Page 46 of Primal Hunger

For her.

I gathered them for her because, for some reason, having her direct me through the pointlessdancingseemed overwhelming. The walls of the hovel started to close in around me, and I had to get out, to do something.

But what devilry did she get into once I left?

When my gaze falls back to Erin, she’s watching me intently. Scared. Trembling slightly as though she has something to hide and does not want to be found out.

“I-I—” she stammers, her voice barely audible. “Syros, I didn’t… I mean, I was just…”

I growl in annoyance. She hasn’t answered my question.

Erin hesitates, then finally speaks, her voice tinged with fake curiosity. “It’s just… I find your collection fascinating. I’m sorry if you didn’t want me touching them. I think it’s kind of cute that you collect them. So I was imagining how it would be to talk to someone else about it.”

Cute?

“Cuteis the very opposite of what I am.” Perhaps she meant it as a nicety, but the word grates against my nerves.

“Okay, not cute, exactly,” she mumbles, dropping her head. “But it’s just not what I expected at all.”

I study her carefully, my eyes locked onto her face. She seems genuine, her curiosity shining through her fear. A part of me softens. Even though humans are weaker creatures, even I can understand the allure of their world. The things they create, the knowledge they possess—it’s all so different, so alien… it can be intriguing.

She’sintriguing.

Maybe she’s just something I want to possess, add to my collection, to look at and do with as I please. It’s one explanation for my fascination with her.

Maybe what I’d heard walking in had been only the static of the radio mixed with the confused buzzings of my own mind. When I sniff the air and find only the familiar scents of my home coupled with her very pungent, very human ones, it confirms no one else is here.

My frayed nerves may have me imagining things that don’t truly exist.

Am I losing my touch? Has this woman really rattled me so much?

It would seem like it.

Her gaze swings to the plants in my hands, and her upper lip turns up in disgust at the pungent odor. “What do you have?” she asks after a moment. “Some kind of…food?”

She sounds hopeful, yet sickened.

I shake my head. “It’s gollilock, but I don’t recommend eating it, no. It’s poisonous if ingested, but it’s efficient at masking scents. It’s something I discovered some time ago and now grow around here to keep Grims and other beasts away.”

Her cheeks pale. “Otherbeasts? You’ve mentioned it before but I have no idea what else is lurking in the woods.” Her smile is thin and lackluster.

“My kind aren’t the only monsters in this world, just like in yours.”

She nods. “I know what you mean.”

A stiff silence settles over us, and I set the gollilock on a little ledge and place a second cauldron of water over a low-burning flame. Then, I grab my big metal basin and set it in the middle of the room.

“What–what are you doing?” she stammers, fear rocking her voice.

Her eyes follow me as I dump the hot water into the tub and retrieve more.

“I just told you. The gollilock will mask your scent,” I say as I refill the cauldron and set it back on the fire. “If you bathe with it, rub it on your skin, I’m hoping you’ll become undetectable to things in this realm. There’s more to fear here than just me, little human.”

“Bathe with it?” she repeats. “So this is supposed to be a bathtub?”

She’s staring at the basin with a palpable measure of relief.

“What did you think it was?” I ask carefully.

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