I caught a glimpse of a large body gliding over the ground, and a shiver ran down my spine at the legs silently moving in unison. Nothing should have that many legs.
The kùsu stayed in the shadows, but based on what I saw, it was definitely an adult. And it was enormous. My teeth were sharp but too short to do any significant damage. How fortunate that I had other weapons at my beck and call now.
Magic rushed over my fur, and a second later, the cold night air flowed over my skin as I crouched. Maybe next time I saw Roth, I could ask them to craft a spell that made clothes magically appear. Or better yet, armor.
For now, I’d have the joy of battling a fifteen-foot insectoid monster completely naked. I summoned my axes, holding my position. This wasn’t my first time fighting a kùsu. They were fairly common around Drudonia and especially in the Moroi realm. The kùsu were ambush predators and liked to set traps. I knew from experience that it was better to wait for them to rush you. Otherwise, you’d find yourself knee-deep in a pit they dug or tripping over exposed roots while trying to dodge their pinchers.
I hated having to stay here while Ryker was out there, being hunted by only the gods knew what. But getting myself killed wouldn’t help him. Still . . . I could speed this along.
Slowly, I lifted one of my axes and dragged the blade down the back of my forearm. The scent of my blood filled the air. Within seconds, something chittered rapidly in the dark.
Pulling my axe back to my side, I redistributed my weight on the balls of my feet.
The kùsu must have been hungry because I didn’t have to wait long. It burst out from between two trees, and my heart was in my throat at the size of the damn thing. My guess of fifteen feet had been wrong. Really, really wrong.
I rolled to the side as two foot-long pinchers snapped in the air where I’d been a second ago. Springing to my feet, I whirled and slammed an axe into one of its legs right at the joint. The kùsu let out an eardrum-piercing shriek as it reared up. I had to tilt my head back to keep it in my sight as it raised itself ten feet off the ground. It’s long body stretched behind it, curling around me, supported by way too many fucking legs.
“What the fuck have you been eating?” I growled. The biggest kùsu I’d ever encountered had been just over twenty feet. This one had to be closing in on thirty.
A sharp bark echoed through the trees. Ryker was in trouble.
I didn’t have time for this. My fingers tightened around the axe handles, and I drove forward. I didn’t have to kill the kùsu, just maim it enough so it couldn’t chase after me. Unfortunately, it had a thousand fucking legs, so that was a bit of a challenge.
My axe bit into its side, right where a leg joined the body. Dark purple blood sprayed me. I yanked my axe back and hacked at another leg, dancing away before it could cut my body in half with those fucking pinchers. Solid black eyes tracked me for a few seconds before it skittered after me. I took another step back, only to trip over the back half of its body that it’d cleverly moved behind me.
The kùsu lunged forward, pinchers spread wide as my back slammed into the earth. I barely got my axes crossed in front of me before it could take my damn head off. A scream tore from my lungs as the kùsu ground down on me, the tips of its pinchers cutting into my arms even as my blades dug into its face. My muscles strained as I pushed back against it.
It was too big for me to win this contest. The best I could hope for was to get it off balance and slide out from underneath it. The pincher on the left dug deeper into my bicep. I gritted my teeth through the pain and tried to gather the strength to heave it to the side.
Suddenly, the kùsu reeled back, letting out another nightmare-inducing shriek. I started to scuttle back only for someone to yank me to my feet. A very pissed-off Cade glared at me.
“I totally had that,” I said immediately.
“Sure, Princess.”
A feline snarl had both our heads snapping to where the kùsu flailed around, doing its best to dislodge the black panther ripping into its back. Silver flashed in the night, and it took me a moment to realize Cade had shoved his broadsword through the beast’s neck. Must have missed the spine.
Even still, that was a mortal wound. It was just too stubborn to die and would try to take some of us with it before it did.
Ryker’s howl rang through the night.
I was running towards it before Cade could stop me. He and Bastian could finish off the kùsu.
“Rynn!” Cade yelled after me. He said something else, but I couldn’t make out his words. Nothing mattered but getting to Ryker. Because there had been an edge to his last howl that had the bond between us burning.
The trees flew by as I raced through the forest. Nothing as large as the kùsu challenged me, but more than a few denizens of the night tried to block my desperate dash. By the time I made it to a large clearing, I was coated in blood that was a mix of mine and others. Barely an inch of my skin was showing.
My heart froze in my chest.
In the center of the clearing was Ryker, his silver coat practically glowing in the moonlight. At least the parts not streaked with blood.
Two large monsters made of pure shadow flanked him. One was shaped like a large winged reptile and the other morphed just as I arrived, its slender form collapsing in on itself to reform into a feline body with spikes running down its back.
Wraiths.
Suddenly, I was wishing it was Strigoi hunting this night. I’d take them over wraiths any day.
Yet again, I had to force myself to wait. Wraiths were tricky, and just because there were two out in the open didn’t mean there weren’t more lurking in the darkness of the trees. If there were more, I needed to take them out first. If it was just the two close to Ryker, then I needed to time my attack perfectly to catch one of them by surprise.
