Page 130 of A Dusk Of Stars

Just as he lands, the whip wraps around his neck, making me let out a laugh.

The laugh dies down when he doesn’t let it tighten. He growls and shakes his head to get rid of it.

He lunges before I can summon another one.

There’s a split second when time seems to come to a stop, this giant bear with fury in its eyes rapidly filling up my field of vision.

My heart pounds.

For one beat, two.

Then, like the flip of a switch, my very existence in the meat sack I occupy becomes pure blinding pain and nothing else. It’s the physical anguish of suddenly being aware of everything that normally goes on in the background — all the bones moving in their joints, all the blood pumping through my veins, all the collisions of the world around me with my own senses.

Just as all the pain makes my entire body tense up to a point I feel can only be followed by it shattering to a million pieces…

This strange lightness sweeps over me like a soft exhale and I find myself standing on four paws instead of two legs.

I sniff at the air, catching a whiff of a familiar scent, the sound of the creature’s blood pumping through its veins pounding in my ears.

For a moment, I just keep standing there, my eyes lowering and narrowing at the tiny bear who seems to be frozen mid-movement in front of me, shock in its eyes.

Shock and this…

Awe?

I don’t wait to see its reaction. I can feel the power coursing through me, but there’s a strange, ominous silence as well, silence that makes me feel like I shouldn’t stay like this too long.

Just until I get away from the bear. I move for the forest again, its darkness and its smells and its inhabitants calling out to me, when I hear this low growl sound from behind my back.

I stop and turn around to see the bear lunging at me again, a split second before its maw closes around my hind leg.

The pain is searing, the blood is hot and the rage is blinding.

I shake the bear off and snap my teeth at him.

It doesn’t give up, moving to run around me and block my way.

I catch it mid-movement, closing my maw around its body and lifting it high up in the air, its legs thrashing as I dig my teeth deeper and deeper, this dark, shut-off part of me reveling in the pained sounds it makes.

I’m a hunter after all. It’s in my blood.

It takes effort, but I stop myself before I make its heart stop beating. I swing my head to the side and propel the bear through the night air, making sure it lands far away from me.

Then I turn around, I use my hind legs to kick myself off the ground and I dart into the woods, shifting back just as I start nearing the clearing with the cave.

***

“Ready?” Serra asks me as soon as I come to a stop in front of her. We’re in the clearing, the moon hanging low above our heads as we stand in front of a grassy mound with the mouth of the cave opening into the darkness below. I’m giving her my most expressionless face, fighting with all my strength not to think about anything that just happened with Lorcan — especially hislies— and focus on the task at hand.

It’s by the unmistakable, unsettling stench of the place that I know Serra was right. Thisisthe spot where his last piece is buried.

“Yes,” I say with a nod. “Let’s go.”

She nods back and motions for me to follow. I have to duck to enter and keep my head down as we make our way through the dark, narrow passage.

My heart starts pounding long before we step onto the bottom of the cave and I stop, letting my eyes sweep over it all. It’s enormous and empty but shut off on all sides, the surrounding walls dimly lit with this unnatural, unsettling light and the dome above me swallowed by darkness.

I don’t take long to inspect it. My eye is irresistibly drawn to the rough pedestal at the front of the space.

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