“Teleporting would have been safer,” Antal grumbled in her ear.
Safe wasn’t what they needed. “Daeyari enjoy the chase, don’t they?”
The Beast’s skeletal horse head cocked to view the intruders below, dim light pooling shadows in smoldering eye sockets. As horrific as the first time she’d seen it in Thomaskweld. Aisinay’s impatient hooves churned the snow.
Then the daeyari lunged, and everything set in motion.
Fi pressed a hand to Aisinay’s neck, urging her to move. The horse complied, eager hooves lurching back into the cover of the trees. Behind them, claws clattered stone. A snow-muffledthudmarked the Beast’s landing, followed by a splinter of boughs as it charged.
Fi settled her hands on either side of Aisinay’s neck. A firm touch pressed her into a full gallop, pulses of energy steering her through the maze of trunks. The blind horse snorted in protest, uncomfortable with this speed upon the Plane.
They couldn’t slow. Heavy paws thudded behind them. A crack of claws against timber, far too close for comfort. Antal twisted in the saddle.
“Fi.”
She didn’t need him using that urgent tone on her when she could hear the problem clear enough. Fi steered Aisinay around a snowbank, past a fallen log, slips in their pace that they couldn’t afford. At last, she risked a look behind.
The Beast moved through the trees like a wraith, a flash ofwhite skin and gnarled antlers, frightfully agile for its size. It lunged over the snowbank they’d had to skirt. Ascrapethencrackas claws shredded the fallen tree in its path. It never slowed, hungry red eyes fixed on prey, mouth agape in a razor-toothed pant.
And definitely getting closer.
“A little farther!” Fi called to Antal, shouting over the thunder of hooves and branches.
A snarl raised gooseflesh down her neck, close enough, she could practically smell the Beast’s blood-stale breath. She couldn’t break her attention from the path ahead, Aisinay depending on her not to steer them into a tree.
Behind her, Antal swiveled, his knee digging into her back as he faced the creature.
The air crackled crimson. As Aisinay snorted, Fi tasted the snap of ozone on her tongue, a slash of Antal’s arm sending a crude bolt of energy at the Beast. The monster yelped when the projectile struck its face, pace faltering.
A short reprieve. Even as writhing red energy knit the Beast’s brow back together, it picked up speed again, each ravenous lunge more reckless than before.
But they’d bought enough of a lead.
The forest opened to a clearing, bordered by the weeping boughs of snow-heavy hemlock trees. Fi steered Aisinay into the open, trawling the Beast behind them.
Another crack of wood sounded. This time, from the sides.
Metal cord rained from the trees, a net pulled taut in the Beast’s path. It charged into the trap with a snarl, stumbling out of its sprint and into a skid across the snow, claws and tail thrashing to free itself.
“Fire!” Kashvi shouted.
Three crossbow bolts loosed: two silver, one red. No rogueshots this time. They’d had their practice in Nyskya. Projectiles sank into haunches, jaw, neck. The Beast’s howl shook the trees.
That, Verne might hear, even at this distance. Their clock started ticking.
Fi Shaped her crimson energy sword and pushed Aisinay into a charge.
The barrage of bolts brought the Beast to its knees. Kashvi, Yvette, and Mal grabbed the edges of the net, heels digging into frozen ground, holding the creature down as it fought. Fi came in at a gallop, her blade aimed to cleave its neck.
Before she could strike, the Beast lashed out, scythes of red energy carving off its claws.
Fi wouldn’t call itShaping, more the instinctive flail of a trapped animal. Her allies reeled back from the net as metal cords snapped.
One struck Fi and Antal off the horse.
The cord hit her side with enough tension for a nasty bruise at best, a cracked rib if her current luck held. She hit frozen ground. Rolled to escape Aisinay’s hooves as the horse bolted. Then, the claws. The Beast swiped for her, dragging a serrated nail against the silviamesh of her thigh.
Antal was at her side in a snap of static, pulling her clear of the creature’s next slash. Fi decided it wouldnotbe appropriate to kiss him in the middle of mortal combat, much as she wanted to. He returned a beleaguered look, as if her brazenness was actively shaving years off his immortal lifespan.
