Page 37 of The Mirror of Beasts

“Was that … ?” Neve began groggily, rising onto her knees.

“A wolf?” Olwen suggested.

“There aren’t any in this part of the world,” Emrys said.

The howl came again, and this time, it was answered.

Tenfold.

The baying creatures worked one another up into a feral frenzy. Each yelp and cry clawed at my ears. The reaction in my body was visceral, nurtured by centuries of inherited fear. Wolves had been hunted into extinction in this region; it couldn’t be a wild pack. And that first howl … There was something about it—something that made my body want to lock up and my throat close.

Cabell.

I shoved up onto my feet, grabbing the jacket I’d hung from a hook on the wall, and my boots, and launched myself toward the stairs down to the pub.

“Tamsin—wait!” Emrys moved to catch me, but I dodged his grip and burst into the dark pub. Thunder roared in the near distance, shaking the building in its fist. Glassware rained down from the shelves behind the bar, shattering.

The Bonecutter had warned us to stay inside, but if Cabell was out there, I had to try to find him. I might never get another chance.

I tugged my boots on, not wasting the second it would take to lace them. Throwing the door open, I ran out onto the path. A blistering wind slashed through my clothes as I tried to determine which direction the howls were coming from.

They echoed off the pub’s stone walls, heckling, only to disappear again as the wind kicked the snow and loose earth up from the ground.

Caitriona took a running leap down the pub’s steps, Neve and Olwen close behind her. I fell in line beside Caitriona, trusting in her tracking ability over mine. We ran off the path where it curved toward the village and instead continued along the rugged line of the coast. The knife in her fist glinted like a fang in the early-morning light.

Loose stones and ice bit at my feet. My eyes stung as beads of hot tears dripped down my cheeks. Caitriona slid to a sudden stop ahead, throwing an arm out just in time to catch Olwen. I forced myself to slow as I came up behind them, panting.

The fierce landscape looked as if it had been cleaved with a giant’s sword. At our feet, the ground dropped precipitously in a sheer cliff, whose base eased into a gently sloping hill. Halfway down was the thatched roof of a small cottage. The whole structure struggled against the billowing wind, quivering like a rabbit in the teeth of a wolf.

I shielded my eyes, searching for the way down to it—if I ran left for maybe half a mile, it looked like the slope was less severe and I could wind my way over and down. The howls deadened into a low roar in my ears.

Someone grabbed me from behind before I could run. I hit the ground hard, drawing snow and dust into my lungs. Pain flooded my already aching body.

“Let me go!” I cried, trying to twist away.

Emrys only held on to me tighter, his arms locked around my waist. “Believe me, I wish I could, but for once you’re going to have to trust me and just—look!”

He spun us both to face the coastline, where the sky over the sea had turned an ominous green. Thick gray clouds there unfurled, spilling out high above the raging water onto the cliffs.

The sky opened, dumping hailstones and ice shards sharp enough to cut my arm and Emrys’s cheek. He swore under his breath, releasing one hand to dab at the cut, even as another split open his brow. “Damn, the pretty face was the last thing I had going for me—”

His body was shockingly warm against mine, and in the biting cold, I was too aware of every place we touched, his chest to my back, my arms against his—

“Take your hands off me,” I snarled.

And damn him, but to prove his point, he loosened his grip. I felt the change in my balance immediately; without our combined weight my boots slid through the mud and ice toward the cliffs, and the churning clouds.

He shook his head, shouting to be heard above the wailing wind. “You really want to see if you can fly, Bird?”

Bird.

Ice pelted me, catching my chin, my cheek, and still, it took a moment to remember to raise an arm to protect my face.

“Lark.” Emrys squeezed his eyes shut, anger sharpening the lines of his face. But it wasn’t directed at me, and I didn’t understand it. He held out a hand to me.

“Tamsin! Over here!” Neve waved her arms above her head until I caught sight of the movement through the blinding storm.

It was the wind, blowing from every direction at once, that made the decision for me. At least, that was what I told myself as I clasped my hand around Emrys’s wrist and let him close his around mine. He hauled me back toward him, only shifting his grip so we could both face forward as we fought our way toward Neve.

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