Kesh
The breeze lashed Kellee’s loose, dark hair against his face. He sniffed the air. “Death,” he growled, fangs lengthening.
The Hunt was coming.
The ground shook beneath my boots, and where the knoll had reopened, the earth collapsed, sending up a blast of dust. Talen and Sirius were still inside.
I lunged toward the knoll, but Kellee caught my arm. “There’s no time,” he warned. Behind him, lightning cracked through a purple sky.
We couldn’t fight the Hunt, not even with all of us here.
Sota looked at the sky, his red eye expanding to absorb whatever data he saw beyond my spectrum. “We have six minutes to hide.”
Hiding wouldn’t help. Thousands upon thousands of fae had tried. Nothing escaped the Hunt.
Kellee returned to the carriage and the restless horses. With his claws, he sliced through the vine-reins holding them in place and walked one to me. The horse’s eyes rolled. Its nostrils flared. The animal was close to bolting.
“You ride, and don’t look back,” Kellee said. Nodding to Sota, he added, “Go with her. Your presence will shield her.”
“What about you?” Sota asked.
Kellee took the reins from the other flame-touched horse, and sinking his hand into its fiery mane, he hauled himself onto the beast’s bare back. The fire didn’t hurt him. “I’ll draw it away.” He tightened the reins, bringing the horse under control as much as possible.
Nobody outruns the Hunt.
“Kellee…?” He couldn’t stop the Hunt alone.
His horse shied and stamped on the spot, trying to unseat him. He yanked on the reins and leaned closer to its neck. “Do it, Kesh.”
“How will we find you?” I placed my hand on my horse’s back and one in its mane, expecting heat but finding it cool, and hauled myself onto its warm back. The horse stamped on the spot.
“I’ll find you.” He dug his heels into his horse’s middle and they sprung forward, toward the knoll. “Go!”
Taking Sota’s hand, I pulled him onto the horse behind me. His arms clamped around my waist.
“Ready?” I asked.
“As I’ll ever be.”
The sky boiled. Clouds became rolling mountains, and inside the storm, an enormous figure took shape, its two eyes like two blood moons.
Kellee’s horse reared and screamed its fear. The wind tore in, blasting across the land, trying to flatten the grass. Kellee’s beastly eyes glowed in the sudden darkness. “Go!”
I kicked my horse. Its flaming hooves dug in, and it drove into the trees so fast it almost unseated me. I had hold of the reins, but I doubted the animal cared that Sota and I were on its back. Fear had it in its clutches now.
Hunkering down, I clamped my thighs tight against the warm flanks and scanned Faerie’s thick undergrowth as it blurred by. Branches snagged and whipped at my face and clothes. Faster, the horse galloped, its heart a drum, its breathing ragged and wild. Sota’s grip tightened. Faster, until there was nothing but the hammered breathing, blurred bushes, and the blind hope that we’d get away and Kellee wouldn’t do something foolish.