Hunted [Wild Hunt Series: 1]

29: Please

Evening brought a stilled, peaceful hush over the grim forest. Wind moved like a ghost through graves; the rounded lobes of oak leaves danced more from the flickering shadows of our fire than any natural air current. Smoke and the chary sear of cooked meat hung in the crackling air.  The buzz of insects, the distant trickle of a narrow stream, and quiet radiance of the stars made the forest, if only for a moment, seem to exhale and relax. Gnarled roots and darkened corners into which the women crawled held an earthen coziness; the soil was still warm from day's green vespers and their eyes were too exhausted to stay awake much longer.

Only a few of us were left awake to watch and listen and pray that the pervading gentility held steady through the long night. Only a few of us were awake to see Chiro's return. The man had padded forth from the darkness completely nude and without so much as a "Hello."

A beautiful Pakistani teen with haunted eyes—Yarah, she'd told us in broken English—gasped and turned away. Val didn't seem to know what to do with herself. Beside me, Dakota leaned forward on her perch of curled root, twisting her head with owlish curiosity as he moved past us; I pulled her back, my own gaze fixed on the flames until I'd heard him move to the far side of the stallion and locate his clothes. The steady dance of a happy wolf's paws and the furry thump of a few heavy-handed pets told me when to stop averting my eyes.

Somewhere nestled into the rocks, Dot stirred with a feeble cry. Another girl held her close as I stood from the ground and headed to address the demon who'd fetched our dinner.

Gabriel had twisted his body into a 'c' shape, leaning heartily into his master's legs. Chiro was bent over slightly, running his hands over the enormous wolf's shoulders. In a faintly luminescent flash, grey eyes regarded my approach.

"Saved you a piece," I said, nodding over my shoulder, "but you better hurry."

My apprehensive glance skipped toward Shail. As stars filled the twilight sky, the crag cat had gotten increasingly more playful and a good deal hungrier. He stretched and rolled along the forest floor, spanning out his claws to just barely clip the meat I'd had resting on a stone. One of the cat lovers in the bunch, Yarah, would gently push the cat's paw back with a stick. Shail would grumble a bit, then roll and stretch and flex those toes a liiiiitle closer, and the process would begin anew.

"Already ate," Chiro said, straightening. Gabe tilted his head back to stare up at him. When it became clear that no further pets were being offered, he swished his rump back to the warmth of the fire and settled beside Val, who obliged his nosy stares with a vigorous ear-rub.

The two of us watched the wolf half-purr at Val's attentions, and then my focus returned to the man.

"Did you find him?" I asked in a hushed tone.

"Further on, near the edge of the Oaks, that's where he'll be," Chiro said, brushing fur from his legs. "There's at least one other Lord waiting to pick you off there."

I looked back at all the sleeping woman, at Val and Yarah and Dakota. My stomach flipped through anxious thoughts. I had to get them to the castle, had to. "Will those two be a problem?"

"Akta," Chiro began with offhand concern, checking the horse's condition, "is worse than a problem."

"What do you mean?"

He rested a hand on the thick, equine neck. "He's been leaving a trail of bodies. I've examined a few. Akta is more than a Lord. He's one of the Witch's priests. There will be consequences for killing him. If you can kill him." His tone, like the night, was drenched in unsullied calm, but there was something uncertain in its depths that made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end.