Chapter 124
Raven
The bear screamed, a sound of pure rage and pain, and backhanded me with enough force to send me flying.
I hit a tree trunk hard, felt something crack in my ribs, and barely managed to tuck and roll as the bear charged again. Its claws raked the bark where my head had been, leaving deep gouges.
Well. This is more interesting than I expected.
My knife was still stuck in its shoulder. Blood matted the fur around the wound, but the blade wasn't deep enough to slow it down. If anything, I'd just pissed it off.
The bear reared up, and I took the opportunity to dart in, grabbing my knife handle and yanking. The blade came free in a spray of blood just as the bear's paw came down.
I leaned back—felt the wind from its claws pass an inch from my face—and my boots skidded across the ground, friction heating the rubber until I swore I could smell it burning.
Fuck. That would've taken my head clean off.
The bear didn't give me time to recover. It lunged, jaws snapping, and I threw myself backward. Not fast enough. Its teeth caught my jacket sleeve, tearing through leather and fabric like paper.
Okay. No more playing around.
I feinted left, then rolled right as it swung. Came up running, not away but toward a nearby tree. Hit the trunk at full speed, planted one foot, and used my momentum to run up the bark, flipping backward over the charging bear.
I landed on its back.
It bucked immediately, a rodeo bull made of muscle and fury. I wrapped one arm around its neck, getting a fistful of blood-matted fur, and drove my knife down toward where I hoped its spine connected to its skull—
The bear reared up on its hind legs and slammed backward into a tree.
All the air left my lungs. Stars exploded across my vision. I lost my grip, slid down its back, and barely managed to roll away before it crushed me against the trunk.
I came up gasping, ribs screaming, and the bear rounded on me.
We were both bleeding now. Both exhausted. Both refusing to give up.
It charged again, and I was too slow. The massive paw caught me across the shoulder, claws tearing through jacket and skin. I felt myself go airborne, watched the ground rush up—
"MASTER!"
Miles.
His voice shocked me back to focus just as I hit the ground. I rolled, came up on my knees, and saw something insane.
Miles had grabbed the bear's back leg with both arms.
"What are you—" I started.
The bear turned, and Miles's eyes went wide with immediate regret. The massive creature sat down on him.
"OOOOFFF!" The sound got squeezed out of him as six hundred pounds of bear used him as a chair.
But that one second of distraction—that was all I needed.
I surged forward, low and fast. Not going for another direct attack. Instead, I went for the legs.
The bear tried to turn, but I was already there. My blade flashed once, twice, severing the tendons in its back right leg. It collapsed onto that side with a pained roar.
Now.
I vaulted over its writhing body, grabbed its head with my free hand, and drove the knife into the base of its skull with every ounce of strength I had left.
The blade sank deep, severing the spinal cord.
The bear went still.
For a long moment, nothing moved. Not me, not the bear, not Miles who was still pinned under its massive haunches.
Then Leo's voice, shaky and awed: "Holy fucking shit."
I pulled my knife free, blood coating my hand up to the wrist, and stepped back. My face was splattered with crimson. My shoulder was bleeding. My ribs felt like someone had taken a sledgehammer to them.
And I couldn't stop grinning.
Now that was a hunt.
"Master?" Miles's voice came out muffled from beneath the bear. "I can't... breathe..."
I grabbed the bear's shoulder and heaved, rolling the massive corpse off him. Miles gasped, sucking in air, his face flushed red.
"That was..." He sat up, eyes wide with adrenaline. "That was the most insane thing I've ever seen."
"You grabbed a bear," I pointed out, wiping blood from my cheek. "Voluntarily."
"I panicked!" He was grinning though, riding that post-survival high. "Did you see me grab it? I totally grabbed it!"
"You got sat on by a bear," Leo corrected, kneeling beside us. "That's what happened."
"Yeah, but I helped!" Miles fumbled for his phone. "Master, can we... can we get a picture with it? That sliding thing you did was—"
I fixed him with a blood-soaked, dead-eyed stare.
He swallowed. "Or not. No pictures. Totally understand."
I knelt beside the bear, running my hand over its scarred muzzle. A warrior, this one. It had fought well.
My knife made quick work of cutting a patch of its hide—about six inches square, the darkest section with minimal scarring. Then I pried one of its canine teeth free, the ivory stained red at the root.
"Here." I tossed both to Miles. "Your graduation gift. You did well. Attacking a bear to save your teacher? That takes either courage or stupidity, and right now I'm choosing to believe it was courage."
Miles caught them, staring like I'd handed him the Holy Grail. "Master, I... thank you."
"Don't get sentimental. I still think you're an idiot." But I smiled as I said it.
I was kneeling to start field dressing the meat—waste not, want not—when Leo called out from a few yards away.
"Uh, guys? I found something weird."
I looked up. He was standing near the path the bear had charged from, holding something small and muddy.
A shoe.
My blood went cold.
I crossed the distance in three strides, taking the shoe from Leo's hands. Pink and white Nike Air Max. Size seven.
"That's..." Leo started.
"Zara's," I finished, staring down at the shoe. At the mud coating it. At the scratches on the sole.