Page 58 of Hunted

“Your grandmothers said we were.”

“My grandmothers also said we were safe at their house. That turned out to be something of an exaggeration.”

“An oversight. They didn’t know what the creature was capable of.” He paused. “Why are we talking about that?”

“I’m not sure. Something doesn’t feel… right.”

“Feel?”

“I don’t know. I heard a sound, and it’s like the mood has shifted.”

The trees were dark, and quiet. Not an animal stirred on the other side of that stone wall, no birds, or squirrels, or even rabbits. I would’ve been able to hear them—I could even have seen them, my senses being as sharp as they were, even in my Fae form.

“You don’t think—”

“—Amara,” Valerian cut me off before I could finish what I was about to say.

I turned my head to look at him. “What?” I asked.

He had his eyes up at the sky. “The stars…” he said, trailing off.

My stomach dropped as I turned my gaze up at the heavens. What had a moment ago been an illuminated tapestry of twinkling orbs of light was now entirely pitch black. There wasn’t a star in the sky, no winking dots, and no crescent moon, either.

My mug slipped out of my hand and fell to the cold snow. “Shit,” I exhaled.

I heard another sound, now; like the sudden immolation of paper. Turning my attention to the stone wall, I realized one of the protective sigils was burning. It only took half a second for the thing to turn black, and burn out.

“It’s here!” Valerian yelled, only his voice didn’t carry past the stone wall. “Get inside!”

“Tallin!” I screamed.

Tallin came bounding out of the cottage. “Yes?” he asked, “I heard shouting.”

“The creature,” I said, as I rushed toward him. “It’s here. We have to leave!”

“But I was just getting used to this place!” he protested.

“I know, but we need to go,now.”

Valerian joined me at the door to the cottage. I stopped, turned my head, and looked at the stone wall again. More of the protective sigils around the cottage were starting to burn out, and I realized with horror, that I could no longer see the trees beyond the property line. They were gone, blacked out entirely, and in that darkness… a silhouette.

A shadow.

A stalker.

“We need to get to that teleportation rune,” I said to Valerian.

He grabbed Tallin and picked him up. “C’mon,” he said, and he took my hand and led me into the cottage.

My heart was pounding, my mind racing a mile a minute. How had it found us so fast? How was it burning through my grandmothers’ runes so quickly? None of that mattered, really, because the answer to those questions wasn’t going to make the creature go away. But until we figured out how it was able to find us, there was going to be no getting away from it.

We were going to keep running, and running, and running—even when we got back to Arcadia.

I didn’t feel right.

Thisdidn’t feel right.

How were we supposed to escape Fate?

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