Nico looked over his shoulder and raised his eyebrows. I wanted to dig my heels into the horse and gallop ahead, but I heard the hurt in Val’s voice. I needed to be honest with him. Or at least as honest as I could be.
“I knew that if I tried to contact you, you would come and get me.” Maybe if I hadn’t been struck by lightning, I would have contacted him, but that night had changed everything.
He made a strangled noise in his throat and glanced over at me. “And what would have been the problem with that?”
I gripped the reins, the leather digging into my skin. “I didn’t want to be found. Reve told me to run and never look back.”
“My family would have protected you. You didn’t give us a chance. Lilith left us alone mostly. A few of our people went to serve her, but most of them ended up dead.” We rode in silence for a couple of minutes longer. “You could have at least sent me a letter saying you were okay.”
“Val—”
A low, rumbling growl cut through the stillness ahead of us. Amari had frozen in place, his body rigid and ears flattened against his skull.
Buttercup halted so abruptly that I nearly pitched forward over his neck. He took several uneasy steps backward, his usual bravado replaced by clear distress. Thehorse’s muscles tensed beneath me, and I could feel his sides expanding rapidly with each breath.
The other two horses weren’t doing any better. They whinnied sharply with high, frightened sounds that pierced the quiet, while their hooves struck the forest floor in nervous, staccato patterns.
The forest had gone unnaturally quiet, except for our horses’ agitated breathing and my pulse thudding in my ears.
Something was moving toward us through the forest. I couldn’t see it or identify it, but I felt its approach like a pressure change before a storm. After centuries of surviving, I’d learned to trust that feeling more than any of my other senses.
“Run!” Amari roared.
He didn’t have to tell me twice.
I pulled Buttercup’s reins to the side, and he knew what I wanted. He did a one-eighty and took off at a gallop back the way we came. Val and Nico were right behind us, the sounds of hooves pounding the forest floor creating an unsettling noise.
I braved a glance over my shoulder and saw Amari behind us at a distance. Behind him, gaining ground, was a large group of vacants. Their eyes glowed red, and they were running.
Vacants didn’t run.
I faced forward again and urged Buttercup on. He was not happy with the speed we were going, but I think he knew we were in deep shit.
“They aren’t stopping!” Nico urged his horse faster and got in front of Buttercup. “We need to go somewhere they can’t. There’s a lake not far from here!”
There were only two things that could stop vacants: fire or water.
We had already been heading north, so going to the areawhere there was a lot of fire was out of the question. It would take us days to get there, and the horses would go lame before then.
Nico curved our path, and we followed him since we had no other options. The only relief was that vacants operated on their sense of smell, so they were following the same path as us. If they had any kind of visual perception, they would cut us off.
I looked over my shoulder again, and the vacants were slowly gaining on us. It wouldn’t be much longer until we were ripped to shreds, starting with Amari.
“Do you think we’ll make it?” Val tried to keep his voice calm, but it was hard to with flesh-eating monsters hot on our tail.
I could see the red tint of the lake through the trees ahead. The moonlight shone across it, making it appear like a reflective pool of wine. Usually, I would think it was beautiful, but all I could think about was how Buttercup was going to have to make a decision.
As if he sensed my thoughts, he let out a pained neigh, and my heart broke. I let go of the reins and took hold of his mane. His muscles trembled as we drew near the lake.
Hell horses couldn’t go in the water.
“Amari! No!” Val’s voice was strained, but I didn’t look back to see what had happened.
My focus was on the horse that had become family to me. We were practically to the lake, and Buttercup was about to sacrifice himself to save me.
Suddenly, I was lifted from the horse from above. Teeth dug into my clothing at my neck, and then arms wrapped around me. They were half-shifted between demon and panther.
I looked down, and Buttercup veered at the last moment and took off along the edge of the water. Val and Nicosplashed into the lake with their horses, flying off the saddles and landing with loud splashes.
