Prologue
Iwatched her in the darkness. She was small, sad, focused, and completely unaware of the danger she was in.
Foolish.
A foolish human. Not the first I’d encountered. Not the last either.
A sense of dread pooled in my belly as I watched her load her bow with a worn arrow. The frayed feathers at the end of the shaft werethissiefeathers, plucked directly from the wings. In the moonlight, I recognized the bright blue shimmer as she leveled her bow, the cord pressing into her cheek, keeping her weapon steady.Thissiewere rare, delicate, beautiful things.
When I sensed movement to my left, I held my hand out, stilling mypujerakfrom approaching. As of yet, thevekkirifemale had not committed a crime. We were to wait and watch.
I heard her exhale a small puff of air. I could not peel my gaze away from her as she released her arrow. I heard the whistle of it. Then I heard it squelch into therikcrun, emerging from its burrow for a night of gathering.
Still, I watched her. I thought her dark eyes looked sad and I studied the way her shoulders sagged. That dread returned, tenfold.
To my left, mypujeraksaid quietly, “Vorakkar, we must take her now.”
Mercy.
The word—the human word, which made me uncomfortable and doubtful—rang through my mind, but asVorakkar,my mind was already steeled. It had to be.Vekkiriknew the laws of our world. As of late, they had pressed and challenged those laws. The evidence of it was right in front of me.
Still, I hesitated.
“Vorakkar,” mypujerakurged. “We must—”
I cut him a dark look, tearing my gaze from thevekkirifemale for the first time since I spied her through the dark trees. Mypujerak, my second-in-command, immediately locked his tongue behind his teeth. I understood his impatience. He wished to return to the horde encampment, for, in his eyes, small matters like punishingvekkiriwere beneath him.
“We wait,” I said.
My eyes returned to her. As a horde king of Dakkar, I knew what I had to do, what was required of me.
I had to make an example of her, of the small thing that reminded me more of athissiethan a law breaker.
Mercy.
It was something I could not grant her.
Chapter One
My lantern was dying. The flame flickered and my stomach rumbled.
Eyes returning to the dark burrow in the earth, I pleaded for the thousandth time with the thick, hesitant, smart grounder within.
Please come out, so I can kill you,I begged silently.Please come out.
My lantern died with a whisper and for a moment, depleted of the small golden light that had illuminated the space I’d occupied for the last hour, I was plunged into darkness. My eyes adjusted slowly, aided by the crescent moon’s light filtering in through the branches overhead. The forest outside our village was called the Dark Forest for a reason. It was a tangle of trees and rapid growth and decay. But the grounders liked to feed on the decay and since the herd ofkinnuhad moved on last week, grounders would be the village’s only source of meat for the rapidly approaching cold season.
I didn’t like being this deep in the Dark Forest, but I was small and I was good with my bow. I could navigate the forest easily, which couldn’t be said for the other hunters in our village.
Shivering, I hunched my neck deeper into the tattered scarf I’d brought with me. Blowing out a short, quick breath, I went through my routine to help pass the time, to help calm my nerves.
One,I started, glancing up overhead, spotting an object shooting across the sky, far beyond Dakkar, probably on its way to a neighboring planet for deliveries.A merchant vessel.
Two, I glanced at a tree to my right,a deep scar in the trunk that looks like a teardrop.
Three, my eyes dropped to my feet, a finger-sized hole in my boots.
Sliding my fingers over my weapon, I started over, but this time I closed my eyes.
