Whether the hounds scented a soul on me or not, they could definitely smell my body scent. I wanted to offer no clues for how to find their way into the cave network.
I flapped frantically, scanning the earth, desperate to hear them again and identify the direction from which they approached. But all I could hear was the thudding in my skull of my heartbeat slamming harder.Faster.
‘Yilan?’I reached for her, knowing it was futile. She was all the way back in the city—and I should be glad of that. She was safe. She’d given me her word, and I trusted her. Jann would keep Diadre safe. I just had to pray that between them, they’d find Gall and Istral, and we could get themout.If we could make them safe, we could unleash the army—and even if we didn’t defeat Lucifer, at least we removed many assets—
A scream pierced the night and cut straight through my skin, between my ribs, and into my heart.
‘Yilan?!’I threw my mind wide and open, stretching for her, flying frantically. That scream, Iknewthat scream. And it was out here, in the night?
She was coming for me.
‘Yilan!’
‘Melek!’
‘What are you do—’
‘I had to find… the city is in tatters… Diadre warned me—Jann will—’she cut off.
With a curse, I threw my mind wider, reaching, praying God would draw me in the right direction to find her. We were just out of reach, and she flickered in and out like a voice in a gusting wind.
‘Yilan! Yilan… where are you?!’
‘Thicket to the east…’
I turned as another howl went up, and this time the empty air below gave me clarity about the direction of the source.
Tearing through the night sky, north and east, I kept calling for her, reaching in my mind, throwing my defenses wider in an attempt to reach her sooner.
‘…they’re following me!’Her voice was frantic with fear.‘I don’t think I can outrun—’
I cursed again, swallowed a roar that would draw the enemy’s attention, and dove towards the trees so I could be lower to the ground, and shorten the distance between us.
I was nearly at the edge of the forest before she cut back in—suddenly clear as day in my head.
‘Melek—please! Help me, please!’
Images flickered in my head—the dark hounds, slavering, running like wolves, their claws leaving divots in the earth.
‘Have you tried shadow walking? Do they—’
‘I’m running out of strength. I need to save power for facing them if they catch me—’
‘Where are you? Show me a landmark—anything!’
She gave me a vision of the distant peaks through the trees so I could shift my line.‘I’m coming!’
‘Please! HURRY!’
I whipped over the tree canopy, snarling, listening for anything—hound howls, footsteps, anything that might give me clarity on her whereabouts. But my guts tangled as images appeared and disappeared, like she threw them out—no precision. No defense in her mind. Just a frantic tossing of thoughts and pictures, in an attempt to reach me.
Then the howls roseaheadof me, close enough to make out a snarl.
‘YILAN!’
There was a flash of silver and black through the trees, the silky coat of the deadly hounds reflecting moonlight.
I snarled myself, and saw a body flinch.‘How many of them are there? They’re still physical beings, Yilan, but supernaturally quick—’
