The Viper always knew first, the presence of death, the way it drummed like a distant beat. But when the scent hit me, the rich, rotting flavor, I knew too.And I gagged.
The horses froze before either of us saw it. At first, it looked like another traveler, cloaked, mounted on horseback like we were. Until the sound reached us. The wet crunching, the agonizing moans.
If I was said to be a monster, then the thing before us was surely my rival.
Gus’s head lay separated from his body, but his mouth…it somehow still worked. It was gaped, dragging out the last sounds of his life.
The creature’s own mouth stretched open, rows of jagged, broken teeth framing an impossibly long tongue. Yellow eyes peered from its hood. Not toward us, but beyond, where it sat astride a stallion made of shredded flesh and bone, its flaxen eyes sunk deep into its skull.
We were close enough to see its fangs hanging past its skeletal jaw. Close enough to see them dripping with blood.
“Oh gods.” The words slipped out of me, barely more than a hushed breath.
The moans ceased but the thing, so horribly Fae-like, kept lazily scooping from Gus’s hollowed skull. Still staringthroughus.
Because it couldn’t see us. It was blind.
Ronan realized the same moment I did, motioning to me, to our horses, who had both remained alarmingly calm.
I eased the reins and Zyran, the black stallion I ultimately claimed, stepped back. One step, then another.
Niveus, Ronan’s mare, mirrored his movement.
But then a crack, a snap, as Zyran’s hoof crushed a rotted log.
My breath hitched, Ronan’s arm halting in the air. We both glared toward the beast as it let Gus’s head drop to the moss—
And lunged.
Fuck.
Ronan’s voice cracked as he roared, “Go!”
For a heartbeat, I almost obeyed. I didn’t know about this creature. Didn’t know how far Ronan’s strength would carry him. But the odds of him getting torn apart could be wonderfully high.
My body stuttered, muscles locked in as his heirloom flashed in the air in all its obsidian splendor.
I could come back for it after the monster drained him dry like it had Gus. My vengeance would still be fed, even if I was not the one to taste his death.
But then Ronan’s voice came again. “Verena,go!”
He charged as Niveus whinnied in delight, colliding with the stallion beneath the beast. The creature’s tongue lashed for Ronan, teeth multiplying as its mouth widened, endless rows shifting closer to his flesh.
Zyran stomped the ground, ready to defend his prince, as a yank dragged deep inside me. A pull, urgent and primal, unwilling to yield.
I cursed, hoping I would forgive myself for my witless choice as I let the curse fill me.
Its odious leash slackened as I turned to him, fangs pushing down my lips, and said, “I don’t flee, Ronan.” I drew my dagger, the ruby in its hilt glowing like sunlight drowning in blood. “I hunt.”
Another snap, not from Zyran this time, but my left. I sucked in a breath and twisted. The forest watched in threatening stillness...and then moved, all together and all at once.
Eight pale yellow eyes now peered from the brush.
Four cloaked shapes. Four more monsters.
My darkness coiled in rapture. I didn’t flinch when my eyes shifted in a blink, when the starved curse tore free of its chains and black veins bled down my fingers, lightning now crawling up my arms.
I dropped from Zyran’s back, the realm shuddering beneath me, the forest trembling at what had woken. And when I stepped forward, unlatching the cell door entirely, the monsters charged.
