Page 99 of Unleashed

Balir climbed atop the platform on hands and knees and swept aside the crystal shards that littered it. Vortok bent forward and helped, swinging his massive arms from side to side to dislodge the crystal pieces that were still encrusted in place.

Turning his hand palm-up, Balir rapped his knuckles on the stone, listening for a change to the dullthwaphis knocking produced. He moved as quickly as he could without creating too much noise to hear over; the beasts were already loud enough while they finished their meal.

The tone of his knock changed suddenly. He felt it resonate, just barely, through the stone under his other hand. “Here, Vortok,” he called, slapping the top of the platform.

One of the beasts let out an agitated shriek. Balir didn’t have to see them to recognize what the sound meant; he’d caught its attention. The eating noises diminished, and he felt the eyes of the beasts — of hispeople— swinging toward him. He was covered in Nina’s blood. They’d sense it as a wound and come for him, first.

“We need to hurry,” Balir said.

Vortok grunted. Balir scooted back as his sound-sight gave him a blurred image of the big valo slamming both fists down onto the stone slab.

A great crack split the air, echoing outward across the city. As the sound bounced back to him, he was granted a ghostly impression of his tribesmen lifting their heads and turning toward him.

Vortok waved awaythe small cloud of dust that arose when the stone broke and reached into the hollow, heaving aside the larger chunks of stone. His hackles were raised; he could feel the attention of his bestial tribesmen shifting toward him, could sense the ravenous violence they were about to direct at him and his companions. Even more pressing was Nina’s condition. She was tough, but how long could she hold on?

His eyes widened.

Dozens of heartstones lay inside the hollow, all glowing like fire, their red-orange illumination highlighting the motes of dust in the air above them.

“What do we do with them?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” Balir replied, his words sped by his panic. “Just throw them!”

Vortok plunged both hands into the piled stones, scooping up a large number, and tossed them toward the beasts. They shifted their gazes to the stones. With growls and grunts, many of the beasts began to change.

The ones who weren’t changing stalked forward, baring teeth already stained black by Kelsharn’s blood.

“More!” Vortok shouted.

He and Balir reached into the hollow and withdrew the heartstones by the handful, hurling them at the approaching beasts. Vortok didn’t allow his gaze to linger on the creatures for long; to do so would mean he’d have to admit to himself that he didn’t recognizeanyof them, not the way they looked now, and that would be too much guilt to bear.

It was already too much that Nina was hurt, that she’d been injured when he and his brothers should’ve been protecting her.

When too few stones were left to scoop them out in handfuls, Vortok struggled to pluck them up one at a time, his large, clumsy fingers making the task more difficult. He was thankful for Balir’s presence in those moments; Balir’s dexterous hands moved quickly, snatching up heartstones almost faster than Vortok’s eyes could track.

Movement at the corner of his vision had Vortok turning his head. He thrust out an arm, catching one of the lunging beasts by the throat and halting its forward momentum before it pounced on Balir. The beast twisted and thrashed in his hold, clawing at his arm. He resisted his instinctual urge to kill; this was one of his people, someone he knew, and they did not deserve to pay for what had been done to them against their will.

Balir lifted the final heartstone from the hollow. The beast in Vortok’s hold snapped its attention to the stone. Its skin heated beneath Vortok’s palm, and its bones shifted as it changed. Balir tossed the stone onto the ground, and Vortok released his hold.

The beast scrambled on the ground and lifted its heartstone in paws that were stretching into hands and fingers.

Bestial growls and howls became the pained cries ofpeople.

Vortok looked out over them. There were people now where the beasts had stood a few moments before, males and females, some of their chests still glowing with the light of freshly absorbed heartstones. Their faces were gaunt, their expressions bewildered and pained, but the madness was slowly fading from their eyes. He recognized them now, though each of them possessed features from the beasts they’d been melded with.

His heart squeezed. This was histribe. Their people. They lived, they were being made whole, and it was because of…

Nina!

He ran around to the backside of the platform, where Aduun held Nina. Pale, bloody, courageous Nina. As Balir leapt off the platform to stand beside Vortok, she smiled softly.

“You did it,” she said.

Vortok reached toward her but stopped his hand before touching her. She looked so fragile, so depleted, sohurt, that he was afraid to do any more damage.

“You won’t hurt me, Vortok,” she whispered, lifting her arms toward him. They trembled lightly. “It’s your turn. I showed Aduun the way, so he can lead us out…but I need your help. Be my strength. Both of you,” she said, turning her gaze toward Balir, who brushed the backs of his knuckles over her cheek.

Vortok crouched and gathered Nina carefully as Aduun passed her over. He straightened, cradling his mate in his arms. She pressed her hands over her abdomen, holding a blood-stained cloth over her wounds.

---