Eventually, we slowed and landed. I slipped from Adrianna’s arms with a palatable sense of relief and immediately doubled over, sucking in the heady scent of sharp pine and rich earth: quintessential woodland.
“Are you all right?” Adrianna sounded a touch breathless.
Palms on knees, I looked up. “We can talk now?”
Wiping away the thin sheen of sweat coating her face, she said, “We’re well out of range.”
I straightened up. “No one followed us?”
Adrianna looked back and angled her head, listening. “I can’t hear anything. But the spiders are a twisted version of the Sami—they’re experts in remaining undetected. Still, there’s no reason for them to come after us, other than curiosity. Let’s hope our luck holds.”
Adrianna gazed out into the aged forest and jerked her chin to a spot ahead. “The korgan lies that way.”
I dreaded asking. “How d’you know?”
“I can smell blood. A lot of it.”
It felt like I was swallowing syrup.
Adrianna’s eyes darted to me. A new expression rested on her face: doubt. “D’you want to stay here? I could fly you into the treetops.”
My mouth twisted into a frown. “Since when are you all right with me hiding behind you?”
Silence was my answer, so I went on. “That’s not happening.”
She considered me for a moment. “Fine. Then you should know that korgans are stone sprites and can kill in a single blow. So if it comes at you, don’t let it land a hit. Dodge or run. In the meantime, I’ll try to tackle it from the air.”
My brows knotted together. “How are we even supposed to kill something like that?”
“Their eyes and ear sockets are their weakest points,” she said, tapping the side of her head. “Don’t bother drawing your Utem?. You’ll just dull the edge or shatter the blade.”
So, the sword at my waist was now utterly useless. I was useless.
“Take these.” Adrianna pulled two arrows from her quiver, handing them over. “If you get the chance, stick them in its eyes or its ear holes. Worst-case scenario, find somewhere to hide and stay quiet. Korgans can’t see very well.”
I nodded, not trusting myself to speak.
Adrianna struck out for the hollow. I followed her long strides, roving over moss spattered earth that cushioned and silenced each step. All the while, I clutched the only weapon that might work against a stone sprite—two sticks with bits of metal stuck on the end. My bowels quickened just thinking about it.
Soon there was evidence of the korgan in the air. Adrianna had mentioned blood, but what wafted toward me on a stale breeze was far, far worse. Grease, decay, shit, and something akin to rotten cheese suffused my nostrils.
I clapped a hand over my mouth but couldn’t stop my stomach from convulsing. A sudden rush of bile left a burning sensation at the back of my throat. I couldn’t be sick. Not here, not now. So I gulped and dragged my woolen cloak over my nose.
Adrianna mimicked my action, the only sign that the stench bothered her.
We continued to creep forward, and my hearing seemed to pick up on everything. From our soft footfalls, to our muffled breath, and the sighing wind.
My hands grew clammy as the smell only got stronger.
Finally, we stumbled upon a small clearing, and Adrianna raised her hand, signaling me to stop. I took in the scene and rolled away, unable to breathe. Bracing against a nearby tree’s limb, my eyes burned with gruesome images of splayed ribs. It brought me right back to that night in the cage. Only that paled in comparison to the korgan hollow.
There were stretches of skin spread out carefully, and organs piled high into mounds. Deep tracks from a huge, lumbering beast marked the craggy earth, and gruesome patches of a vivid red stained the grass.
The hollow was a monument to death. The insides of creatures were sprayed everywhere. Is this all we were? Meat for the crows. Bits of flesh and bone sewn together? Pints of blood waiting to be spilled?
A hand on my shoulder.
I wheeled around, disoriented, ready to strike.
Just Adrianna. “The korgan’s scent is only a few hours old, so we’ll hold out in the tree tops until it gets back.”
She didn’t wait for my response. I wouldn’t have been able to give one, anyway. Catapulting upward, Adrianna settled on a thick branch with a decent view of the clearing below. She hadn’t taken any chances: at least thirty feet now lay between us and the carnage below. I was doubly grateful because the smell had abated.
Adrianna placed me down. I straddled the bough, my bag resting against the trunk, and looked back in the direction we’d just come. Anything to avoid seeing the guts and fluids spilled below.
Coward.
I shoved that spitting voice into a box and locked it tight.
Of course, Adrianna was standing and even walking along the branch, using her wings as counterweights and displaying perfect balance.
Would that be what it was like for me as a fae? No longer bound to quite so much fear, because I could always just fly away? Frazer’s memory had shown me how glorious it could be to ride the skies. But to do it myself? It didn’t seem real. And then there were the canines. I scraped my tongue over my teeth, imagining another set erupting there. I couldn’t help it—I pushed against the pointy ends of my teeth with the pad of my thumb, testing, feeling.
Adrianna snorted delicately; it wasn’t hard to guess what she’d been so amused by. I met her stare just as her head cocked and whipped to the side. She was staring down at the ground.
I gripped my arrows tighter.
It started with a few snaps, then a low rumble filled the hollow. Huffing, grunting, and a crack. I tried to identify the sounds without looking down. Please, please, let it be twigs underfoot—not bones. Please, not bones.
Not able to stand it any longer, I glanced to the forest floor.
I wished that I hadn’t.
The devos sprite had shuffled in to view. It was munching on a leg; going by the enormous size, it had to be an animal. Not human. That brief twinge of relief was swallowed by the sight of what was holding the leg. A giant, misshapen boulder: the korgan.
My limbs turned to jelly as it came to a moss-bearded rock in the clearing and perched on the end. It finished the leg and shifted. The noise was horrendous—rocks grating against rocks.
I squinted and tried to hone in on its eyes. But its large, nodular head obscured them. It was obvious why Adrianna hadn’t tried to shoot it down with her bow.
The korgan soon stilled, and we waited, watching.
Adrianna eventually gestured to the ground. I nodded and shifted forward. She gave me a pained look, unfurled her scaled wings, and jumped. Leaving me behind.
Shock, relief, anger—it all rushed through in one heartbeat. Did she think I wouldn’t be able to help? Or was this some instinct born from guilt over our kin’s shared history? Adrianna was such a gods-damned hypocrite. After the way she’d berated Frazer and Cai for being overprotective …
Adrianna neared the korgan, and the swell of resentment drained away as quickly as it came. She landed behind the sprite’s rocky mass and silently drew an arrow from her quiver. She pitched forward ever so slightly to peer around the side of its head. She raised the arrow, angling her arm up, preparing to strike.
A roar shattered the hollow.
I lurched forward instinctively as the korgan swung around with his arm outstretched. Adrianna’s wings were spreading, flapping—
She wasn’t quick enough to stop the sprite’s gnarled stump from grasping her jacket. Adrianna brought the arrow up again, but the korgan bellowed and whipped around. It twisted in a loop and sent Adrianna flying into a pine tree. Her side got the full impact; her body crumpled to the ground.
I whimpered. The korgan roared again and beat a stone fist against its chest. It started toward her fallen body lying only a dozen paces away. She hadn’t moved. It would pummel her to death and chomp on her bones.
I didn’t think. “OI! YOU UGLY PILE OF SHIT! IF YOU TOUCH HER, I SWEAR BY THE DARK COURTS, THE LIGHT COURTS, AND EVERY GOD THAT EVER LIVED, I WILL SMASH YOU INTO A THOUSAND PIECES!”