Looking for an escape.
I set my jaw in a grimace. It seems my threats have whistled by her rather than sinking their claws into her skin. The determined set of her lush mouth and the hatred that burns in her eyes tells me that even harsh words won’t deter her. Only actions.
I turn from her abruptly and she glances at me in wide surprise. “Keep walking,” I growl, heading toward Max and Cal.
The girl nods slowly, arranging her face into one of innocence, but it’s too late to shield what I’ve already seen. I wonder if she’s aware of the way every thought she has splashes across her face.
Max raises a brow at me but keeps silent as I give her a slight nod.
It takes only a moment for the girl to take the bait. She sprints off the path, her bound wrists bobbing behind her, her small legs pumping furiously. I don’t go after her, watching as she plunges into the depths of the forest.
My stride doesn’t change when her scream rings out a moment later.
Cal presses his lips together in a thin line of disapproval.
I shrug sheepishly. “I don’t want to be chasing her the entire journey to Nadjaa.”
I take a few steps forward and yank the pistol out of my belt.
The girl is a few feet into the trees, her eyes wide and her face pale in terror. I don’t blame her. I was terrified, too, the first time I faced a Ditya wolf. Though I’d been five.
The wolf snarls, stalking toward her. It is not a wolf of old faerie tales, of beautiful fur and majestic head. Instead, it possesses a distorted jaw, so wide it covers most of its face. Its eyes are squinted and red and instead of fur, scales dripping with a rubbery green substance coat its powerful body.
With no use of her hands and no weapons, the girl is a sitting duck. Or rather, a sittingLemming.
The revolver’s weight is distasteful in my hand. Guns have never been my weapon of choice, impersonal and as expensive as they are, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have their uses. I pull back the hammer and lift the weapon with a steady hand, lining the sights smoothly.
The wolf pounces at the girl and they go down in a flurry of scales and slime. Her scream is agonizing, pulled from the depths of terror and, oddly, it pierces through me with alarming furor.
Heart racing, I squeeze the trigger. The wolf slumps.
I take my time ambling over to where the girl lays trapped beneath the beast’s significant mass. I heft its carcass off of her in a smooth movement, expecting to encounter a trembling Lemming, but instead, coming face to face with a furiously spitting house cat.
The girl’s emerald gaze is absolutely outraged as she shoves herself to her feet and turns accusing eyes on me. She spits hair out of her mouth, her face beet red. Green slime covers her body and fresh blood wells at a small scratch on her arm, but she appears mostly unharmed.
I have the distinct feeling if her wrists weren’t tied,Iwouldn’t remain unharmed for long.
“You did that on purpose!” she shouts with righteous indignation.
I level her with an unamused glare, but in her anger, she doesn’t even flinch. Just meets my wall of stone with her own powerful wave of fury.
“You knew that…thatthingwas in the trees, and you let it almost eat me!”
“You were never in any danger,” I tell her calmly, which only seems to incense her further. I force the corner of my lips down. Since when is angering someone so much fun? “I told you. I don’t miss.”
She lets out a cry of outrage, looking as if her wrath might tremble its way right out of her small body.
“It’s better you learn early,” I say with the arrogant shrug I already know sets her blood to boiling.
“Learn what?” She grits out.
“That the Darkness bites back.”
ChapterSeven
Mirren
My fingers and toes have all gone numb by the time the Dark Worlders stop for the night. We come to a clearing and the pale-eyed man must see something that pleases him, as he nods to the others and they begin to make camp.
