot back to Kitty, who had retreated to his side of the arena. She turned her back to him and faced the distracted beast.
Kitty stood close enough that the scent of her blood hit Kal’s senses like a bad drug. The tang of her fear pierced the cloying stench of shurii emotion that floated on the air like a decaying fog, eating away at his self-control.
She was hurt. Bleeding.
Kal’s grip tightened on the rail. A tremor worked its way up both arms. The iron railing crunched.
“Kal?” Santhe’s worried voice wavered next to him.
Breath sawed in and out of his lungs. The grim snarled in the pit, its appetizer consumed. It refocused on the main course. Kitty stood there, back to him, trembling.
Santhe’s attention drifted back to the ring. “Gods above,” she breathed. “She’s not going to shift, is she?”
Kal was wound too tightly to reply.
His eyes stalked the grim.
The grim stalked Kitty.
And Kitty…just stood there.
Sweat and dirt streaked the sides of her face and stained her tattered clothes.
Hair hung down her back in a messy snarl.
Blood flowed from where the grimalkin swiped across her shoulder and collar bone with razor claws.
The pain hadn’t fully hit her yet. Kal could smell the adrenaline racing through her blood, numbing the injury.
It wasn’t arterial—Kitty wouldn’t die from the wound.
No, she’d die with the snap of her neck, the collapse of a trachea, crushed in the jaws of the grimalkin.
She’s not going to shift.
The huge cat crept closer still, savoring the final paces of its hunt. Kitty angled herself, scraped knuckles locked in a death grip on Daybreak’s handle.
Kal sensed the moment despair fully seized her. Her green-gold eyes left the grim for precious seconds to search the crowd. She turned, but not far enough to find him. Sorrow undercut the determination chiseled into her features.
I’m here, Kitty girl. Look here.
But she couldn’t find him. She didn’t see him standing on the landing behind her, mangling the iron rail with his grip. Kal called out to her, but she couldn’t hear. Not with the crowd that had gathered, its raucous roar echoing. A hundred other voices swallowed his.
The tremor finally reached his jaw. Kal clenched his teeth so hard they clacked together.
Kitty’s brow crumpled, resolve slipping on terror’s treacherous slope. The grimalkin sensed her defeat.
The hourglass couldn’t have more than a minute of sand in the upper chamber.
The arm holding Kitty’s axe drooped. The grimalkin’s haunches coiled. A strangled sob broke from her lips.
Out of time. She was out of time.
Kal watched as a heavy teardrop spilled from the corner of her lash line and carved a fresh path through the grime caking her cheek.
His whole body shook.
The grim leapt.
Santhe yelled.
Kal’s skin split, and a beast loosed its deafening battle cry.