Page 24 of Ember and Eclipse
She was soaked through sooner than she expected, and the cold settled beneath her cloak. It expanded, spreading and burrowing deep until she was nothing but winter. It was a risk being cold and wet for a long period of time, but she had no other option. She’d have to keep moving through the night just to stay warm enough. By daylight, she could hopefully find somewhere to dry her clothes and rest.
Regardless, she had survived worse things.
She kept to the perimeter of the city until she recognized the road they’d come in on.
The moon was full overhead, magnified by the rain. She stuck to the side of the main road, avoiding the large pools of water that collected in the center. Except after only a short period of time, she came to a large puddle with no way around it. She would have to either fight her way up the rocky sides or wade through it, which would only serve in water soaking through her boots.
Her mind set, she started to climb. Between the slick stones and the crumbling dirt, it took her a lot of energy to traverse the landscape. By the time she got to a more level part, she was panting, and her legs ached with the effort.
Her steps were slower here, a balancing act that had her testing every step. The wind raged sporadically, forcing her to stop altogether at times lest it pushed her to her death. She could go higher still, but that would put her into the near pitch black of the woods and leave her unable to see the road below. For now, she decided to take her chances on the slanted edge.
It seemed like endless hours had gone by of her navigating across the rocky and hilly terrain. The road below only became more flooded as it dipped and bent in parts, and she understood now why no horse or carriage could traverse it. The thought gave her some solace. The hunter would have to come for her on footifhe could even discern where she went.
At that exact moment, a twig snapping from the wood line froze her in place. She strained to hear any other movements as she searched the darkness. There was no way the hunter had found her yet, meaning it was someone orsomethingelse. When it was only the sound of the rain hitting the puddles below, she shook the feeling off and began picking her way across the ledge again. But then a low chuffing sound came, barely audible but closer than the snap of the twig. When she turned toward the noise, the moonlight-made shadows moved and stretched in a way that was unsettling.
It was probably just a harmless creature. At least, that’s what she hoped as she stepped forward again.
Ten paces later, she halted when shefelteyes on her. Hair on the back of her neck rose, and an instinctual terror slithered down her spine. She turned around slowly in a complete circle, looking for what was watching her. For what wasstalkingher.
Finally, a hulking shape moved from the wood line. She could just barely make out the dark, hairy body of it. It was huge, larger than any creature she had ever encountered. It crept toward her, rocks shifting and falling as it did. When it stepped into a cut of pale light, it tipped its head back and sniffed the air, a long snout pointed high. But when it dipped its head back down, its red eyes landed on her.
A scream clawed its way out of her before she pivoted and ran. The ledge she was on declined and became steeper, leaving her with only the option of moving upward toward the trees or down to the flooded road.
She chose the woods, not daring to look to see if the beast was in pursuit as she scrambled and clawed her way up the incline.
When she reached the higher plateau, she crashed blindly into the trees, scraping and bruising herself against branches. Her feet caught in the mud, and she stepped on a gnarled root that twisted her ankle as she righted herself. Stumbling forward into a run again, her ankle sent pangs of pain up her leg with every step.
It entered the woods only seconds behind her. Its huffing breaths were too loud, too close. It would be on her any moment.
She was going to die. An awful, gruesome death. Not from the cold or starvation, or in a dark dungeon, but by some beast on her way to freedom. And all from being hunted like an animal. Likeprey.
The knowledge left a bitter taste in her mouth.
Tripping over another raised tree root was what ended her. Rel hit the ground hard but rolled over, preparing to fight with her small knife and with nails and teeth if she had to. She’d leave a testament here in the dirt and leaves—she had fought to survive.
The beast slowed its loping run. It stood upright, balanced on two legs, stopping just a step from her. In the strands of moonlight that barely made its way through the canopy, she could see its mouth loll open, exposing pointed canines and sending wafts of rotten breath her way. Its limbs were too long, tipped in gleaming claws and hanging loose at its side. Defined muscles beneath sparse amounts of fur in its torso and arms were all too similar to a human’s. It was some amalgamation of man and wolf, something out of the grimmest of myths.
It landed again on all fours, sniffing her legs before letting out a bone-chilling growl.
Oh gods, she was going to be torn to pieces.
Baring its teeth at her, its eyes dilated in hunger, it moved over her slowly. Its black fur made it an indistinguishable mass against the night, except for crimson eyes and saliva-glistened teeth. When it was halfway over her body, its saliva dripping on her, she screamed a war cry. Bringing the flimsy knife up, she waited for it to creep closer, but it halted its crawling approach. With its ears twitching, it lifted its long snout in the air, sniffing and deciphering some scent. Then the beast’s head leveled again, its death-filled gaze assessing the impenetrable darkness behind her.
Now would be a good damn time for her magic to react.
She backed away from it, coming into a sitting position. Its head whipped to her, its black lips curling into a terrible snarl as it braced to leap on her. But just then, something crashed through the woods behind her, and another beast jumped over her to tackle the wolf-like creature. It let out a menacing, otherworldly roar as it was hit, which prompted her to rise to her feet and run in the opposite direction of the scrabbling pair. Yipping and growling and the sound of ripping and tearing bit at her heels.
She ran as fast as she could, even with her injured ankle and the bruises. Heat raced through her and urged her onward, but the trees became denser, and the darkness gobbled her up, leaving her to pick her way through much slower in parts lest she run head-on into a tree and knock herself out. Just when she reached a clearing, her heaving breaths and racing heart were the only sounds left.
Had they stopped fighting? Were either of them alive, and if so, now coming for her? As if on cue, branches snapped behind her, and she staggered forward. Only steps later, she registered the air shifting around her before she was sent flying forward, a force hitting her hard enough to push her off her feet. The breath was knocked out of her as she fell, only to be caught a short distance from hitting the ground. Her inhale was a clawing gasp for air. Whatever held her rolled her over roughly before dropping her and pressing into her in one swift motion.
Wild-eyed, she brought the knife up.
To the hunter’s throat.
Chapter XV
Devdan’schestmovedagainsthers, but mostly because of her own labored breaths.
