The Last Hunter: Collected Edition (Antarktos Saga #1-5)

I don’t know if I can move. I haven’t tried. The will to act has abandoned me. I’ve lain in the snow at the bottom of the arena for nearly an hour, watching the sun cut across the sky, feeling its rays burning the exposed skin of my tear-streaked face. I’ve replayed the events surrounding Tobias’s and Em’s deaths, and Luca’s capture a hundred times, looking for a way things could have been different.

The problem is, I find a solution every time. Had I been stronger. Had Ull still been a part of me. If I’d trained harder. If I’d never come here. If, if, if. There are probably a million “what ifs” that could have avoided this situation.

But none of that matters, because it happened. Tobias is dead, killed by his own weapon after I—the memory of that last blast of wind that sent him and Em flying replays in my mind’s eye, over and over. It’s the single “what if” scenario that pains me the most. I shouldn’t have struck them so hard. I shouldn’t have been so focused on winning that I put their lives in jeopardy.

But I did.

And they’re dead.

The sound of snow shifting in the distance tears me away from my self-deprecation.

The wind?

Footsteps slowly approach. The wind doesn’t walk.

I listen to the footfalls coming closer, but don’t move. Maybe it’s a polar bear come to put me out of my misery.

Polar bears live in the Arctic, stupid, I tell myself. This is the Antarctic!

“Solomon?” the voice is weak. Frail. But I recognize it.

I turn toward the shuffling sound, eyes wide. “Emilie?”

She stands five feet away, clutching an arm and covered in blood.

But alive.

“You’re alive,” she says, sounding relieved.

“You’re alive,” I respond. “I thought for sure—”

“Me too,” she says. “What happened?”

The answer to her question stuns me, so much so that I can’t bring myself to say it right away. I force myself into a sitting position. My head pounds for several moments, but then clears.

“Kainda,” she says. “She beat me. Kicked me.” She’s struggling with the memory. “She threw me?”

“She—” Saying the words is hard, not because they’re hurtful, but because they’re hopeful. And I had given up hope. “She spared you.”

As I say it, I know it’s true. Kainda doesn’t let someone live without intending it.

Em looks confused. “She doesn’t do that.”

She’s right. Kainda is a brutal warrior known to hold a grudge and react with swift violence. She is not the forgiving type. But still, here Em stands, injured, but alive.

“You did it,” she says.

I tense, believing that she is accusing me for being the cause of Tobias’s death. A quick glance in his body’s direction confirms his death. The snow around his body is as red as his hair. But Em’s words aren’t accusatory.

“You got through to her,” she says. “Your mercy. It’s the only explanation.”

“You were friends, you said. Couldn’t that be—”

“We trained together. Hunted together. Killed together. She’s older than me. Old enough to be my—”

Em falls silent for a moment, but shakes her head.

“Perhaps it was both of us, then?” I propose.

Em reaches down for me and helps pull me to my feet. Her strength surprises me. Not just her physical strength, but the resolve she is showing in the face of her father’s death. Perhaps it is the hunter in her that won’t allow her to cry by his side, or the need to be strong for Luca. Whatever it is, it is an ability I don’t have. And she sees the evidence all over my face.

She scoops some snow into her hands, cups them together and melts it between her palms. She uses the water to wipe away the salty streaks. Her touch stings my burned flesh, but brings focus to my mind. A realization strikes.

“It’s not just Kainda,” I say.

She pauses. “What do you mean?”

“Ninnis, he…he showed mercy.”

Her hands drop away from my face and some of her buried emotions rise up. Without turning to face her father’s body, she thrusts a finger toward it, acutely aware of where he lies, and shouts, “You call that mercy? My father is dead!”

“He couldn’t let him live,” I say. “Kainda would know.”

“Know what?” Her voice brews with anger and I realize that I better explain quickly or the bond of brother and sister formed between us might be broken. And I’m going to need that bond in the coming days. We both will.

“That he’s different. It’s subtle, but it’s there.”

“Where is it, Solomon?” She’s still shouting. Tears bead at the corners of her eyes. “Where?”

“He gave me seven days to return to Tartarus. I’m to give myself up to Nephil in exchange for Luca’s life.”

She gasps. “You can’t.”

“I must.”

“Nephil will kill everyone, including Luca.”

“I can’t leave him. The point is, Ninnis gave me seven days.”

She stares at me, confused.

“The journey from here to Tartarus, in my condition, and knowing the way, will take four days at most. He’s given me three extra days.”

“For what?”

I look at Tobias’s body and she understands.

“To mourn,” I say. “To bury the dead. To say goodbye.”