But the cat was stronger, heavier, built for killing things that desperately needed to die. Every movement showed controlled violence, power held in check until the perfect moment to unleash it.
It was beautiful.
When its claws raked across the attacker’s hide, it left wounds that wept deep blue blood. When its teeth dug into the creature’s flesh, bone cracked like dry wood. When it blasted flames at the attacker, the fire scorched across the creature’s skin, bubbling it with blisters that popped and seeped.
The creature writhed back and lashed out, catching the great cat across the chest. Parallel wounds opened, deep enough to expose muscle beneath the fur. Vital red spattered the torn vegetation.
My heart lurched.
The firecat snarled. It moved fast, leaping, its huge jaws clamping down on the creature’s neck. The beast’s shriek turned to a wet gurgle as the cat’s saber fangs found the soft spaces between bone plates, as it roared flames into the wound, scorching through flesh.
They crashed through a stand of young trees, reducing them to splinters. The attacker’s six eyes rolled wildly as it fought to escape the crushing grip, the searing heat.
The great cat shook its head like a dog with a rat, and bones snapped. The creature’s movements became frantic, desperate. It was losing, and it knew it.
With a sound like leather tearing, the creature managed to break free, blood streaming from wounds in its neck. It staggered backward, no longer the confident predator that had hunted me down the slope. Nowitwas prey, wounded and terrified.
The firecat crouched, preparing to finish what it had started. Every line of its body spoke of lethal intent.
But Fara’s killer whimpered and fled into the jungle on unsteady legs. The thuds of its footsteps faded, leaving only the patter of rain on leaves and my own ragged breathing.
I stood, shaking, while my mind tried to process what I’d seen.My legs swam beneath me, and my hands trembled so badly I nearly dropped the stick.
That thing had been coming for me. It would’ve caught me. Would’ve torn me apart with its enormous teeth while its six eyes watched every bit of my suffering.
Like it had done to Fara.
My entire body shook with delayed reaction. My knees buckled, and I had to lean against a stump to keep from falling. The bark felt rough under my palm, real and solid in a world that had revealed itself to be far more dangerous than I’d ever imagined.
I’d nearly died. Would’ve died, if not for?—
The firecat stepped across the torn earth with fluid grace, and I understood why the stalker had fled. This thing may be smaller than a dragon, but it was infinitely more terrifying. Where dragons were wings and fury, this beast was cold, calculated death wrapped in deceptive beauty.
Its coat was soot-gray, the fur slick with rain and darker stains that might be blood—its own or the stalker’s. Heavy muscles shifted beneath its pelt with each deliberate step. Every movement spoke of absolute confidence, of a creature that had never met anything it couldn’t kill.
A mane of lighter gray threaded with black hung drenched around its powerful neck, the strands clinging to its broad shoulders. Its long, muscular tail ended in a flare of hair that matched its mane. It swished back and forth.
But it was the eyes that made my breath catch and my heart skip beats it couldn’t afford to miss.
Ember-orange, they glowed through the jungle gloom like banked coals ready to burst into flame. There was something almost unworldly in those depths, something that saw and understood and judged. They were familiar in a way that made my heart twist in my chest, though I couldn’t say why.
Claws like curved onyx blades as long as my forearm flexed on the soft earth as it stalked toward me.
Itradiated raw animal power that made the hair on my arms stand on end. This was what predators aspired to become.
And it was coming forme.
Every instinct screamed at me to flee, to put as much distance as possible between myself and this magnificent nightmare. But my legs wouldn’t obey. I remained rooted to the spot by something stronger than terror.
Recognition.
My very marrow whispered that I knew those eyes.
I backed toward the nearest tree, the stick still clutched in my white-knuckled grip. My heart flailed against my ribs so hard I was sure the creature could hear it, could smell the sweat that beaded on my skin. Every breath scraped like broken glass in my lungs.
This close, I could see the individual droplets of rain caught in its mane, could count the scars scoring its hide. Old wounds healed to silver lines.
And new wounds opened on its chest by the creature.
