I nocked my prepared arrow and edged closer, ready to fire again if it moved.
But it didn’t.
Dark blood oozed from its mouth and the eye I’d pierced, but it didn’t so much as blink.
I’d done it.
I’d killed a Horror.
Maybe there was something good to come from my magic.
I laughed and circled around the monster’s massive form so I could get to the palace and, hopefully, find Bastian. The sun had dipped below the buildings around me. It wouldn’t be long before the poison in my system would reset and start— Clicking.
Behind me.
I wasn’t even past the dead Horror, but the sound gripped my heart and it felt like I took an hour to turn and…
Another Horror. Charging. Screeching now it had lost the element of surprise.
I backed off. I just needed to run for the palace. I just needed to— Something snagged my heel and the world lurched.
Somehow, I caught myself on the dead Horror’s legs. Coppery blood flooded my mouth where I’d bitten my tongue.
And the charging Horror was almost here.
No time to run.
I drew, aimed, fired in a single breathless moment.
The shriek told me I hit, but I was already bloodying another arrow, gasping as tears stung the corners of my eyes. Tears weren’t useful, though, so I gritted my teeth and straightened, bowstring taut.
This Horror had to be tougher than the last, because it was still bearing down on me, sharp teeth bared. Fifteen feet away. Ten.
I fired.
A shriek that cut off as the monster’s neck arched.
It fell silent and I sagged with relief.
But its legs were still moving, even as its head slumped, like its body hadn’t quite caught up with the fact it was dead.
Five feet.
I ran.
Tripped.
Scrambled to my feet.
Then a terrible weight crashed into me.
My muscles jerked, burned, but… I couldn’t move. Cold stone pressed into my cheek, and something lay across my back. My bow sat several feet away, rocking on the ground.
When I looked over my shoulder, I understood.
The Horror lay across my back, pinning me to the ground.
And the sky deepened to twilight as a tingling began in my fingertips.
53
Bastian
Reports came in on our way south. Most of the Horrors were down, but my lookouts had lost sight of the two in the southern quarter after they’d stopped to help a family who’d become trapped.
Thankfully, I had Faolán and Rose. They picked up the foul stink of Horrors and followed the trail towards the palace. The closer we got, the harder my heart pounded. They couldn’t make it across the river. Couldn’t.
But a chill trickled down my spine.
And it grew worse as I blinked up at the darkening violet sky.
The sun had set.
Dread gripped my heart, and I spurred our group on. Elthea had said aconite took up to an hour to kill. How much time did Kat have left?
We hit a main road leading to the palace and found the way blocked. The bodies of two Horrors lay on the ground, and Rose huffed as if clearing the stink from her nose.
“Who took them down?” I turned my stag, searching for any sign of Cyrus and his guards.
Faolán shrugged. “The lookout said they’d lost them. The unit for this quarter was scouring the lower city. This couldn’t have been them. There’s an arrow in its eye. Could be a civilian?”
Rose lifted her head and sniffed the air. Frowning, she pulled ahead, approaching the fallen monsters.
I growled, strangling the reins. “I could’ve started searching for Kat twenty minutes ago if I’d known they were already down.” She might be at the palace or Ariadne’s shop. The Hall of Healing didn’t seem likely—not after what Elthea had done to her. I wheeled my stag around, ready to ride for the palace. “Check on the other patrols. I’m going after—”
“Wait.” Nostrils flaring, Faolán started after Rose. “Is that…？”
Picking her way between the Horrors’ limbs, she nodded. “I can smell her.”
I leapt from my stag just as Faolán sucked in a breath.
“The fletching on that arrow.” He nodded towards the ruined eye of the Horror facing us.
“Barn owl.” My heart leapt as my stomach dropped, like I didn’t know whether to be hopeful or horrified. “She shot it?” I hurried closer, trying to ascertain whether the shot to the eye was what had killed it.
Something pale stuck out from its mouth. A second arrow. Definitely Kat’s.
She’d killed it. But there was a second—had she taken them both down and continued to the palace searching for me?
I turned on my heel. “I need to get to—”
And that was when I saw.
A spill of red hair snaking across the ground.
I didn’t remember moving, just that I was at her side. “Kat?”
Face down, horribly still and pale. She looked too much like she had at unCavendish’s feet, dying. Yet the only injury I could see was a cut on her arm, and her skin wasn’t dried out like she’d been fed upon by a Horror. Her bow lay nearby, covered in bloody fingerprints. Her blood—poisonous blood.
This was her work.
Her genius fucking work.
“Get this thing off her,” I bellowed as I yanked off my gauntlet. The instant I could, I pressed my palm to her ashen cheek, refusing to so much as blink at the sting of her poison, while Faolán, Rose, and the guards heaved the Horror to one side. “Katherine?”
With the softest sound, she frowned. Slowly, like waking from a deep, deep sleep, she stirred and her dark lashes fluttered against her cheek.
“Katherine, love,” I murmured, cradling her head, keeping my skin against hers. “It’s time to wake up. You’ve got two kills to celebrate.”
Two Horrors. Her incredible aim and her magic. A fucking miracle.
As her eyes opened and focused on me, the dread unclenched in my chest and pride surged in its place, hot and bright. “There you are.”
“I am.” She gave a tired smile, blinking slowly. “You found me in time. My poison…”
“Thank the fucking Stars.”
She touched my cheek, the leather of her gloves not nearly as soft as her skin. “Thank you.”
I scoffed but pulled her closer, desperate to reassure myself that this was real. “You’re the one who survived—who killed two Horrors. I could kiss you for it.”
She bit her lip. “Why don’t you?” She tilted her head, mouth coming closer to mine, so I felt her next words. “Memento mori.”
Yes. Yes.
Time opened up. I bent in. My body throbbed with each heartbeat.
But then that heartbeat lurched. I jolted upright, searching for another Horror on instinct.
There was none.
Yet my gut said something was wrong. That usually meant danger.
Before I could shake it off, Kat pulled from my hold, a tight, false smile in place as she yanked her sleeve over the cut.
Rose helped her to her feet. “How did you…？” She eyed Kat, then the fallen Horrors.
The guards turned on her, gaping. As she explained that she’d shot them with poisoned arrows, I became aware that my gaze skipped right over something on the periphery of the group.
Make that someone.
I steeled myself and turned to Orpha. “This is about your prisoner.”