Page 67 of Hunted

They were, at least for a while, not coming for us. But at some point, as if they had decided they’d had enough, they started marching in our direction, entirely ignoring the magic we were throwing at them. Lightning still crackled across their bodies, but these darkened figures seemed not to care much about it.

Valerian surged into action, then, entirely without warning. He leapt ahead of us, lightning streaking past him to strike the creatures, and threw himself at them with the gleaming sword of pure light my grandmother had made for him.

I screamed at him to come back, but he wasn’t listening. He reached one of the creatures and took a swing at it with his luminous sword, only for the creature to swiftly dodge out of the arc of his swipe. When these creatures didn’t want to move, they looked like statues. When they wanted to hustle, though, they could really move.

“I have to help him!” I yelled.

“Amara, those things will kill you both,” Pepper said, her voice straining as she concentrated on keeping her magic up.

“We aren’t doing anything to them here. Think of a new tactic—I’m going in.”

“Amara, don’t!” Pepper called out, but I was already on my hands and feet and shrugging off my Fae form. As a wolf, the world around me was different. Colors lost their vibrancy and became muted but sounds and smells amplified. I could hear Valerian grunting, the creaking of these creatures’ bones. I could smell them, too—the dark magic that oozed from them smelled deep, and musky, and foul.

The creatures stood almost side by side, but Valerian seemed to be focusing his efforts on one of them. Instead of going for the other creature, I joined him in his fight against his, opening my jaws as I reached it and going for a bite to the leg. The creature managed to lift its footandparry Valerian’s blow at the same time, as if it had two minds, but when Valerian swung at it again, his blade bit into the monster’s black, bony arms.

Not only had I heard thethunkof his sword hitting something solid, I also heard a kind of sizzling sound… that was immediately accompanied by the most monstrous, deathly sound I had ever heard. It was like a howl, if the howl was being sung by many, many different wolves, each with torn throats and broken vocal cords.

It was difficult to listen to. Painful, almost, but also incredibly sad. I felt a kind of anguish in that sound that made me feel helpless. Manipulated.Used. It gave me pause, enough pause that I didn’t notice the other creature moving in to kick me in the stomach and send me onto my side, several feet from where I had been standing a moment ago.

That single kick had knocked the wind out of me. I struggled to get back up, but when I did, I stared at the creature that had hit me and bared my fangs. It was moving toward me, but that was good, because it meant the creature had no interest in my grandmothers, who were still peppering it with lightning bolts from where they were standing.

It didn’t appear as though their magic was hurting it, but bits of its ragged clothes were burning off, and wherever their magic struck, it left scorch marks on the creature’s body. I glanced over at Valerian, who stood with his sword held firmly in one hand, his other hand stretched out to his side—he was circling the creature, who in turn was following him with his eyes.

We had their attention.

Their full attention.

“Amara, get out of here,” Valerian growled.

“You first,” I barked.

“I’m not going to do that.”

“Then neither am I.”

Growling, I rushed at the creature ahead of me, trying to anticipate its movements. Though it was way bigger than me, my wolf form was larger than most wolves, heavier; capable of dealing powerful blows… and body slams. Instead of trying to go for one of its feet, I threw myself at the monster, putting all of my weight behind myself and bowling through it.

The creature wasn’t able to stop me from crashing into it, and we both went down, tumbling across the snow. I scrambled to get to my feet, but I managed before the creature did, so I went for it again, this time clamping my jaws around its hand as it tried to lift itself. There was no blood beneath my teeth, no flesh, only something solid that tasted like bark, or maybe bone.

As I pulled, and dragged the creature across the snow, it shrieked, making another one of those terrible sounds that assaulted the ears. It was in pain. I had hurt it, and Valerian had hurt the other one. Before now, this monster had appeared to be invincible, but maybe,just maybe, we were starting to hurt it.

The creature tried to slide its hand out from under my jaws, but my grip was vicelike. I kept pulling on it, gnawing, and rending, trying to tear the thing out of its socket. The monster was clearly trying to escape the hold I had it in, but I wasn’t about to let go of it for any reason.

Then, as if out of nowhere, the creature produced a darkened blade, pulling it out of its tattered rags with its free hand. I was moving too fast for it to strike me, but it wasn’t trying to hit me. Instead, it brought the sharp end of that black blade down on its forearm, severing it at the elbow and freeing itself from my grasp.

I came away with a hand and a bit of bone in my mouth. I spat it out just as the creature began to rise from the ground and straighten up. Behind it, Valerian and the other monster were still doing battle, but Valerian had a scratch on his arm, and another on his face. The other creature had also produced a black blade, and the two of them were clashing like ancient foes.

He gave me his eyes for only an instant, but it was enough time for the monster to slam him in the chest with the back of its hand and send him hurtling through the air and straight into the snow. Valerian rolled over himself several times before coming to a complete stop. I saw him try to lift himself up, but he was slow to move. That hit had hurt him.

Meanwhile, the creatures weren’t coming for him or for me, but moving toward each other. I tried to get close, but the one with the severed arm had its sword aimed at me the whole time. I couldn’t stop them from meeting… andmerging.

The two creatures stepped into each other, combining to become one entity again as I watched, powerless to stop it. Even my grandmothers, with their thumping blasts of magic couldn’t do anything to stop it. This creature wasn’t missing an arm, its clothes weren’t scorched and covered in small, burning embers where the lightning had struck it, and it didn’t look like it was even the least bit injured.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” I said, panting.

Valerian picked himself up and gripped his sword with two hands. “Step away from it, Amara,” he called out, “It’s no use.”

“No,” I called out. “No, wait.”