Page 10 of Beast of Blood and Ash
I had to get out.
I shoved blindly through the press of bodies, ignoring calls of my name. The cavern entrance beckoned—escape, air, silence. My feet moved without conscious thought, carrying me through tunnels, past storage alcoves, away from voices and eyes and judgment.
When I finally stopped, I was alone in a narrow side passage. I pressed my back against cold stone and slid to the floor, drawing knees to chest. My lungs burned. My hands shook. Sweat dampened my clothes. Shame burned hot beneath my skin.
Pathetic. Broken. Weak.
I'd run from a shadow, from a memory, from the phantom trace of my own fear. And from him, from Omvar, with his controlled violence and his burning, knowing eyes.
The worst part was the confusion. He should have been pure terror, pure nightmare. He was Ignarath. Enemy. Monster. I should have felt nothing but revulsion watching him fight.
But there had been something else. A flicker of recognition? A whisper of connection?
I pressed the heels of my hands against my eyes until stars burst behind them. This was madness. He'd sought me out yesterday. He'd known my name. And he’d looked at me today.
Maybe.
Or I was imagining things.
I wanted to scream, but I choked on the urge. I was screaming enough these days.
A cheer went up behind me. The match was over. I didn’t need to look back to know Omvar had won.
4
REIKA
Night on Volcarythwasn't really night at all, not under tons of rock that made this place home. It was just quieter.
I slid out of the human quarters like a shadow, satchel clamped to my chest. Boots silent on rock. No one noticed me leaving; crawling back in was when I’d have to answer questions. Not that anyone wanted to know where the broken girl disappeared after dark.
No one wanted my answers.
The hallways emptied as I moved deeper into the tunnels, away from the set of rooms we now called home. Away from Kira's worried glances and the memory of my humiliating escape from the training grounds.
Everyone had seen me panic. Everyone had watched my retreat.
Pathetic. Weak. Still so broken.
The river called to me, not with words, but with the whispering rush of water, the promise of somewhere I could breathe without the world’s scrutiny. Even humans had grown tired of my sharp corners, my late-night screams. I knew they whispered when I wasn't there, trying to figure out what to do with me.
I followed the route I’d worn into memory: chin up, stride confident, bluffing a right to exist wherever my feet landed. Even the Drakarn hesitated to challenge someone who seemed certain of their destination.
My haven waited: a niche carved high above the river, half-hidden in the city’s lowest bowels. Stone shelves jutted outward in rough, uneven steps leading toward the water’s glow. The river below bled cold air and banished a bit of the heat of Scalvaris.
Water over stone, a lullaby meant to calm. Instead, it made the memories echo—mountains, another night, bodies in pursuit, wings chasing overhead, my pulse a drumbeat of terror.
“Not now,” I whispered. “You’re fine.”
Sinking onto my ledge, I drew knees to chest, the satchel clutched tight. The river churned below, shot through with bioluminescent algae, tiny constellations tracing the current, reflected in slick black stone. I tried to lose myself in the light, following each eddy, each flicker, hoping that if I stared deeply enough, my mind might still.
It never did. Instead, the night brought too many thoughts.
The market with Omvar. The shame of running. They circled overhead, scavengers waiting for weakness. I hugged myself tighter, throat raw with words I could never say, muscles aching with remembered violence.
The river’s whisper almost drowned them out.
I unclasped my satchel, spreading the contents carefully on the ledge beside me. The herbs I’d purchased were meager: a handful of mintine leaves, some crimson pods of something called fire-thistle, a cluster of pale, feathery sprigs that Selene used for pain relief. I’d been studying their properties whenever sleep refused to come, a small attempt to be useful, to learn enough to justify my presence here.
