Page 16 of Burn Bright
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Ahand curled around my shoulder. I woke swiftly, alarm sweeping through me but there was a finger to my lips, and a warm shadow leaning overme.
"There's something moving out there in the woods," Casimir barely breathed the words in myear.
I could just make out his amber eyes in the dying glow of the coals in the middle of theclearing.
Heart punching behind my ribs, I nodded as if to tell him I wouldn't cry out. His finger vanished from my lips, and then he melted into the shadows. All I could see of him was a darker form among the shadows of the overhanging branches. Easing from my bedroll, I dragged my boots on and slipped afterhim.
I knew these woods like the back of my hand, but the way Casimir moved through them was inhuman. He ghosted through the trees, making me curse to myself every time leaves rustled beneath my boots. The guard who was supposed to be on duty snored as he leaned against a tree. Good thing nothing had murdered us in oursleep.
Determined to track Casimir, I slipped through the trees. He was a flicker of shadow ahead of me, barely distinct from the darkness. Maybe it was the way he'd woken me, or maybe it was the conversation I'd had with the prince about the Darkness, but my nerves were on edge. Every now and then I stopped and cocked my head to listen, certain there was something out there haunting myfootsteps.
Nothing.
We circled the camp, then driftedfurther.
I didn't have Casimir's nose, but now my eyes had adjusted to the dark I could see his wrinkling. He looked up, his gaze locking on a small clearing ahead, and the line of his spine that of a hound that had caught the scent ofsomething.
"What is it?"I mouthedsilently.
"Blood."
Pale moonlight streamed through the trees. We edged closer, creeping through the branches. Something that looked like black ink sprayed the snow in the clearing. Far too much of it for a smallanimal.
Both of us knelt silently in the bushes, waiting. Nothing moved. No sound caught my ear. Finally, Cas shook his head. "Whatever it was, it's gone now," he murmured, and broke from the trees. It felt strange to hear hisvoice.
I knelt by the eerie spatter, and touched it with my fingertips. "It's frozen. Had to be half an hour ago, atleast."
"Maybe that was what woke me," he said, circling the blood splash. "I almost thought I heard somethingsqueal."
"Unusual for something to hunt so close to where we were camping," I murmured. "It had to have smelledus."
"Mmm." He paused in his circle of the clearing. "I think it wanted us to know it washere."
A meaty skull stared back at us with hollow eyes. Someone had slammed it on top of a sharpenedstake.
"Isthat—"
"Deer," he replied, his voiceroughening.
Something had stripped the skin from its face, and the eyes from its sockets, but thin sinews and gobbets of flesh still clung to itsscalp.
I turned and strode away, trying not to vomit. It was one thing to skin a creature, and butcher it for meat. There was a purpose to that. Quite another to see something likethis.
Casimir let out a slow sigh, scrubbing at his nose as he crossed to my side. At least I couldn't smell it as richly as hecould.
"Sorry to rouse you," he rumbled, in that almost-growl. "I thought you might have known what was prowling aroundus."
I shrugged. "It's long gone, but it was here. And it's too dark to make out any prints. I'll check it out in themorning."
"Go and get somerest."
I hesitated. "Somehow I think I need to walk it off a littlefirst."
Going back to my bedroll right now would be to take that bloodied skull back with me. He shot me a knowing look and nodded. "Care for somecompany?"
We'd been avoiding each other all day, ever since the argument last night at the bonfire. I rubbed my arms. It was different here in the forest. Neither of us truly belonged in the company, and... he moved through the forest the same way I did. Respected it. Breathedit.
