Page 64 of Unleashed

“What good will your eyes do here?” Balir asked, his tone too harsh. He released a slow breath before continuing. “I will be fine, Aduun. Your concern is appreciated, but this is no different than your venturing out alone to hunt. Try to give her water, carefully. It will help.”

“We will care for her. Be safe,” Vortok said when Aduun didn’t answer.

Balir’s pang of guilt was almost enough to distract him from his rage, his bloodlust, his helplessness, almost enough to keep him there with his friends and his mate… But his beast hadn’t quite accepted them as a pack. There was still struggle there, still conflict.

“You as well,” he replied before turning away and walking deeper into the cave.

The gentle crackling of the small fire soon faded as Balir moved through the winding passage. The walls followed no apparent pattern, widening and drawing together at random, but there didn’t seem to be any spots too narrow for Vortok to fit through, even if he’d have to turn sideways and empty his lungs at a few points.

Balir examined the cave’s features through sound-sight and touch. Though the walls and floor were difficult to discern from a natural cavern, he noted the lack of the spikey formations that often protruded from the ceilings and floors of most of the caves he’d been in. Though it went through twists and turns, there were no branching paths, no other chambers, not a single crevice in the walls. This place was old, but it was notancient, and it had not been shaped by Sonhadra.

He walked for a long while, detecting neither sound nor scent to indicate the presence of any other creatures. The air current remained at his back, urging him along, and soon its chill was contrasted by a slight increase in warmth of the air ahead of him. The echo of his clicking changed subtly; he lifted a hand to the wall again, running his fingertips over the stone.

Through most of the cave, the rock had been uneven and bumpy, but smooth-feeling. Here it was gritty, rougher, and felt as though it ran in crude striations.

The air continued to warm gradually as he advanced. He bit back the urge to hurry forward; his beast sensed open air somewhere ahead, though it was yet far-off, and the barrenness of the cave would not satisfy its hunger.

Control. For Nina, I must be in control.

Had she stirred again? Had she woken? It didn’t seem likely, but the thought of not being with her when she finally opened her eyes made his gut churn.

This is the right thing, he told himself.The best thing. At least until I know I am in control.

The cave steadily widened around him, the walls running in smoother, rounded curves, like the stone had been scooped out by some massive tool. Balir felt a grit of sand under his feet, thickening as he walked forward. And then he sensed it — the opening. A wide, circular hole in the stone, and beyond it…

A distant, sighing wind. There was a strange quality to the sound, as though it were at once amplified and muffled. Heat.

The heat nearly lured him out of the cave.

He stopped himself before he reached the opening, pressing a hand against the stone to anchor himself in place. After so much cold, the warmth radiating from outside was delightful, and hecravedit.

But he and his companions were going to do thistogether. They would press on together, face the coming challenges together, and find their people together.

Both times they’d moved from one area to the next, the way from which they’d come had been somehow sealed or obscured. Would something be triggered if he crossed through that opening? Would the cave seal behind him, separating him from his companions, trapping them forever?

He couldn’t risk that. Couldn’t endanger Aduun, Vortok, and Nina simply because his beast hungered. He would not allow his judgment to be clouded, not when it came to everyone’s safety.

His claws scraped stone as his fingers involuntarily curled.

Balir’s stomach clenched, suddenly hollow, begging to be filled with warm, bloody flesh, to be sated by the thrill of a fresh kill.

We have meat. It is not a recent kill, but it is enough to satisfy my urges. Itwillbe enough.

He growled and shoved away from the wall.

The return trip was much faster, sped in part by his agitation. The air swiftly grew colder, and he smelled the fire long before he rounded the bend that led into the wide space in which they’d made camp; its smell mingled with the combined scents of Vortok, Aduun, and Nina; the smell of blood was greatly diminished, leading him to assume they’d taken some time to wash.

Once he’d informed them that he’d found the exit and suggested they move Nina closer to it, Vortok and Aduun quickly gathered and repacked the items they’d removed from the bags and put out the fire, salvaging what fuel they could from its remains. Aduun carried Nina again, guided by Balir’s tail, while Vortok — moving with more confidence and stability, but grunting and grumbling every time the cave narrowed — took the rear.

They laid Nina on her blanket near the mouth of the cave, where the space was broad enough for all of them to lay side-by-side if they chose. Balir sat next to her, folding half the blanket over her naked body while Vortok and Aduun moved to the opening and paused on either side. Both heeded Balir’s advice and didn’t pass through.

“I have never seen a land such as this,” Aduun said after a long while.

“The stories were not wrong,” Vortok said. “Dust, sand, and rock. The plants look stunted and dry.”

“And the sun… Even here in the shade, it is almost too bright to look out.”

“At least it is warm,” said Vortok.

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