“No, Finley.” Hannon stepped forward as if to grab me and haul me away to safety.
I threw out my hand. “Stay put, damn it! You have the everlass. Chartreuse in the village square knows how to make the nulling elixir better than anyone else besides me. Ask her for help. Keep Father alive. I’ll…” What would I do? What could I possibly do against a beast? “I will get through this somehow, and I will come back for you, okay? Keep them alive. All of them.”
The tears leaked down my cheeks. My words dripped with sorrow. We both knew I wouldn’t be coming back.
It was okay, though. He’d look after them better than I could. He was the family rock in the ongoing storm.
“I love you all,” I said, turning and stalking quickly for the door.
“What’s she doing?” Dash whined.
“No, Finley,” Sable said, all of them huddled at the entrance to the dark hall.
I removed the wood blocking the door. I paused but didn’t look back. I wanted to go out a hero. I didn’t want the last image they had of me to be of a scared girl headed out to meet her fate.
4
After closing the door behind me, I took off at a sprint. I’d be damned if the beast would kill me in front of my family.
I didn’t take the path through the neighbor’s yard, either. It might barrel after me and take them and their house out in the crossfire. Instead, I took the lane down the center of the houses and around.
The beast’s roar sliced through me, making me stumble, commanding me to stop. The force nearly locked up my legs and turned my body to wood. The effect tickled a memory, but my bleating panic wiped it from my mind.
Wood splintered, and heavy footsteps sounded on the path behind me. It must’ve crashed through our garden fence. Hannon could repair that, no problem. At least it was following me. That was the plan.
Putting on a burst of speed, I headed for the Forbidden Wood. I didn’t dare look back. I didn’t want to see the size of the thing. Besides, if it somehow snuck up on me, swooped down, and bit me in two, at least the end would be quick. It would be better than trying to fight a losing battle with a somewhat dull dagger.
Around the last house in the lane, I ran by the sycamore and randomly cursed myself for not telling Hannon to take those books back to the library. As though that were the most important thing in all of this.
Reaching the tree line of the Forbidden Wood, I wondered why I hadn’t been caught. It should’ve reached me by now.
Maybe it hadn’t followed…
I slowed to a stop and spun, expecting to see empty space. Instead, I very nearly wet myself.
Its progress had been utterly silent. Not one puff of breath or massive footstep had alerted me to its presence. But it had followed me all the same.
A massive creature stood just beyond the sycamore, looking down on me. Those eyes glowed in the semidarkness, seemingly soaking up the moonlight showering its dull, murky black scales. A great head reached half as high as the peak of a tall tree, two horns curling away from the top. Its scaled face had a protruding jaw, and long teeth jutted from its lipless mouth. I’d seen its massive shoulders before, taller than me, with a deep, muscular chest. Two stout legs supported it in front, and the upper body sloped down to the hindquarters and slightly shorter back legs.
If I had my leather sheath, I would slip my dagger into it. It wouldn’t help me against what I faced.
If I had more courage, I would stand my ground.
I spun and ran like hell.
I didn’t even know where I was going. Nor did I look back to see if it was following me. I had zero control over myself right then. Panic was driving this wagon, and it was doing it with drunk horses.
I zigzagged around trees and stumbled over rocks. My shoulder rammed a tree trunk I hadn’t noticed, and I careened into a tangle of briars. I gasped as a thorn ripped into my arm and tore my nightshirt. My breath came in fast pants, and the scene before me wiggled in my tear-soaked vision. Some hero. I’d slipped into full damsel, and honestly, I would not mind being saved. I would not mind it at all.
Beyond a set of reaching bushes, I suddenly realized where I was. The tall birch, seemingly out of place, stood before me a ways, marking the everlass field. Even in my blind panic, I’d had enough directional sense to get there. Given that I’d been caught thieving from this very field, it was probably the worst place for me to have led the beast. Then again, where the hell else was I going to go? I could hide in here all night and return home tomorrow…only to find the beast at my house again. I couldn’t escape the village, and now I couldn’t escape the beast.