The hut shuddered.
Pierce tilted his head. “Is it throwing itself against the walls?”
Teal, who was mending the hole, grimaced. “It is.”
I swallowed. “If it gets in, will it kill us?”
“It might try.” Pierce pulled a dagger from its sheath and let the light from the fire reflect off the blade.
“How big is it?” I asked.
Teal wrinkled his nose and waggled his hand. “Eight feet.”
The math was simple. “Its reach is longer than ours.” Pierce’s dagger would be useless. By the time he got close enough to use it, the basajaun would gut him.
Teal shrugged. “No magic.”
What did that even mean? The basajaun didn’t have magic? Or was he saying he wouldn’t use magic when he fought the beast?
“We’re due for a scuffle.” Teal’s excited grin made me want to deck him.
I was not due for a scuffle. Not remotely. I was still recovering from the last “scuffle.” The one Teal had slept through. I was tired of fighting monsters. Tired of fighting rebels. Tired of fighting, period. “You’re serious?”
Teal’s grin broadened, splitting his stupid, handsome face. “You haven’t seen me fight.”
He wanted toshow off?
From the moment they’d taken me from my home, a certainty had settled into my bones. If I wanted to live, I had to look out for myself. I was never surer of that. I hadn’t met a single man (May, Alina, and Sara didn’t count; they were women) or beast who hadn’t tried to harm me. And I was exhausted. So, no, I didn’t want to watch him fight. I wanted a hot meal, a good night’s sleep, and an escape from my fate.
Something enormous landed on the roof, and the vines sagged beneath its weight as it tore at the hole that allowed smoke from our fire to escape.
“Two of them? I thought they were solitary creatures.” Teal directed his power at the roof. “Haven, what earth magic do you have?”
“Assume it’s like yours.” It was exactly like his. It was his.
“Then weave more vines. Finish closing the hole.” He gestured toward the wall.
I backed against the far side of our shelter and concentrated on thickening the vines on the wall across from me. Slowly, the hole the basajaun had ripped in our shelter began to close. I even added sharp thorns.
I finished closing the hole and rested against the wall.
Silence fell. The prickly kind. The charged kind. The something-terrible-is-about-to-happen kind. Pierce and I stared at each other, waiting for the next shoe to drop.
“What now?” I whispered. “Are they still out there?”
The wall at my back exploded, and a hairy arm circled my torso. Before I could scream, claws scored my skin, and the world went black.
Chapter
Thirty-Six
TEAL
Ispun around just in time to see a basajaun haul Haven’s limp body through a gaping hole in the wall.
It was taking her. Away. From. Us. Away from my protection. The thought made my chest tighten.
My vines raced across the snow and frozen ground, wrapping around the creature’s ankles. The beast broke through the dense plants as if they were mere threads. “Pierce!”
