No one gets between them. Even Amund is watching the exchange without a word.
Momentarily, our eyes meet, but I look away quickly.
“I said enough,” Maeve tries again, but no one is paying attention to her anymore. Keeping the peace in a roomful of sworn enemies is even harder than teaching a bunch of bored high school students.
Tala snarls, showing off her fangs.
“Better calm down before you kill someone,” Valerie says, reaching for her dagger.
“Like you’re any different,” Tala shoots back. “A hunter killed my best friend.”
Valerie scowls at her. “Weprotectpeople.”
“Oh, is that what you tell yourself?” Tala scoffs. “At least whenwekill someone, it’s usually an accident. Do you know why most berserkir go wild? Because of the guilt. The pain from mistakenly killing. It’seasier to live as a wild animal than face what they’ve done. But hunters?” Tala leans forward, her nose practically brushing Valerie’s. “Youchooseto spend your lives hunting us.Killingus. So you tell me: Which is worse?”
By the time Tala finishes, she’s breathing hard.
Now Valerie looks bothered. “Yeah, well, myentire fucking familyis dead because of a berserkr,” she says tightly. “But I’msosorry about your best friend, Tala.”
The whole room goes quiet.
Maeve shouts,“Enough!”
“Whatever,” Tala mutters as she returns to her seat.
Valerie sits but leaves her dagger lying on the table like a promise.
“Now then,” Maeve says. “Like I was saying, today we’ll be going over enhanced auditory senses. Some of you seriously need to work on your listening skills.” She starts labeling the diagram of the outer, middle, and inner ear. “This is what a human ear looks like, but for berserkir, it’s a bit different. This part is more like what you’d find on an animal, which gives us our heightened hearing.”
What was that all about?I write on my notebook before sliding it over to Tala.
She sighs and writes back,My best friend Adrian went wild. He was killed by a hunter.
Oh. Tala always seems so cool and collected and in control. It never occurred to me she could be faking it too. I always try to act like everything is okay, even when it isn’t. Maybe I have more in common with Tala than I realized.
“Wolves, boars, and bears all have much better hearing than any human,” Maeve continues. “Boars can hear a whisper a hundred yards away, while bears have increased sensitivity and frequency range. Wolves, however, have the best of all.”
Valerie is still fuming, and Amund is watching me. His attentionsends a zing shooting through me, but I can’t let myself get distracted. His presence is a reminder of how important it is I figure out who is responsible for Emilía’s death. Unless I find the real killer, Amund is going to huntme.
That is, if the killer doesn’t get me first.
My nose twitches, but I’m no closer to pinpointing the scent than I was earlier.
I raise my hand. “What about smell? How do you control that?”
“That was last month’s lesson,” Maeve says. “I’m sure Tala will be more than happy to share her notes with you.”
Tala starts flipping through her notebook until reaching a page withOlfactory Systemwritten across the top. She slides it across the desk. “Here.”
“Thanks,” I say, reading the page as quickly as I can.
Olfactory System
Smell is essential for animal survival. Animals use smell to:
• Find food (and prey)
• Detect danger
