Cora’s heart jumped into her throat. She expected him to hack open the nearest cage and slaughter the unicorn or—at best—cut off its horn. But James did no such thing. He simply stood, knife in his trembling hand.
Silence returned for several minutes, broken only by the arrival of Paul. His face was pale. “It’s here,” he said, then stood at the end of the line.
Anxiety swarmed through Cora. It wasn’t just her own. She felt it pouring off the hunters, building and building until it was so strong that her head began to spin. She swayed on the branch and gripped the tree trunk tighter. Then, with a deep breath, she strengthened her shields both ways. The outside emotions fell away, leaving her with the much softer hum of her own worry. A worry that increased with every breath. Especially when she noted what Paul had just said.It’s here. What did that mean?
Danger. Valorre’s warning was laced with panic.
She swayed again. This time, however, it wasn’t from an overwhelming surge of emotion. Her lack of foothold was aided by a rumbling in the earth below, one that sent the tree thudding. It was a rhythmic pounding that echoed the riotous pace of her heart.
Run, Cora,Valorre urged.Run. Beast. Abomination.
That was when she saw it. A dark form stalked from between the rattling trees a dozen feet away. It was an enormous creature, three times the width of a horse and twice as tall, resembling something between a boar and a wolf. Its head, which seemed too large for its shoulders, had a boar-like snout and tusks, but no visible ears. Its front legs bore hooves while its hind legs ended in enormous paws. It was a hairless thing with raw-looking flesh. Tiny spikes protruded from its body, lining the ridge of its back. It plodded toward the clearing, its immense hooves and paws leaving turned, loose ground in its wake.
Cora was frozen in place, unable to look anywhere but at the creature. She’d seen it before. It used to haunt her nightmares. It still did now and then, lingering just beyond that bloody room, taunting her, clashing in a place between memory and make-believe. In recent years, she’d begun waking before the Beast appeared. It had been her one solace. But seeing it now, outside the realm of slumber…
Run, Cora.
Valorre’s words echoed strains of memory, but the voice of the past belonged not to the unicorn. It belonged to her enemy. The man who’d smirked when she was labeled a murderer. A man who’d dragged her to the edge of the woods outside the castle walls, drew blood from her palm, and shoved her out into the night. After that, shadows had come to life, growing paws and hooves and teeth. “Better run,” he’d said—
Run, Cora! Get away!Valorre’s warning roused her from the haze of memory, but she still couldn’t take her eyes from the creature. It plodded into the camp and went straight for the two horns, consuming them in a single bite. Gringe leapt back but Hammond flung out an arm and forced him to be still. Next, it swung its head toward the cages, where James was slicing loose the bindings with trembling hands.
The Beast let out a roar as he dove for the unicorn in the now-open cage. The creature moved too fast for Cora to realize what was happening. Not until she heard the halfhearted, terrified whinny, then a crunch like bones snapping, teeth gnashing. Saw a slash of blood spray the dirt at James’ feet.
That was all it took to send her half falling, half climbing down the tree. She had no awareness of whether she’d been seen, whether her shields were up or down, whether the sounds she heard now were her pounding steps, her racing heart, or the crash of another cage coming open.
She knew nothing. Saw nothing through her tears.
She simply ran.
* * *
Valorre found Cora hours later.She was crouched at the base of a birch tree, her shoulders heaving, legs burning from how fast and how far she’d run. He nudged her in the shoulder with his muzzle. When she wouldn’t look at him, he blew a warm breath in her face and nudged her cheek. Finally, she glanced up at him with eyes that burned in the wake of her tears.
“They’re dead, aren’t they? The unicorns?” Her voice came out small and tremulous. Weak. She hated it. Hated that she’d run.
The three older ones, yes. I no longer feel them near.
Cora’s stomach turned as she recalled the sound of bones snapping beneath the Beast’s jaws. The sight of blood. She shuddered as the vision played over and over in her mind’s eye. Followed by her moment of cowardice.
There was nothing you could have done, Valorre conveyed. His sorrow was equal to her own. She could feel it in her bones.
“I could have tried to shoot it.”
And get shot back by the hunters?She felt his emotions ripple with something like a disbelieving scoff.
“I could have done something,” she said, but even as the words left her lips, she knew they were folly. She’d done the only thing she could have through the haze of her terror.
The haze of memory.
Valorre studied her.You know the abomination.
“I’ve seen it before. When I was twelve. Although…” She swallowed hard as near-forgotten visions surged through her. It had been the middle of the night after the queen was found dead, and Cora was locked in a dungeon cell. She’d spent all evening crying, shouting at the guards to hear her out, begging them to listen to the truth. She wasn’t responsible for killing Queen Linette. Morkai was. She’d seen him standing over her dead body. She’d witnessed him doing…somethingwith the blood. Something with his hands. Dark magic. Ithadto be dark magic.
But no one listened. No one came.
Only Morkai.
Cora shuddered and stared down at her palm, trying to see beyond the ink, seeking a thin pink line. A scar. But there wasn’t one. There hadn’t been when she’d received her first tattoo, and it had made her doubt how much of what she remembered from that night had been a fever dream. But now…
