But the fucking shaking would not go away.
Being afraid is a waste of?—
“I fucking know that,” she muttered to herself furiously, taking the time needed to stow away those plants. “You try being in the fucking faerie wylds with your body magically on fire from a poison you’ve never experienced and in debt to your captor with a huge fucking beast bearing down on you and the actual fuckingwildernesstelling you to run. You do that, Zorn, and then we’ll fucking talk, huh?”
Plants stowed, she ended her tirade and popped up. She spun and took one step before she saw it. Its massive head was even with the tree line, and the deep brown of its shaggy body nearly blended in with the surrounding fauna. It was still beyond the brook, but the break in the trees gave it a clear view of her, because glowing yellow eyes were focused her way, a pinprick of black in their center, the rest of the face lost to darkness and shadow even though the moon should’ve been showering it with light. Its huff moved the leaves around it, and a snuffle said it was inhaling, sampling the currents.
It took her a harried heartbeat to realize the direction of the wind. She was upwind and smeared withTarian’s blood and magic, her own sweat and blood. If it had any sort of olfactory ability, it would know everything about her.
Moving slowly, because predators liked to chase, she took a step toward the path. Another. Those luminous eyes followed her. It didn’t move.
Maybe it wasn’t interested in her? Maybe?—
Its roar froze her solid, locking up the very fibers of her being. Except her heart. That thing had never beaten so fast in her life.
Run!that presence urged.
“But what if it likes to chase?—”
RUN!
The creature launched forward a moment before she did.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck—” she murmured as she swung the pack onto her back and tore out of the clearing. The pulsing quickened, footsteps, each one rattling against her ribcage like a xylophone. Her stomach tightened as she hit the main path.
Left.
“But Tarian?—”
LEFT!
She did as the wylds instructed. They’d tried to barricade her behind the brook with stones, after all. They couldn’t be allthatderanged…
Branches slapped her face. Something stung her arm.
Right.
The small game trail was hard to find. The pulsing grew more intense and louder, even though she couldn’t actually hear it. Fear consumed her, and she let it. It might make her run faster.
Right.
“Please don’t take me in a circle,” she said, throwing up her hands to block a wall of bushes. Another game trail. Vines moved quickly, outlining her way.
Another roar made her cry out. Tears streamed down her face. She was so afraid that she was choking. Not even the Celestials had magic like this. It was beyond anything she’d ever experienced, anything she could tolerate.
It would be really great if Tarian suddenly felt better and came to save me,she thought desperately, getting another direction from the wylds but having already figured it out from the vines. Through the foliage, it looked like cliffs rose on each side, like she’d entered a canyon.I’d be totally fine being the damsel right now.
Who was she kidding? Shewasthe damsel. No way was she fighting something that enormous and terrifying. No way. She knew her limits.
Stop.
“What?” she said, out of breath. Vines reached into the path to block her way. She could’ve pushed through, but she was getting too far from the general location of the shack.
Trees crashed. Branches tore. A roar blasted across the space, but not like before. It didn’t scare her. It made her want to duck. To hide. The creature sounded frustrated.
She looked around, seeing the thick trunks and stringy vines, solid masses of flora and the sheer rock faces to her right and left, going up over her head. She didn’t feel closed in—there was plenty of space around her—but she was also a grain of sand compared to that enormous creature. It couldn’t get through.
Wait,the voice that was not a voice said.
