“My sister lives near the ridge.” His voice cracked. “Please… kill it. Kill all of them.”
Everly shook her head, sending a sick, twisted dread brushing along our bond. “No. The ridge isn’t safe. You need to get to the palace. Can you do that?”
The male nodded. “I can try.”
“There is an outpost not far from here. Just south of the lake. Go there, and tell the guards we sent you and to escort you back to the palace,” I added.
He nodded again and fled, half-running, half-stumbling, until the frost swallowed him from sight.
As soon as he was gone, I swept us back into the ice, tracking the Korythid’s path of destruction for as long as I could before we needed to land once again.
When the snow settled around us, Everly exhaled, her expression more guarded than before as she steadied herself. The skathryn practically tumbled from her hood, its little wings flailing as though the world refused to stay still for her.
“Well, Batty, it’s your own damned fault for insisting on coming along,” I muttered as the creature staggered in a circle.
I already knew this wouldn’t have been possible without her, but I’d be damned before I let her know and have it go straight to her overinflated little ego.
Everly smirked. “You called her Batty.”
“Such a ridiculous name for a flying rodent…”
The skathryn let out a scandalized squeak and wrapped herself indignantly around Everly’s collar.
I ignored her, mostly, and bent to the snow again.
The tracks were shallower here. Lighter. Purposeful. Like the Korythid had begun masking its movement. Because it was ready to hunt again? Or had it realized we were hunting it?
Either way, a creature its size shouldn’t have been able to disappear, but this one… it was learning.
Jagged gouges faded into subtle puckers of disturbed frost before disappearing entirely. Above us, though, the thick branches of the trees sagged with fresh fractures or clean breaks, high up, far above the reach of any natural predator.
So it had stopped burrowing and taken to the trees.
A cold weight settled beneath my ribs. Was the Shard Mother actively rooting against us now?
I let out a low, humorless laugh as I tracked the creature’s path overhead. Everly followed the lines of movement too. The broken branches, the faint venom-burn scorches curling along the bark. Her breath caught in her throat, her dread skimming across our bond, sharp and metallic.
“I don’t suppose your research has yielded any information about Korythids swapping from tunneling underground to scenic treetop strolls?” I asked dryly.
Everly shot me a flat look. “Yes, right next to the chapter about how to politely decline being eaten alive.”
A corner of my mouth twitched despite myself.
She scanned the ruined canopy again. “But… if something was down there… something it didn’t want to share tunnels with, maybe that would explain the change?”
Worse monsters?Silence sharpened the air between us.
Everly cleared her throat, adjusting course. “Or,” she added, voice purposefully practical, “it could just be… heat? The Wilds have those volcanic vents. If the tunnels got too hot, I’d climb a tree too.”
A beat.
“Probably not gracefully,” she added. “But still.”
I huffed a quiet breath that was almost, but not quite, a laugh.
“Therearevolcanic veins in this region,” I conceded. “Old ones. Dormant, mostly, but the hot springs aren’t far from here. So, if pressure is shifting beneath the ice, if heat is rising in pockets…”
I scanned the trees again, following the path of broken limbs and venom-blackened bark.
