Helios grinned in a way that was not at all comforting. “Something like that.”
Teryn didn’t like what Helios was leaving unsaid. He had a feeling there would be no polite anything. Shouldn’t that worry him?
His gaze fell on the hoof print. Aunicornprint. Proof that everything they were doing wasn’t crazy. Well, he couldn’t say his mission was altogether sane, but for the first time since the Heart’s Hunt began, he had hope. And he was determined to do whatever it took to keep that hope alive.
“Come on,” Helios said. “We can cover more ground before nightfall.”
18
Cora maintained her post as the sun set and dusk turned to night. The hunters returned but not a single drink of rum was taken. She watched. Waited. The mood within the camp was strained, the silence palpable. Hardly a word was exchanged as the men sat idly around the fire hour after hour. It was eerie. Enough to make Cora’s skin crawl.
Careful, came Valorre’s warning. He sounded quieter than normal, but she shouldn’t have been able to hear him at all.
What are you doing so close?she sent back, unsure if her words would make it through her dense shields. Not that she’d ever been so lucky to avoid him reading her thoughts before. Still, it was dangerous for Valorre to come anywhere near camp, even after the company had finished their day’s hunt. She and Valorre had made great efforts not to leave tracks where the hunters would likely follow. They kept Valorre well outside their scouting radius whenever they could.
Have a bad feeling, was his reply.Something isn’t right.
A knot formed in her stomach, but she wasn’t sure if it was his anxiety or her own. There was definitely something strange happening. If the silence and solemnity hadn’t already been enough, the hunters’ rigid postures and darting glances were.
A horn sounded in the distance.
Hammond, a man with yet anotherRbrand, who Cora had learned was the leader of this crew, rose to his feet. “Harvest,” he said. “You know what to do.”
Cora’s throat went dry as she watched the men leap into action. Most formed a line in the middle of the camp, hands behind their backs, postures stiff, while Gringe retrieved a small chest. Cora leaned forward, bracing herself against the trunk of the tree as he opened it. Through the pine’s boughs, she caught a glimpse of what was inside—two thin, white, spiral-ridged bones.
Unicorn horns.
Cora frowned. She hadn’t seen these horns before, nor had she witnessed any of the hunters removing a single horn from the unicorns. So far, all they’d done was keep the creatures in iron cages, letting them grow weaker and weaker from lack of food and their close proximity to iron.
Gringe removed the horns from the chest and placed them on the ground. Hammond shot him a pointed look. “Only two? James said you’d caught three in the Ishvonn Woods.”
Gringe glared at James, who already stood in the line, then muttered, “James was mistaken.”
Hammond huffed a dark laugh. “If Duke Morkai finds out you left your region while another unicorn was out there?—”
“James was mistaken,” Gringe repeated, more forcefully this time.
Hammond shook his head and stood at the center of the line, hands behind his back like the rest of the men. Gringe took his place next to him, then barked at James, “Get to the cages.”
James’ eyes bulged but he made no argument as he unsheathed a knife and approached the cages.
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.
