Page 97 of A House of Fangs & Deceit

No one was here to witness it, and the kùsu would probably chase after him and the others once it was done with me. Alaric and Nyx would be witnesses to the fact that we’d wandered into the monster’s territory.

“Don’t,” I pleaded. The reins tightened as Vail pulled the mare back. Away from me. “Please” I tried again, terror overriding my pride about begging Vail for anything.

Despite knowing that he’d craved my death since the night our parents died, I was a little surprised at the sharp pain thatechoed through my chest. Part of me always wanted to believe that he wouldn’t do it. That he’d be able to get past what I had done that night to save his life.

Something faltered in his cold expression, but I didn’t have time to figure out what that meant before the kùsu dove towards me with its pinchers wide open. Instead of running to the side, I lunged forward and tucked myself into a roll.

During the day, I would have been too slow to pull such a move, but beneath the full moon, with my magic running at full speed, I was fast as hell. The kùsu passed over me, its pinchers slamming into the earth where I’d been standing a second ago. I was on my feet and running before it even realized where I’d gone.

Its large body still blocked the path to Vail, and I didn’t trust him anyway. So I ran towards the opposite side of the road from the forest we’d traipsed through, where a ridge bordered the road. My feet slid out from under me as I frantically made my way up the slope.

The kùsu let out a high-pitched scream behind me, and I pushed myself to run faster.

“Sam!” Vail shouted.

I ignored him. For all I knew, he could be calling after me to distract me.

The sound of a hundred legs racing over the ground came from behind me. The damn thing was closing the distance between us.

I needed to slow it down. I scanned the area as I kept running as fast as I could. Several trees had fallen up ahead and landed on top of each other. That would have to do.

My muscles burned as I pushed my body to its limit. I could hear the kùsu as it chittered in excitement at closing in on its prey. I dove forward into the fallen tangle of trees, hissing as rocks and branches cut into my skin. The tangy smell of blood filled the air, and I felt a warm line of itrunning down my arm where a deep gash had been torn open.

I didn’t allow myself to stop as I scrambled deeper into the pile of downed tree trunks.

The kùsu crashed in after me, its long body jostling the trees loose and causing them to collapse on top of it. I barely made it out the other side and was scrambling away on my butt as I watched it struggle to get free.

Pinchers snapped closed, barely six inches away from my foot, and I yelped. Everything hurt as I climbed to my feet and ran. I was bleeding from at least a dozen cuts now, some of them quite deep, and a mind-numbing pain struck me every time my left foot hit the ground.

I’d done something to that knee in my mad dash through those logs, and it really wasn’t happy about having any weight on it.

I shoved the pain aside as best I could and kept running. The forest sprawled out to my right, but there was nowhere for me to run in there. The kùsu would be faster than me over the uneven footing, and who knew what other monsters were prowling about?

Vail had said there was a river up ahead. I just had to hope I could reach it from this ridge or find somewhere to slide back down to the road.

A loud crash came from behind me as the kùsu finally broke free of the fallen logs.

Because luck never seemed to be on my side, as the ridge abruptly ended.

I skidded to a halt and looked down. It wasn’t that far of a drop, maybe twenty feet. I’d never jumped from anywhere this high before, but theoretically, I was pretty sure I would be fine.

A quick glance over my shoulder told me I didn’t have much time to debate this. The kùsu would be on me in less than thirty seconds.

I studied the incline. It was steep, but there might be enough of an angle to it that I could run down it? I’d have to either jump far enough to clear the steep slope entirely and risk breaking something on landing, or run down it and just hope I didn’t stumble.

The kùsu let out another ear-piercing shriek… and was answered by a second one.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” I looked on in horror as a second kùsu burst out of the woods just ahead of the other one.

“Samara!”

I looked down to the ground beneath me and found Vail there with a foreign expression on his face. Panic.

“Vail!” Surprise slammed into me. He came back for me after all.

You’re only in this mess because he left you, the warning whispered in my mind.

I shook my head. It didn’t matter. He was here now, and survival came first. Carefully, I inched closer to the ledge while he maneuvered his large horse as close to the ridge as he could.

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