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Evie’s eyes shot open.
At first she thought it was a nightmare—such a sound couldn’t possibly be real. Then she saw the others frozen in their beds, rigid as statues, not daring to breathe.
Please let us be wrong. Please let it just go away.
For a hanging moment nothing happened...then the quiet shattered once more.
“Crap!” Freya shrieked, muffling the cry in the blankets stuffed over her mouth.
The others made a furious gesture for silence, but no one could blame her. It was quite simply the most terrifying thing they’d ever heard. No way was it remotely human, but Evie couldn’t imagine any beast capable of making such a sound. It shook her very bones, rattling out through her teeth as she fought back the instinctual urge to cry.
“Landi,” the vampire whispered, quiet as a ghost.
Normally, the fae would have been the first to spring to his feet. But he hadn’t actually moved since that first wraithlike shriek echoed in the air. As it stood he was buried in blankets like the rest of them, staring into the shadows with childlike fear dancing in his eyes.
“Landi.”
This time, the voice broke though.
The prince blinked quickly, then extracted himself from the others and pushed shakily to his feet. The wind howled and shook the walls of the tent as he picked up a bow and fitted an arrow silently between his fingers. Asher was already standing by the entrance with a pair of knives.
Under any other circumstances, Evie would have been standing right there with them. There was no room for cowardice or ‘delicate female sensibilities’ out on the road. But in this case, she would have been of very little use. Vampires and fae could see in the dark. Half-shifters could not.
On cue, Cosette slowly got to her feet—clenching her teeth to control her expression though she was trembling head to toe. Ellanden took one look at her and shook his head, pointing back down to the blankets. For once, the young princess didn’t argue. She may have spent the last few years hunting a collection of monsters, but that chilling scream had shaken her to the core.
She sank back down with the others as the boys paused instinctively by the entrance to the tent. It looked as though either would have given up those gifts in an instant if it meant they could stay inside. But instead they shared a quick glance, nodded quietly, and disappeared out the door.
The only mercy was that it stayed open. Evie might not have been able to see what was happening outside, but she could still see their faces through the open flap.
Armed to the teeth, tall and handsome, but she was struck by how very young they both looked. Ellanden’s bare fingers were trembling. Asher’s dark hair was still tangled from sleep. It was sometimes easy to forget that, despite their wild ambitions and the speed at which the rest of the world had continued to move, the three friends were only sixteen.
They stood back to back, rotating occasionally, their weapons lifted high in the air.
An arctic wind cut through the cloaks draped over them, swirling up such a thick layer of snow that they consumed it with every breath. It was almost impossible to see more than a few feet in front of them, but they never stopped trying. Hopeless as it might be. There were people inside counting on them. There were other people counting on them, too, much farther away than that.
The seconds dragged on, each one more excruciating than the last.
The vampire was staring out towards the far horizon but the fae was looking in the opposite direction, back the way they’d come. There were a few more seconds when nothing happened, then everything seemed to shift. Evie watched as Ellanden’s eyes fixed with sudden dilation, squinting into the freezing wind. His body tensed as he leaned instinctively forward, trying to make out the shape of a distant figure through the swirling snow. He squinted again in confusion, still gripping the bow.
Then, all at once, he froze dead still.
Never had Evie seen such an expression. It was the most terrifying thing to happen yet.
His lips parted in a silent gasp, but for a split second he was unable to reconcile what was happening. Then he took a sudden step back and shattered the silence with a deafening shout.
“RUN!”
The girls scrambled out of the tent without stopping to think, no time to grab any of the weapons piled on the other side. They made it out just in time. No sooner had the last one raced through the door than the ground shook with a violent collision and the tent itself was ripped from the icy snow bank. Shaking violently before flying thirty feet into the sky.
Evie whirled around in what felt like slow motion, watching as it hovered for a moment against the full moon before plummeting back down to earth.
What could have done that?! What could have possibly—
An ear-splitting growl answered her question.
The princess turned around to find herself face to face with a nightmare. She understood now the fae’s stricken expression. It was impossible to look any other way.
Her first thought was that it was a leopard. One with snow-white fur. One the size of a large house. But no sooner had she decided than she realized she was wrong. Cats weren’t shaped like that. They were lithe and graceful, without the massive hulking power this creature possessed.
Her second thought was that it was alive. But upon closer examination, she wasn’t so sure. A swath of ghostly fur covered its body, but it seemed to be missing in some places. So did the skin underneath. Giant craters of flesh had been torn straight out of its body, revealing the grisly skeleton underneath. At some angles, it appeared almost normal. At other angles, she could see right through.
Then it let out another roar and she realized it didn’t matter if the creature was technically alive or not. She and all her friends were most surely about to die.
It went for Ellanden first. Quite possibly because he fired the arrow.
The pointed barb buried itself in a shadowy pocket of flesh right below the beast’s eye, vanishing all the way up to the feathered shaft. It was a shot that would have killed any other animal. But it only made this one angry. The kind of angry that the brave immortal was unlikely to survive.
Before he could take two steps it swept down upon him, moving with a speed that was truly baffling considering its impossible size. There was a broken shout, and for a split second Evie thought he was dead already. Then she saw a pale hand clawing frantically at the snow underneath.
“Caros!”
The language of his people. The fae was calling for help.
Just like that, the trance was broken. The nightmare was put on pause. Without a moment’s hesitation the remaining friends went sprinting forward, yelling at the top of their lungs.
It was the yelling that did it, not the show of strength. Before the beast could sink its teeth into the fae’s flesh it lifted its head in surprise, wondering, perhaps, why the others didn’t have the sense to run away. The second its face was exposed, the gang attacked as one—throwing a pair of knives as well as a spray of neon sparks from the witch that made the cat leap back into the night.
The princess stared breathlessly in the direction it had disappeared, not knowing which was more terrifying: when they could see it, or when they couldn’t. Then there was a faint stirring on the ground and she flew forward with the others, kneeling in the snow at the fae’s side.
“Ellanden!” she gasped, lifting his head from the icy bank.
Considering what had just happened, it could have been much worse. Indeed, it could have been the last thing the fearless fae had ever done. The monster had crushed him into the ground with enough force to snap bones. But when it had lunged forward to finish the job he’d managed to twist himself to the side, barely evading its massive jaws. The imprint of its teeth were in the snow beside him—each one of them as long as the princess was tall.
It probably wasn’t best idea to move him, but Evie and Cosette pulled him quickly out of the crater while Asher and Freya circled around them—hands raised at the ready. The vampire no longer had any weapons, but he’d been gifted with deadly teeth of his own. And though the witch was pale as a sheet, little hints of that iridescent light were sparking in her eyes.
“Tell me he’s breathing!” Asher demanded. “Tell me he’s alive!”
The vampire must have been truly shaken if he couldn’t hear for himself. The fae’s pulse was weak but steady. After just a few agonizing seconds, he opened his eyes.
“He’s okay,” Evie panted, more as a trembling affirmation to herself than anything else. “I don’t quite see how...but he’s alive.”
Alive, maybe. But mute until further notice.
Each time the fae opened his mouth to speak, his breathing hitched and he coughed up another torrent of blood. In the end, all he could do was point—which he did just in time.
The creature was bearing down upon them once more.
“Look out!”
Evie didn’t know who shouted, but all the friends dove for cover at the same time. The ground quaked as the creature landed right in the middle of their scattered circle, rocketing each of them into the air. By some stroke of luck, the princess managed to hold onto Ellanden even while Cosette hurtled the other way. They landed in a heap right back inside the crater, ironically close to where the fae was almost ripped to pieces just a few moments before.
“Nope,” he muttered, dragging himself back onto the snow, “not again.”
Evie scrambled after him in astonishment, watching as Freya warded off the beast with another spray of neon sparks. The second they were clear, she put a steadying hand on his back.
“Are you—”
“I’m fine,” he interrupted, though his voice was strained. A second later he quickly knelt to the ground, picking up his bow. “Go back to the tent. Try to find the rest of the weapons.”
She was hesitant to leave him, but the creature’s back was turned to the crumpled canvas and one look at his determined face had her convinced. He was already nocking a pair of arrows when she took off running, sliding across the remaining ice as he fired them into the air.
The beast let out another savage scream, reducing everything else to a strange kind of ringing in her ears. She could tell the others were shouting, trying to distract it while the fae shot arrow after arrow at its eyes. But it wasn’t until she picked up a knife of her own that things fell back into focus.
“Cosette! Asher!”
She tossed them a blade each, the only things she could manage to dig out of the snow, before racing back to join them. The friends were shell-shocked and exhausted. Every time they used a weapon, they were unable to retrieve it from the creature’s flesh. But the leopard was only getting started. And it had noticed the fiery-haired princess for the first time.
With a blistering snarl, it launched itself towards her—landing with enough force to splinter the ice upon which they stood. Fortunately, the princess had learned her lesson from before and jumped a second before the beast made contact, sparing herself from the shockwave that followed and managing to stay on her feet. But that was the extent of her luck.
The beast was pure destruction, bearing down upon her with all its deadly forces. She had nothing but a dented hunting knife to offer in return.
She lifted it between them, eyes locked on its face.
Keep calm. Breathe. Go for the eyes.
There was no way to tell which direction it might attack, but she’d grown up playing with the stray cats around her mother’s castle. She could only hope they moved the same way.
When the beast raised a deadly paw to strike, she charged straight towards it—shifting direction at the last possible second so its claws raked harmlessly against the ice. As she slid beneath its legs, she managed to get in a couple strikes with the dagger. But the giant cat barely registered the pain and she was rewarded with nothing more than a spray of brackish blood to the face.
Again, it reared up to strike. This time, she was too close to stop it. But the second it stood on its hind legs, three shining arrows sailed out of the darkness and buried themselves in its open jaw. This made far more of an impact. Unfortunately, it also made the giant leopard stomp around.
Evie let out a shriek as its massive feet careened towards her—scrambling backwards to avoid them at any cost. The first, she dodged. The second would have crushed her for sure if the figure of a man hadn’t blurred in between, spiriting her to safety before she could even blink.
“Thank you,” she panted, holding on to Asher’s shoulder for balance as he lowered her gently to the ground. Cosette and Freya had captured the beast’s attention, taking turns attacking while the fae archer covered from behind. “For a second—I thought that was it.”
His dark eyes latched on to hers with scarcely contained panic before he turned back to the beast. The friends were tiring and there had already been too many close calls. It was only a matter of time before it finished one of them off for good.
“It hunts at night,” he murmured.
Evie threw him a quick glance. She didn’t see what that had to do with anything. It didn’t matter when the creature decided to hunt—not when they were its intended prey.
“Yeah, so—”
“It hunts at night,” Asher interrupted impatiently. “It’s nocturnal.” He squinted up at the moonlit flurries covering the sky. “Its eyes can’t handle the light...”
Without another word of warning, he streaked away from her—flying over the snow before coming to a stop at the tent. The heavy fabric was mangled beyond repair, but it still held together when he picked up one side and started running...straight up the leopard’s back.
“Asher, what are you doing?!” Ellanden shouted. The girls were screaming behind him, Evie frozen in silent terror, but the vampire never stopped.
He sprinted straight up the jagged spine, then looped the canvas around the creature’s eyes like a blindfold—ironically similar to the one he’d been wearing all day. It thrashed around with a violent scream, trying to shake him loose, but he held on tight, feet anchored against its neck.
“Freya, light it up!”
It took a second for the witch to realize what he was asking. Another second to assess whether it could even be done. It was one thing to light some flames while sitting inside a tavern, but quite another to conjure them on an undead feline without hitting her friend.
“Any time!” he called, holding both sides of the tent while the leopard bucked him like a wild stallion. “I’ll just be up here!”
“Freya, do it!” Cosette called, gesturing frantically.
The witch raised her hands, but blanched in fear. “What if I hit him?” she whimpered. “What if I light him on fire?”
In a flash, Ellanden was standing behind her—his strong hands lifting hers in the air.
“If you don’t try, that thing’s going to kill him.” His fingers curled around her wrists, aiming them steadily at the tattered canvas. “Fire wouldn’t be worse than that.”
She glanced around with a stricken expression before turning back to the beast. A wave of grim determination swept over her, and a moment later streams of light were flying into the air.
They hit the canvas squarely, engulfing the whole thing in flames.
The creature let out its most fearsome roar yet, one that earned a permanent place in the friends’ nightmares, clawing furiously at its own face. Asher leapt at once to safety, hoping that if they hadn’t managed to seriously injure the beast it was at least temporarily blind. But the second his feet hit the ground, the burning canvas landed in a pile behind him.
He turned around slowly, staring into the creature’s devastating eyes.
“NO!”
The princess let out a scream, but it was already too late. Even the lightning-fast reflexes of a vampire were no match against the deadly cat. It struck out with a growl and caught the vampire in its teeth—thrashing him back and forth while the friends watched helplessly from the ground.
A river of tears poured down Evie’s face, freezing before they could reach her chin. One hand lifted halfway to her mouth but it was like she was caught in a dream, watching as a boy she’d loved since childhood was torn to pieces before her very eyes.
Ellanden was shouting something, trying to run forward even though both girls were holding him back. Asher had gone limp as a doll, black hair whipping back and forth around him, thin streaks of crimson ribboning the ground at the leopard’s feet.
Evie thought it was over. She didn’t see how anyone could possibly survive. Then all at once, the creature’s jaws tightened and the vampire let out a quiet cry.
Then she was running.
With no one there to hold her back the princess launched herself straight towards the unholy creature, nothing but that dented hunting knife gripped in her hand. A new chorus of shouts rang out behind her, but her eyes were focused and there was a single thing on her mind.
I’m going to kill this thing. I’m not going to let him die.
The creature lowered its head as she approached, dangling the lifeless vampire in between them like some kind of grisly prize. But just as it opened its jaws to ensnare her as well, she sprang up to the side. Vaulting off the creature’s own fangs before sinking the dagger into its head.
Once wasn’t enough. Twice wasn’t enough.
The others raced desperately towards her, arriving just in time to catch Asher as he fell, but the princess was in a world of her own. Stabbing and slashing. Driving the blade into the creature’s skull before ripping it straight back out so she could do it again.
A kind of frenzy took over. One that only intensified as the leopard sank to its knees and slowly died. Again and again she struck it—not even noticing that there was no longer any struggle. That she was the only one still fighting. That she was dripping head to toe in the beast’s blood.
There was a chance she might have kept going forever if a single voice hadn’t rang out above the rest. “Evie.”
The princess lifted her head slowly to see the vampire standing just a few feet away. He was leaning heavily on Ellanden with one hand raised bracingly to his chest, but his bright eyes were fixed solely on the princess, watching as she pulled in a breath and rose slowly to her feet.
The world grew quiet as the two of them stared at each other. Even the raging winter storm seemed to pause, watching what was happening below.
Evie took a step towards him. The knife slipped noiselessly from her hand.
Then the leopard raised its paw for one final strike.
It struck the princess across the back as the others let out a scream. Her knees buckled as a spray of blood flew into the air...splashing the vampire right in the face.
Their eyes locked for what felt like an endless moment.
Did that just... Did we just...
Then the world went black.
