Page 18 of Midnight Hunt

As I heard him scramble into the gulley, the slight vibrations sent fresh agony tearing through me. I tried to lift my head, but something attached to my leg caught my attention. It was metal and shiny.Tooshiny. The jagged teeth were viciously clamped around my ankle, digging in so deeply that I glimpsed bone through all the blood and ripped skin.

Mybone.

Broken? Probably.

I shoved down the need to vomit again and managed to croak, “B-bear trap.”

Griff crouched beside the trap, his face pale and horrified, so unlike his usual expression that I couldn’t help but wheeze out a laugh.

He looked at me like I’d lost my mind. “You’relaughingright now?”

“Your face,” I gasped, the sound more sob than laugh. “It’s priceless.”

His horror only intensified, making me want to laugh all the harder.

“Kol!” he roared, so loudly that I coughed out another laugh.

I was suddenly surrounded on all sides, the tears filling my eyes making it impossible to see their faces.

Another figure crouched beside the bear trap, one that I recognized as my brother. He reached down to touch the trap and immediately pulled his hand back with a hiss. “Silver.”

“As-silvertrap?” I sputtered, then burst into a fit of giggles. “No wonder it hurts so bad.”

“What’s wrong with her?” Griff asked, clearly panicked.

“She’s in shock,” Jagger said from somewhere above me. “Probably a good thing. The pain must be unimaginable.”

“We need to take it off,” a feminine voice exclaimed, one I couldn’t place at the moment. Things were getting fuzzy, the world going in and out of focus every few seconds. Even the pain didn’t feel as bad anymore.

Just as I had the thought, the trap shifted on my leg, and I was suddenly screaming again.

“You’re hurting her!” Griff bellowed over my screams. “Don’t touch it!”

“It has to come off!” Kolton bellowed back.

“N-no, please don’t!” I sobbed, lashing out to knock aside any hands too close. The action shifted the trap again, and I belted out another bloodcurdling scream.

“Restrain her, Jagger,” Kolton ordered, making me scream even louder.

“DON’T,” Griff barked, with such authority that I forgot to scream for a second. “I’ll do it.”

Hands touched me, and I tried to jerk away. They snaked around me, and I was suddenly locked in a pair of strong arms.

“I’ve got you, Vi,” Griff said in my ear, holding me so tightly that I could no longer move my upper body. “I’m here.”

I struggled to break free, but his grip was ironclad. “Please don’t do it,” I whimpered, resorting to begging instead. Maybe if I sounded pathetic enough, they’d take pity on me and leave me alone. “It hurts. It hurts so much.”

Griff made a pained sound but didn’t release me.

“The silver is poisoning you, Vi,” Kolton tried to reason with me. “It’ll get harder and harder for your body to heal the longer you’re exposed to it.”

“But Ican’t,” I cried, tears rolling down my cheeks as my body shook with fear. “I can’t bear the pain. Don’t touch it.Please.”

The moment that trap shifted again, I would lose it. The pain was too much.Too much.

“Griff, put her under,” Kolton quietly ordered.

Terror gripped me. Desperate, I began to struggle again. “P-please, Griff. Don’t do it. I’mscared.”

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