My heart and breath are loud in my ears—even louder than the raving crowd. They know the other wolves can take Anassa if they come at her together. I know it. The other Rawbonds know it.
But for some reason, they don’t. All at once, the tension shifts and the wolves just… back away.
Relief floods my limbs, turning my muscles to water. Anassa turns to glare at me, jaws open and streaming with saliva.
The iron wall is still there between us, but I understand the threat in her gaze perfectly. She could kill me in an instant. And maybe she will.
But not today.
She turns and stalks after the others, leaving me shaken and bewildered.
My relief is short-lived.
A scream echoes through the arena. “Jagir! Help me!”
The Kryptos boy. He’s on his feet now, one arm dangling uselessly at his side. Calling desperately for his wolf.
I lose sight of him almost immediately in the wild surge of bodies as the wolves and Rawbonds converge on their target.
Horror fills me as more screams rend the air—the boy’s wails of pain and terror.
The roar of sound in the arena is deafening. The snarling of the wolves is so loud it makes my ears ring. Under that is a horrible tearing—cloth and flesh being rent.
The mass of bodies breaks apart for a moment and I see him—the Kryptos boy—on his knees and covered in blood. His wolf stands over him, snarling desperately, dark fur glittering with crimson wetness.
I watch in horror as the other wolves circle the pair. There’s no chaos now. They’re of one mind, united in their hunt.
Like a dance, they take turns darting in to attack, drawing the Kryptos wolf away from his chosen so another wolf can attack the bleeding boy. The other Rawbonds stand outside the circle, watching. Cheering. As bloodthirsty as their beasts.
And the crowd?—
I glance up as their roaring reaches a fever pitch. We’re their fucked up entertainment. Their faces are lit with glee, mouths open,howling. The king is on his throne, grinning with self-satisfaction. Beside him, Prince Killian looks stone-faced, impossible to read and unable to intervene, even if he wanted to.
I’d like to think he would; that somewhere inside of thatstrangeris the man I loved, who would calmly and authoritatively put an end to any injustice he saw.
What he may or may not want doesn’t matter, though. Like me, all he can do is watch.
There’s a flash of silver-white fur at the edge of the fight. Anassa, her coat splattered red, muzzle crimson. She launches at the Kryptos wolf and clamps her enormous jaws around his throat.
The Kryptos wolf goes down squealing.
And that’s it. The beginning of the end.
I watch in unblinking horror as the other wolves rush in, knowing there’s nothing I can do. If I try to intervene, I’ll be next.
The first wolf to reach the boy takes hold of his shattered arm. The boy screams—a terrible, childlike sound.
Another wolf lunges for his left leg.
“No!”he cries in a high, broken voice. “Please—Mama!”
In an instant, they have him off the ground, strung tight between their jaws. Then there’s another wolf on his left shoulder, and yet another takes hold of his right thigh.
They start to shake him. To toss their heads with sickening violence, tearing flesh from bone.
The boy’s screams make me want to cover my ears and crumple to the ground, but I’m utterly frozen, unable to look away.
With a loud, echoingriphis right arm tears free at the shoulder. His screams are so loud they almost drown out the crowd.
