Page 188 of Voidwalker
“I don’t know where Antal is.”
“You lie. You fight with his energy. I can smell him on you.” Verne’s eyes narrowed. “In fact…”
Fi went taut as Verne sniffed her jaw. Her hair.
“I smell him…all over you.”
Verne cackled. There was cruelty in her mirth, the sound liketeeth with grated edges. She tugged Fi’s collar, revealing the evidence of fangs taken willingly to flesh. “By Veshri’s sharpened antlers. That heartsick idiot never learns his lesson, does he?”
No. Absolutely not. Fi already raged to think what Verne had done to her. To Astrid. To Boden. Hearing her speak of Antal with similar disparagement was a jolt of fury down Fi’s spine. He wasn’t weak like Verne thought he was. He wasn’t a failure.
But of course Verne would see him that way, so intent on using everyone around her.
Fi would see this daeyari carved into pieces.
She had to escape. Live to fight with better odds. If there was no Curtain nearby, she’d have to cut a new one. Fi would cut her way through a dozen Shards if that was what it took.
For that to work, she needed a Shard close enough to cut into. Stepping into the Void would be just as swift a death. Fi tried to soften her gaze, searching for the phantom outlines of a Shard nearby, but she couldn’t see anything beyond the Winter Plane.
“Tell me where Antal is. We can do this the easy way…”
Verne brushed a thumb across Fi’s temple.
Panic tightened Fi’s throat, the memory of that mind-spinning magic daeyari could wield. Her palms went clammy at the thought of words not her own, of treachery drawn from her lips, selling out Antal and all the people of Nyskya.
“Though…” Verne grinned, a wicked show of fangs. “I prefer the fun way.”
Fi writhed as Verne ripped her coat off her shoulder. Claws sliced her sweater, exposing bare skin.
The daeyari sank her teeth into flesh.
Fi screamed.
Pain exploded through her shoulder, fangs slicing deep into skin and muscle. Then, the tearing. Fi shrieked anew, a flareof white-hot agony spiking her vision as Verne’s teeth clamped then twisted thentore, ripping a mouthful of meat.
The rabbit flailed. Fi kicked and clawed, desperate to push Verne off her. Heat welled in her arms, her torso, energy leaching from muscles and into a current at her fingers. She had no thought for a specific weapon. Just a blast of energy. A frantic bid to force this monster away.
At the strike, Verne released her.
The daeyari didn’t stagger. Didn’t snarl. As Fi dropped to the snow, blood hot on her neck and pain nearly blinding. Verne stood over her with a grin. Her long black tongue traced her lips, licking blood and gore with stomach-churning relish.
“What’s wrong, little one?” Verne cooed. “You don’t enjoy daeyari teeth as much as you thought you did?”
This was a game to her.
Verne would eat Fi alive and savor every second, this monster everything she’d feared a daeyari would be—cruel, conceited, immovable. Everything Antal wasn’t.
“He’s better than you,” Fi forced out in a quivering hiss. “The people of this territory deservebetterthan you.”
Verne laughed again. “Is that the nonsense he’s promised? That he’ll be kinder? Gentler? I suppose you think yourself the hero. Fighting for the justice of your species.”
The daeyari stepped toward her. Fi pushed herself away, dragging knees through the snow. Again, she searched for a Shard to cut into.
“Naïve little thing,” Verne spat. “The pact is a kindness to you. Would you rather go back to the days when daeyari hunted you through the trees? When you were little more than wild packs shouting at the dark?”
Fi saw nothing beyond the Plane. Even if there was a Shardnearby, her heart was beating too franticly to see clearly, the pain in her shoulder too hot.
“We’ve been more than generous.” Verne kept advancing. “You should be grateful for any compromise. For the gifts we’ve given you. For being spared our teeth.”
