Elm
Panic scratched the interior of my chest as the veil of shadow dimmed. Without a second thought, I surged forward, ripping my sword from the holster at my side. Everywhere I looked, people—human and fey alike — scrambled from the all-consuming fire, like ants being drowned in their hill.
Phyre shouted orders behind me, but I bolted toward the screaming without glancing back. This couldn’t be happening. Oread was a safe house. The only place on the map that remained undisturbed by beasts.
Despite feeling utterly helpless, I held fast and fought against this nightmarish force with all my might as a kaanhound lunged toward me. His fur was a deep, burnt orange color, like the glowing embers of a fire. He looked like some kind of massive hellhound rising out of the smoke and heat. His eyes shone bright, full of some fiery intensity that seemed to match the energy radiating from within him. His size alone would intimidate anyone brave enough to come close, and his powerful stance only added to his intimidating presence. He growled softly as he moved around, graceful in movement despite his size and strength.
Fangs gleaming in the fire’s light, he snapped his jaws toward me. I dodged, swerving quickly to the side, and flexed the muscles in my arm to accommodate for the heavy blade in my hand. With fierce determination, I thrust the blade deep into his rib cage.
A hoarse scream of pain ripped from him. Without pause, I yanked the sword from his lifeless body, warm droplets of blood staining my face, and spun around to face the raging flames before it even hit the ground. All sound vanished in that moment, save for the piercing scream directly in front of me.
I followed the croaking cry for help to a tiny family cottage next to the clothing store. Terrified folk darted past me, ignoring the person locked behind the orange engulfed door.
“Hang on!”
I swiftly sheathed my sword and gave the door a mighty shove, but it only budged slightly. With a few more kicks from my heavy boots, the wood came crashing down in splinters. But the doorway was now blocked by towering flames that seemed to grow with each passing second. I could feel the searing heat on my skin as I tried to find another way inside, but it seemed hopeless. It was my only way in, and there simply wasn’t enough time to find another option.
“Please,” the voice cried out to me in between fits of coughing. “Please, help me.”
My eyes darted, looking for a quick solution, but I didn’t have time to think rationally. If I wasted another second, the person inside would burn to ash. And the weight of guilt I’d have to live with for not rescuing her would eat me alive. With my mind set, I removed my jacket from my arms and tossed it over my head, hunched over, and readied myself to walk through the growing fire.
“Elm!” a voice called from behind. “No!”
The sound of Rhen’s voice slowed me. I whipped my neck toward her and took in all of her, worried expression and all. She reached out toward me, but I shook my head. Her eyes darkened with fear when she realized there was nothin she could do to stop me.
I memorized her face before turning back to the fire. If it was going to be the last time I saw her — No. I couldn’t think like that. I would find a way out because not seeing her again wasn’t an option. I’d promised her I would risk everything to rescue Rei. And I had no intention of breaking that promise.
The screaming stopped, and I knew I had to go. Unspoken words echoed between us as I thrust myself into the burning flames. The last thing I remembered was the sound of her wailing my name.
Baz
Drea licked the remaining drops of blood from her lips as she carefully sucked the last bit of marrow out of the bone. I tried to keep my face neutral and avoid cringing when she tossed the white fragment onto the ground with ease. It gave a distinct click as it collided with the pavement, causing an uncomfortable queasiness in my stomach. She surveyed her work with a satisfied smirk, obviously pleased that not a single morsel was wasted.
The goddess smiled at me, revealing stained fangs. She offered the second deer leg to me, but when I shook my head, she shrugged and sank her teeth into flesh. The memory of attacking my prey resurfaced, and I had to hold my breath to keep from spilling my guts.
“Pity,” she said in between bites, bits of skin and gristle dripping from her mouth. “I thought the beast within you would be hungry.”
Groaning, I sent a pebble skittering across the ground. “I had a big breakfast.”
“Good.”
I twisted round and caught sight of her, smearing her face a vivid shade of red with the crook of her elbow. It stirred a sense of fear in me I was hesitant to admit. The sight was one that unsettled me; it was like something inside me had awoken suddenly and my stomach wretched with nervous energy. I saw her jolting around, almost as if in a trance. She seemed oblivious to the growing pool of color beneath her feet, but I could think of little else.
“Because I need you to come with me. With the Hunt busy cleaning up the mess in town, they won’t be able to sense us.”
Instinctively, my gaze shot to the shack where we’d confined Rhen’s mother. My stomach churned again, remembering the barren and dilapidated building we’d dragged her into. It seemed like a million years since then, when it had only been mere weeks. By now, most of the food that we’d stuffed into the cabinets to keep her alive would surely be gone.
My heart plummeted, feeling like a lead weight. I’d been so fucking stupid to side with the Dreich. I’d doomed myself the moment she’d trickled her idea into my head. But the obsessive thoughts about whisking Rhen away from my brother forced me to make a rash decision. One I’d regretted every moment since.
“What about her?” I gestured towards the small structure and, as if in answer, three kaanhounds sauntered out from behind the lush foliage. Their paws thumped through the grass, beating to an ancient rhythm, one only they were privy to. Everywhere she went, those destructive beasts followed.
Drea chuckled. “If she tries to leave, my pets will rip her limbs straight off her body. Perhaps you should warn her. We leave in ten.”
She vanished without so much of a light within her glimmer. The hounds surrounded me, and I threw my hands up defensively. “Good, doggies.”
One snarled, snapping at my fingers, and I backed up slowly toward the small shack. I wrapped on the door, pressing my back against it. The goddess might trust those insatiable beasts, but I most certainly didn’t. Anything with that many sharp teeth couldn’t be expected to uphold any sort of reliability.
Evidence of her annoyance rattled through the wooden panels as Rei shouted. “What?”
The three beasts drew closer, the spines on their back trembling with anticipation. “Let me in.”
She scoffed, but the doorknob turned. I fell back into the miserably small room just as the wolf-like beasts lunged for my throat. I knew they couldn’t pass the threshold, but just to be safe, I slammed the door against them and turned to meet Rei’s unimpressed glare.
The single room shack shimmered with specks of dust from the open windows. I watched it settle to the floor as I leaned my back against the door. Then my eyes rested on the human woman, and I remembered what I’d been instructed to warn her.
“We’re leaving for a bit,” I told her calmly. Her body stiffened at the thought, and I knew her mind raced with plots of escape. “Those beasts are instructed to kill you if you attempt to leave.”
She muttered something indiscernible under her breath. I didn’t need to hear it to know what she’d said. It was no secret she wanted the hounds to shred me into a thousand pieces. She’d likely spread bits of me all across Fey territory and rejoice in my death.
“Listen,” I said with a slight tremble in my throat. “I hate keeping you here. It wasn’t my decision.”
I’d lost the privilege of making my own decisions long before I’d consumed the goddess’s blood, but the act had solidified it, binding me to whatever the bitch desired.
Like an addict, I needed—craved the salty flavor with such fervor that it shook my very core—her blood almost daily to thwart the major withdrawals. Something within it gifted me near-immortal strength and magick. Like a drug, it wore off after time and I needed another fix to curb the migraines.
If she commanded me to slit my throat, my hands would act on their own and slice deep into my carotid before I even had the chance to beg for my life.
If she commanded me to do the same to Rhen, I’d have no option, even as the tears scorched into my skin. And then I’d turn the knife on myself.
But it meant the beast within my own body resurfaced quicker. I had no more control over him than I did my own decisions. And that was none.
Rei collapsed on the ancient cot, and it groaned beneath her. If she’d been a normal, healthy human, it could have collapsed under her weight. Like Rhen, her frame was frail and thin from years of malnourishment.
She sighed heavily, running her fingers over the dust-covered quilt. “Then sparkle me out of here with feyrie dust. It’s your only shot at redemption. Maybe she would even forgive you one day.”
At the sheer mention of Rhen, rage slicked up my spine like a heatwave. I had to clamp my eyes shut to fend off the beast dwelling inside there, just waiting for the opportune moment to revive. When I opened them, the monster retreated.
Rei glowered at me, awaiting my answer.
“Glimmer,” I corrected with a sigh. Though she didn’t realize it, feyrie dust was something else entirely. “And you know I can’t do that. No matter how much I want to. You think I wanted to hold the mother of the woman I love hostage?”
“You can find a way. Aren’t your kind good at finding loopholes? Elm said that’s your specialty.”
A low rumble slid through bared fangs. “I thought I told you never to say that name!”
The control I had over my body slipped and my legs stomped toward the woman. She did not feign, even as I wrapped my fingers around her throat.
“Kill me,” she breathed. “And you’ll lose her forever.”
The thought rattled something deep beneath the surface of my skin. I regained a slight sense of self and released her from my grip. Shaking my head violently, I locked the monster away once again.
Blubbering, blundering fool. It growled into my mind, a gravelly voice. One I hadn’t heard since I was a boy.
Sharp pain ran through my fingertips as my claws protruded from my skin. I bellowed out in agony, staring at the sharp black talons. I hated myself, this thing I was becoming.
I turned my claws inward on myself, deliberately shredding my shirt and desperately trying to rid myself of the beast completely. Rei’s eyes widened, boring holes into my soul as she stood.
I was losing it. My grip on reality. The voice echoed with a sinister laugh, and I yelled.
“Stop it! Leave me alone!”
Rei’s fingers spread as she reached out to me. I turned on her, heart racing with panic. “No! Stay away! Please.”
Give in to me. Kill her.
I knew I couldn’t do it, but the desire to feel sticky blood on my hands grew with every second. A sharp howl rang in my ears, and I reached for the door, throwing myself outside into the heat before I did anything I’d regret later.
All three of the canines stalked the perimeter of the forest. One of them lurched forward from the tree line, shaking its reddish coat. With its fangs bared, it charged forward.
Something insidious broke free within me, and I launched myself at it. Teeth sank into its rubbery flesh, and hot liquid spilled on my tongue.
The hound whined, drawing back to retreat. I watched it, blood dripping from my lip as it fled into the brush. Its friends held their positions, eyeing me with deep-seated curiosity.
Respect.
Confusion.
I’d been terrified of them earlier, and they’d attacked because they sensed my fear. But, with the monster in full control, I’d beaten them.
Become one of them.