Chapter 63

Chapter 63
Abigail's POV

"Back to the rock wall — now!"

I shoved them toward the sheer stone face behind us, forcing three sides of attack down into one to face.

"Finn, Dara, hold the front! Elodie, loose from the flank, don't stop!"

When the first wave slammed in, Finn planted her feet, leveled her spear, and drove the point clean through the throat of the beast at the front. The thing crashed down screaming, but the ones behind it stepped over their own dead and rushed in at once, giving her no chance to pull the spear free.

Dara pressed against her right side, her twin blades flashing. One stroke split a beast's skull, and with the backhand she batted aside the claws of another lunging for her face. Elodie's bowstring sang again and again over our shoulders, arrows skimming past our heads. A beast leaping mid-air took a shaft through the eye socket, its body going slack, dropping hard.

I wove through the gaps between them, my short Winter blade darting out to finish the wounded that had not died, and to knock aside any claw or fang that crossed the line.

The first round — we actually held.

Five, six beast-carcasses piled up on the ground fast, the blood-stench thick enough to swim in the head. But I knew in my heart this was no winning edge, only the pack drawing breath.

They did not scatter after a failed charge the way ordinary beasts would. Instead they circled us slowly. Blood-red eyes fixed on us, low snarls rolling in their throats, as though waiting for a better moment.

Beasts in territorial rage do not know how to retreat.

"They're not leaving." Finn panted hard, her broken-nailed hand clenched tight on the spear haft. "This is wrong. Marked beasts never do this."

"I know." I had no time to explain. "Hold steady. Wait for help."

The second wave came harder.

Three beasts lunged at Finn's side almost together. Her spear only had time to fling one aside; the other two had already crashed into the line. The sheer force drove her back half a step, the haft caught between two beast-bodies and, with a crisp crack, snapped in two.

Finn simply reversed her grip on the broken stub and swung it like a club, knocking one beast's head aside. But the other's claws had already raked across her chest, tearing the leather, blood surging out in an instant.

"Finn!"

Dara moved to cover her, and for that instant the flank fell open.

A beast slipped in beneath her blades, its fangs sinking hard into her shoulder. Dara cried out through her teeth and drove her elbow into the beast's skull, once, twice, three times, until the thing finally let go. Blood ran down her arm, and half her body could barely lift anymore.

Elodie's quiver had hit the bottom too.

"I'm nearly out of arrows!"

Her voice went tight, and she gritted her teeth, drew her short knife, and jumped down from the shelf into the close fight. With the ranged pressure gone, the pack pressed nearer.

My arms began to grow heavy, every stroke a fraction slower than the last. Sweat and blood gummed up my eyes, and the old wound at my ribs burned as it was pulled at. In that instant, a beast came low at me from the left.

I turned half a beat too slow.

Claws raked across my ribs, the searing pain bursting open all at once, as if someone had dragged a red-hot wire through the flesh. Blood soaked dark into the leather of my hunting coat fast.

The stone wall was right behind us. We had nowhere left to retreat.

I drove a backhand blade into the beast's neck, and its scalding blood splashed across my whole face.

But there were still too many of them.

The four of us huddled together, backs to the rock, blood and torn flesh underfoot, every one of us marked. Dara's left arm was all but useless, Finn had only half a spear haft, and even Elodie's blade-work was starting to break.

I counted the beasts still standing again.

At least eight left.

Time stretched out, long and slow.

I did not know whether those two whistle-cries had ever gotten out, nor how far away Nicholas's people were. I only knew we would not last many more rounds.

At the most desperate instant, the light seemed suddenly to darken.

Shadow dropped from above.

He was like a piece torn loose from the night itself, carrying the heavy rush of wind, slamming down into the very center of the pack. Those blood-eyed beasts that had seemed unstoppable a moment ago turned abruptly fragile before him.

Fang and great claw working together, in the space of a few breaths he tore the nearest three to pieces, the ruin of them flung aside to land heavily in the blood-mud.

The next moment, the Winter security warriors poured in from every direction.

The slaughter that had nearly swallowed us whole turned, in a blink, into a swift and total clean-up.

The pack finally began to break.

And Shadow, standing in the pooling blood, let out a low, rumbling growl.

Then he shifted into human form.

Nicholas rose out of that black fur, his gaze passing over everyone else, landing first of all on me.

I saw his eyes stop on the torn leather at my ribs, on the blood soaking my hunting coat. His pupils shrank to two points, and his jaw clenched so hard I could almost see the muscle drawing up along the bone.

But he did not ask how badly I was hurt.

He only turned, walked to the nearest beast-carcass, and crouched down.

Nicholas checked the beast's eyes, the frozen set of its body, the bared teeth, then leaned close to its muzzle and breathed in.

"These beasts were drawn here," he said, his voice low and cold. "Deliberately."

"I know."

I took the sealed oiled cloth from inside my coat and handed it to him.

"It came off the water source the day before. I kept a sample."

Nicholas took the cloth, opened it, and looked once.

His expression still did not change, but his knuckles slowly went white around the edge of the cloth.

He was silent for several seconds.

"You know who."

"Yes." I pressed down on the wound at my ribs, trying to keep my voice level. "But I need something more certain. I set a trace-trap upstream. If her people go there again—"

"You don't need it."

He cut me off.

"My people have been watching the woman called Megan. Early this morning, she went to the upper stream again."

I froze for a moment.

He had promised he would start his investigation from Olivia's team — that much I knew. But I had not imagined he'd watched so closely, without letting up for a single step.

"What did they catch?" I asked.

"All of it."

Nicholas rose to his feet and tucked the oiled cloth away inside his coat.

"My lieutenant saw Megan this morning, bent over the current, pouring the liquid from her flask in bit by bit. Every movement, seen clearly."

He paused, his gaze sweeping over the beast-carcasses on the ground, his voice colder still.

"Add the sample you kept, add the maddened state of these beasts, add the traces she left with her own hands — it's enough."

I said quietly, "The chain of evidence is complete."

"Complete." Nicholas straightened, his whole figure standing out stark and cold in the blood-heavy woods.

"Now, it's time."