My hands rose in surrender. “I won’t move.” I all but pleaded. “Just don’t hurt her.”
“Look at you. You have grown, little hunter, and now here you are, trying to hide the last living Jade City healer from me.” He clicked his tongue. “Nismera will be pleased to know one survived.”
My heart thudded in my chest, the Ig’Morruthen raising its head at the threat. Even if I fought him and he killed me here and now, I couldn’t let him take Miska.
“Are you going to protect her?” His eyes scanned my posture. “Like you protected Xavier. How many times can you fail before you give up?”
A growl slipped past my lips, which earned me a wicked grin. “You tell me.”
A corner of Kaden’s lip rose, and his eyes flicked to something over my shoulder. “I think,” he said, “you should worry about yourself.”
Chains scraped on the floor behind me, and a feral, wild snarl lifted the hair on the back of my neck. It made sense now why Kaden was here. He had freed his brother, releasing a starving, ravenous Isaiah. Before the thought had fully formed in my mind, my head was yanked to the side, and fangs pierced deep into my throat. Isaiah fed, draining me dry.
16
DIANNA
Three days later
My hand puppeteered the enormous beast’s jaws, the twin tusks clicking against its elongated canines. “If only Samkiel had listened to his wife and realized a dead Otherworld creature would not help us find the actual entrance,” I said in a mocking, high-pitched voice,
Samkiel narrowed his eyes at me as he flung the gore off his sword. “Ha, ha, very funny. You’re hilarious.”
I moved the beast’s mouth again and, in the same sing-song voice, said, “I think she is hilarious.”
“Give me that!” Samkiel said, stomping over. I lowered the head and pulled it out of his reach, not ready to stop teasing him yet. Its body was a few feet away, the serrated tail still flopping.
“So what’s the plan now, handsome?”
We were both covered in dirt, slime, and grime from the intense battle. Samkiel summoned a silver rope and took the head from me with embarrassing ease. He set to work, trying to wrap the head so it would be easier to carry.
Samkiel sighed. “First, we can at least tell the town they are safe. This thing has been plaguing them for a few days. Second, let’s see if word has spread about any other Otherworld creatures and find someone that might wish to talk.”
I nodded and reached out to help him secure the head. “Maybe I should do the talking this time? They see you, and it’s all fangs and hissing snarls.”
He frowned, placing his hands on his hips. “Need I remind you that I did try a softer approach? I was called every foul name he could think of, and I still maintained my calm. The only reason his head is no longer connected to his body is that he tried to attack you.”
I rolled my eyes and prepared to make a snarky comment. A shiver ran up my spine, freezing the words in my throat. It was so vicious that my body shook from it. I turned, expecting to see someone behind me, but I saw nothing in the dim light of the torch we’d stuck into the ground other than the forest and the battle-trampled ground.
“What’s wrong?” Samkiel asked.
I gave a slight shake of my head and turned back to him. “I thought I felt … something.”
“Something?” he asked, scanning the area carefully.
I nodded. “Do you remember Camilla’s island? That feeling?”
Insects sang from the canopy. There was no moon here, and the stars were too far away to offer us any help in illuminating the darkness of the forest.
“Yes?”
“It’s like that, but … I don’t know. Different.”
Samkiel stared into the spaces between the trees. The silver of his eyes blazed from inside his helmet, searching for any threat as if his incandescent gaze alone could cut them down. “How long?” he asked, his voice a low growl.
I shrugged and took a moment to think about it before answering. “Just now, but if I’m being honest? I don’t know, for a while? Back at the house, I thought maybe I was going insane, and then I chalked it up to the fact that I was near Cameron, and he and I are from the same Ig’Morruthen bloodline, but he’s not here. Maybe I’m sensing the remaining energy from the beast we killed.”
He studied me. “Does it feel like it did back at Camilla’s? As if you’re being followed?”
