I bounce on the balls of my feet.
Four.
I shake the excess energy from my arms.
Three.
Somewhere far ahead, a twig snaps.
Fuck it.
With a growl in my throat, I tear after her into the growing dark.
5
IICYIFU
AURORA
Irace through the trees, pushing deeper into the gnarled heart of the woods, where it'll be harder for Seven to run flat out in pursuit of me.
In a foot race, with no obstacles, I know my shorter legs are no match for his, but here, where I can climb and lurch and duck and hide, I know my small frame will move with more ease than his will.
My pulse is a quick tempo beating in my ears, my heart like a wild creature battering against the bony cage where it's trapped. I'm aware of every sound in the trees around me, even as my movements—theswishof leafy branches as I push through them and the thump of my feet on the earth—threaten to drown out any advance warning of Seven's approach.
The last drops of daylight trickle out of the night sky and I have to feel my way over a fallen pine, blinking in an attempt to force my vision to adjust.
Heart in my throat, I fight to quiet my breathing and movements, slipping into the narrow gap between two pines. I need to switch from speed to cunning if I'm going to make this chase last.
Against my instincts, I shut my eyes to focus on what I can hear instead of what I can see.
There.
The quick thudding of Seven's running steps kicks my heart into overdrive. I press my lips tight to conceal the shrill sound of anticipation trying to rise from my throat as I dart in the opposite direction.
The breeze rushes over my skin, raising the small hairs along my arms as I duck to avoid a branch and sling myself around the smooth white trunk of a birch tree. But I lose my footing and fall at the raw, animal sound of a wolf's howl no more than fifty feet away from me.
No. Not a wolf.
Seven howls again, announcing his dominance over the forest, claiming his prey.
My breath stutters from my lips, and my core squeezes with delicious heat.
Oh fuck.
I use the nearest tree to claw back to my feet and race as fast as I can straight ahead, all thoughts of strategy thrown from my adrenaline-choked brain.
My throat burns as I push myself to the limits of what my lungs and body can handle, determined not to make this easy for him.
I may be willing prey, but I amnotdocile.
Before I recognize the path I'm taking, I'm already to the edge of the clearing, thrust from the long-limbed pines and into the open.Shit.
I spin, trying to orient myself in the cloud-covered moonlight, but all I see are the hives and the honey shed and the trees flanking the meadow that look like bars closing in around me.
Fuck.
And then I see him. A shape growing bigger, closer. Its shadow darker than the shade of the forest. Seven doesn't slow even a fraction as he bursts through the tree line and into the clearing.
