Kaida gives a yip and a growl. The three of us turn to where she’s staring at the garage. There’s a very distinct beam of sunlight moving around. Nothing that will be noticed up close, but from afar, it’s very obvious.
That’s when the screaming starts.
I grip my men’s hands and yank them along. “Let’s go, lut. I hope your teeth are sharpened.”
“What’s wrong?” Rainer asks.
“Nothing’s wrong,” I assure him, though I don’t know if that’s entirely accurate. Something set Kaida off. As an animal that doesn’t make a lot of verbal noise, it’s not something I’m going to choose to ignore. Not when Keary’s surrounded by monsters who would kill him if given the chance. My fear for that possibility overrides my senses that they’ll likely not be able to kill him.
He is a god, as he’ll quickly remind anyone who asks.
But even gods die.
“You know how to use that knife, right?” I ask Rainer.
“If you’re looking for me to tell you I’ve had formal training, you’re going to be waiting a while. But I can swing it around and shit.”
I huff.
“Your lut will protect you.”Wewill protect him. I don’t want him to feel self-conscious, though, so I don’t say that right now. He’s used to his pet protecting him. I still remember when he shot a quill right back at the beast who shot it at him. He’s fully capable.
I’m going to choose to believe that as we storm into the small settlement of tyrant monsters. I pull a hunk of thick pipe from the ground as I pass. It’s still attached to something that had once been there, so there’s a loud, painful groan as I yank it loose. The ground shudders and cracks beneath our feet. Kaida keeps Rainer upright.
Sweet baby Drystan has exploded with a scream, his entire body becoming covered in nasty-looking spikes. One of the monsters who had been on their way toward him is impaled by his body.
Drystan shakes him off. A line of laser-focused sunlight cuts straight through the building. Kaida dives away from it as she whips her spikey tail around, slamming it into the chest of a shifter mid-shift. Rainer has his knife out.
Leaving them to take care of what’s going on inside, I circle the back of the building so no one tries to escape their fate. Just as I set up post, a back door flings open. Three men in lab coats come barreling out, running straight for me, but they stop short when they realize I’m standing there.
I lift the hunk of pipe and wait for them to decide what they’re going to do. While they debate their options, I commit their faces to memory.
“You will not live longer than the next hour,” I warn. “No matter what you choose to do right now.”
They don’t like my threat. Stupid monsters. I think they’re taking lessons from the idiot humans who used to think they were running countries. They deluded themselves into believing they were infallible.
I’m about to show them that they die just as easily as their human victims, and I’m going to make it just as painful too.
RAINER
Compassion isn’t a weakness. It’s what separates us from monsters. But do not let compassion cloud your judgment, or it can kill you.
My hand tightly grips Kaida’s feather-fur as we rush forward. Everything slows down for half a beat as we rush in, and I hear nothing but the loudbum bumof my pulse in my ears.
Since the day my parents were murdered by monsters, I’ve searched for them. I knew I’d die. There was no question about it. Still, I searched for the monsters that took my parents from me and left me behind.
Why was I still alive when everyone I knew and loved had been taken from me? Why didn’t you kill me too? I want answers. I want to scream at them until they tell me despite knowing they aren’t actually going to give me the answers I demand.
They’d kill me.
I’ve been walking toward death since that day. Ready. Terrified. Knowing it’s coming. My life would end as abruptly as theirs did—just because I’m not a monster too.
But as I near this group of monsters—the source of the painful screams—fear grips me tightly. I can’t inhale more than tiny, shallow breaths, so I grip Kaida tighter.
What was I thinking? I don’twantto die, and that possibility seems far more likely the closer we go. The clearer they become.
They aren't much bigger than me, but they aren’t human. Some of them are stretched disproportionately, half-man, half-animal. There is a wolf hybrid monster with salivating teeth. One of them has monstrous talons, like an enormous bird of prey. Red eyes. Glowing eyes. Black eyes. Long, sharp teeth. Scales. Gray skin.
There are eight or ten of them. There’s blood covering the cement floor of the garage, and the air smells like blood and death. Screams still vibrate through the room around me as if the walls are replaying what they’ve seen.
