Chapter 11
Hannah
My grip crushed the saddle horn, and leather bit into my gloved palm as another howl tore through the air and sank into my chest. It stayed there, buzzing deep in my bones.
The wood and leather of the snow visor dug into the bridge of my nose as the caribou surged forward. The narrow slit cut my world down to a blinding strip that jolted with every stride. I couldn’t see anything through it. Not enough to make a difference.
Whoever designed this clearly hated people. It had to be some sort of sick revenge story that would stand the test of time.
Another howl rose through the air, louder this time, and my pulse jumped. The sound didn’t stay separate. It built over itself as more howls joined in, stacking until they pressed in from all sides. I couldn’t tell where one ended and the next began.
My shoulders locked as the caribou lunged and started climbing the ridge. Kai’s arm tightened around my waist, pulling me against him as the saddle dipped and surged beneath us. Arrows hissed through the air again, too close, too fast, and something flashed across my vision.
“Fuck,” Kai rasped.
I flinched and turned toward it, but the visor lagged, dragging the world into a smear of brightness before it caught up. By the time I focused, there was nothing there. Only white and shifting light that refused to settle into anything real.
Perfect. Under attack and blind. Sounded about right.
“They’ve spotted us!” Gavriel shouted over the wind. “They’re coming from the northeast and the west and trying to cut us off from the ridge.”
A deeper scream carried ahead and to the right, then cut off so fast it left a hollow silence. Another followed from behind us, closer this time, and then came the impact. Heavy. Wet. A low snarl followed, violent and too close, the sound crawling under my skin.
My stomach tightened. Nope. Absolutely not.
“Move!” Kai kicked at the caribou. “Avoid the pass. Take the sides.”
Arrows tore through the air in rapid succession, each one slicing past with a sharp hiss that made me duck instinctively.
One snapped past my ear, close enough to feel the air shift, and another followed immediately after, then another, until the noise became constant and overwhelming.
Arrows tore through the air in rapid bursts, each one slicing past close enough to feel.
A raw cry broke behind us, and the eagle shrieked overhead. I twisted, trying to see, but the visor dragged again, and all I caught was the shape of something dropping out of view before I could focus on it. The light grew brighter with every second.
If I survived, I was burning this visor.
I sensed movement to our left. Then a massive weight slammed into Kai and caught me across the chest. The force shoved me to the side and forward, my grip on the saddle horn tearing free as claws raked my arm through the borrowed cloak and tunic and snagged in the leather.
Kai’s bellow ripped through the air, raw and furious, vibrating through my spine where I was crushed against him, and he turned his body, thrusting his left shoulder out and moving me to the right to keep me from whatever the creature was.
The caribou barked, dropping to the side and shoving forward as if that would dislodge whatever had latched on to its rider. A foul scent like blood and dog breath filled my nose.
What was even happening? I couldn’t track it.
The damned slit smeared white into white.
Wet heat struck my cheek as Kai bellowed again, and I smelled an acrid tang as well as blood and cypress.
My head snapped around as I tried to see through the narrow visor, but Kai was still moving me away, his arm keeping me from falling even when I heard his pained grunts and rage.
The edge of my visor caught on something and ripped free.
I yelped and grabbed for it, but it fell, and I blinked into the white.
I should have clenched my eyes shut, but I grabbed hold of the caribou’s neck instead, and my eyes remained open.
The white resolved, breaking into edges and depth, the surface of the snow sharpening into texture rather than overwhelming brightness as the world snapped into focus.
Cries and screams of pain erupted over the landscape, punctuated by another eagle cry that stirred up more wolf howls.
A massive wolf was clinging to Kai’s back, its jaws clamped on his shoulder, its white fur stained with blood, and its hind legs digging into the saddle.
Kai had twisted to shield me as he summoned magic, but something was wrong.
The man who had been able to hold a wyvern in place was struggling against this large wolf.
He drove his elbow back into its ribs again and again, the force of each strike jolting through his body into mine, and shadows burst out from him and ripped into the wolf’s flanks, splitting fur and flesh.
The creature snarled and bit down harder, and Kai’s body arched with the strain, a raw sound tearing from him as his grip on me dragged me closer to him even as he fought to tear the wolf free.
My thigh pressed into his hip, and the hilt of his knife dug hard against me with the motion. Rage rose in me, the pull in my chest tightening. That fucking monster was biting him!
I reached back, searching for the knife. My fingers locked around the hilt, and I tore it free as the caribou surged beneath us with uneven steps. I turned in the saddle and drove the blade into the wolf’s side.
The impact jarred my arm, the resistance nothing like I expected.
The knife sank in maybe two inches before it hit something dense—probably bone—and stopped dead.
The wolf didn’t even flinch. Its jaws stayed locked on Kai’s shoulder, grinding deeper, and a fresh spray of blood splattered across my face.
“Fuck!” I wrenched the blade free and stabbed again, harder this time, aiming for the softer flesh beneath its ribs.
“Hannah, don’t antagonize it!” Kai struggled to speak through clenched teeth. “I can handle it.”
“How? By bleeding out?” I tried to twist the blade, but it was stuck.
The knife slid in deeper, but the angle was wrong, my arm positioned awkwardly as I tried to reach around Kai’s body while the caribou lurched beneath us. The wolf’s hind legs scrambled against the saddle packs, claws raking leather and canvas, and one caught my hip hard enough to make me gasp.
I didn’t care. I yanked the knife free and drove it in again, higher this time, aiming for the base of the wolf’s skull where it met the spine.
Shadows exploded from Kai in a violent surge, darker than anything I had ever seen from him.
Tendrils of pure darkness wrapped around the wolf’s body and squeezed.
The magic pulsed with something almost alive, something hungry, and the air pressure around us dropped so fast it stole the breath from my lungs and made my ears pop.
The wolf’s snarl twisted into a shriek, but it still didn’t let go.
“Seriously?” I snapped, breath shaking. “Take the hint and die.”
I stabbed again and again. Each strike drove the blade deeper into matted fur and muscle, with hot blood coating my hand and running down my wrist. The creature thrashed, its jaw finally loosening from Kai’s shoulder as the shadows constricted.
I caught a glimpse of the wound it had made, Kai’s armor shredded and the flesh beneath it a mess of blood and exposed muscle that made my stomach lurch.
“Kai—” His name came out strangled.
“Don’t worry about me. I’ll take it down once we’re over the next crest. Ride the caribou above the pass. Do not enter the pass.” His voice was rough with pain. The shadows surged again, and something shifted in the air around us, pressing against my skin like the warning before a storm.
Oh, absolutely not.
“You fucking bastard, you are not leaving me again!” I wrenched the blade sideways and shoved it deeper into the wolf.
The wolf’s weight shifted, its claws losing purchase on the saddle as Kai’s magic crushed inward. A wet crack traveled straight through the knife and into my palm.
The creature went limp. Its jaws slackened, and its grip failed.
Kai jerked his arm back, and the shadows flung the wolf away. It tumbled into the snow behind us and was swallowed by the light. Kai’s magic rippled through him like it was fighting to stay contained, and blood spurted from his wound. He gritted his teeth and breathed heavily.
I stared at his arm, forcing myself to stay steady as the caribou kept climbing over the next crest. The sunlight hit the snow at a brutal angle, brighter than before, reflecting off the powder in a way that made everything feel more exposed.
In the back of my mind, Aunt Maureen shook her head, mumbling, How do you manage to get yourself in so many pickles?
Fantastic question, but one I’d dwell on later if I didn’t die.
I shoved my hand into a saddlebag and dug around blindly for anything.
A scarf, a strip of cloth, socks, I didn’t care.
Something to tie around his arm to stop the bleeding.
“Do you have medical supplies in here?” I leaned back as far as I could, trying to reach deeper, and my elbow knocked into the crossbow.
“Not in the bag next to you, so just stop moving. You’ll fall.” Kai’s face tightened with pain beneath the visor as the caribou stumbled, spooked by something.
He forced it forward with a hard kick. “The wolves will keep chasing. We can’t stop here. The fresh powder makes the snow unstable. With this chaos, we risk an avalanche. The pass is a death trap.”
His blood streamed down his arm, soaking into his clothes and staining the snow in vivid crimson streaks. My stomach dropped as I watched it spread.
How long could he keep going like that? Even without experience, I knew that kind of bleeding had to be stopped fast. Shoulder wounds were bad and hard to compress, especially at this angle.