“What?” I asked again, scared that maybe I had inadvertently hurt her.
Pru struggled to breathe out her warning again, but this time I heard her desperation. “R-Run, Rosalie.” Her breathing was ragged as she looked behind me in terror. “It’s a trap!”
Goose bumps traveled up my arms, and I sensed we were not alone.
“You cannot have her,” I said firmly, sending the mage light high above my head to try and cast its rays onto the beast.
The cracking of branches echoed around me as the beast moved in the darkness. I spun, trying to find it again, to keep the threat in front of me, not behind. Knowing that may be the only warning I’d have if it attacked, my hands crackled as I harnessed my power, focusing it as I prepared to defend myself.
“It’s not a beast,” Pru whimpered fearfully.
“What is it, then?” I asked.
“It’s Gaven,” she whispered.
A slow clap came from the woods, and I turned as Gaven stepped out from behind the tree line. “But that’s where you’re wrong, little girl. For I am more than a beast. I am invincible.” He fingered the fur he wore on his back, and I eyed it suspiciously.
“It’s enchanted, isn’t it,” I said, nodding to the black fur.
“I told you I was the greatest hunter alive. I killed a legendary brackenbeast. I’d heard tales of their powers, so I skinned it with a silver knife while under a hunter’s moon and took its fur as my prize.”
“You killed a fey. Why would you do that?” I gasped in horror, realizing that by doing it under those conditions, he had embedded some of the fey’s magic into the skin, making the wearer a shapeshifter.
“I was bored of hunting with arrows.” Gaven grinned. “Now I hunt with teeth and claws, and it is exhilarating. And no one can stop me. Not even you.”
“I will stop you. I guarantee it,” I threatened.
“We could have been good together, you and me,” he said, shaking his head. “But then you had to go and ruin it by being her—a daughter of Eville.”
“It wouldn’t have worked.” I shook my head, still reeling from the shock of his betrayal. “You’re a murderer.”
“No, I will be hailed as a savior, for I have rid the kingdom of you.”
“What?” I said in shock.
“When the envoy from Florin learned the prince’s new wife was a daughter of Eville and heard the rumors of how much the prince and king hated the arrangement, he approached the king with a proposition. He wanted you, and King Gerald wanted peace and the witch’s spawn gone. Earlsgaarde laid out a trap to get you away from the palace and closer to Florin.”
“You became the beast and created a trail for us to follow.”
“The kingdom has been plagued with tales of a harmless beast that roamed the woods for years. I just turned that fairy tale into reality.”
“You killed Thomas. And that’s why Herez screamed when she saw your cloak. You tried to kill her.”
His eyes glittered with joy. “No, I did kill her. You didn’t think Herez really ran home to her parents in the middle of the night. I couldn’t let her live, in case she told others. I killed her and the others, all laying the trail to get you far away from the palace, past the wards and into Earlsgaarde’s hands.”
“The failed kidnapping.” I nodded in realization. “And you were the one who shot me!”
Gaven nodded. “Xander is stupid. He doesn’t see you for how evil you truly are and tried to protect you.”
“No, you’re the evil one. You are murdering in cold blood.”
I was secretly relieved to discover it hadn’t been me. I wasn’t the beast. But Gaven’s story still didn’t explain who killed the kidnappers in the forest.
The whole time we were talking, I had walked, drawing him farther away from Pru, who had used my distraction to run away, hopefully for help. Now it was just the two of us.
When Gaven noticed his prisoner had escaped, he gnashed his teeth. “No worries. I’ll hunt her down soon enough. After I kill you.” He lifted the black fur over his head.
The air hummed with the current of magic as he changed and I gathered power to me, preparing to cut him down. I watched as the fur bonded to his skin, shifting and stretching. Two large horns grew from his head, and his mouth elongated, sharp, pointed teeth filling his muzzle. A brackenbeast—the legendary creature of Sion with the head of a lion, horns of a bull, and the strength of a bear.
Even though he loomed before me, a terrifying beast that had killed and hunted down people in cold blood, all I could think about was the man who had made me smile in the stables, danced with me in the ballroom, and had even tried to kiss me. These were basic human emotions my mother warned would make me weak, and I struggled with them.
My hesitation was a fateful error, as he lunged straight at me. Slipping on the wet leaves, falling backward, I released a bolt of lightning that missed Gaven. I slid down a small gully, my head smacking against a rock before I collided with a rotting log that rolled over my body, pinning my leg underneath. Pain filled my mind, and while I tried to push it away and escape, I was hopelessly trapped.
As the brackenbeast drew close, his hot, rank breath warm against my neck, I looked up as its mouth opened in a snarl and saw its deadly teeth. I was paralyzed with fear, unable to think or conjure a spell in the midst of this great horror.
Of all the deaths I had seen in my lifetime, I had never seen mine—until now.
I closed my eyes and prayed over my soul, wondering briefly who would see my death vision.
A blur of fur brushed past my face, and then the brackenbeast was gone, knocked away from me by the sudden attack of a second beast—a great copper wolf the size of a horse.
The wolf placed himself in front of me, his hackles raised against the much larger brackenbeast.
The fight between two beasts of fey lore was both terrifying and awe inspiring. The brackenbeast was larger and more massive, but the wolf was quicker and more agile.
The wolf growled in challenge, his back tense as he paced, most likely looking for a weak spot to attack. The brackenbeast wasn’t intimidated; lowering his head, he led with his horns and charged. I heard the cry of pain from the wolf and was spurred into action.
Focusing through the ringing in my head, I blasted the log off me, the repercussions reverberating through my head in a throbbing headache. My ankle was starting to swell already, but I limped to my feet and tried to focus on the two dark shapes fighting to the death before me.
One shot. I would have one shot if I were lucky before I passed out from using so much magic.
A yelp of pain drew my gaze. The brackenbeast had the wolf pinned down, the wolf’s throat exposed as the beast pulled back his clawed hand. They were too close. I couldn’t hit one without hitting the other.
“No!” I shouted in fear.
Gobbersnot rushed out of the grass, a silver knife glinting in his hands as he jumped onto the beast, stabbing it in the side over and over again.
The brackenbeast howled before grabbing the goblin with one hand, his claws digging into Gobbersnot’s skull as he stood up and tossed the goblin farther down the gully and into the raging river. His body disappeared under the dark water.
“Nooo!”
Amid my grief, I realized Gobbersnot had given me my only opening. I wasn’t going to waste it.