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

As we approach the cliff’s edge, a slight grin works its way onto my face. Kainda has not slowed, looked back or shouted her desire for a plan. She knows the plan without asking, and she has complete faith in my abilities to execute it. That kind of trust is rare in the world beyond Antarktos and it’s unheard of among hunters. It’s a compliment of the highest order.

I wish I had more time to enjoy it, but Kainda suddenly drops from view. For a moment I think she’s gone over the cliff, and I prepare myself for the jump, but when I reach the edge of the clearing, I find the stone slope carved by water and peppered with griffin nests. When my bare foot hits the hard, unexpected grade, I stumble and am carried forward by Mira’s weight on my shoulder. Before my foot leaves the ground and my stumble becomes an all out fall, I push off. Something in my foot twangs with pain, but then we’re off the ground and descending hard. That is, until a gust of wind pushes us up and out, away from the incline.

I soar out and over Kainda, reaching the cliff’s true edge a moment before she makes her literal leap of faith. The wind cuts out and I plummet, shifting Mira so that she’s in front of me, my arms wrapped tightly around her back. Air rushes past my body, tugging my hair, drawing moisture from my eyes. I turn toward Kainda. Her eyes are on the rapidly approaching ground, still fearless and certain in her belief that we will survive this fall.

Then, a shadow.

I see it for just a moment, shifting over Kainda’s back. Then its source comes into view, and passes us. Then again, and again.

Warriors.

Thirty-foot giants with double rows of teeth, six fingers and toes, and a penchant for pain—a display of which we’re about to witness. The five giants, who weigh far more than Kainda and me, reach a faster terminal velocity, and reach it faster. They rocket past us, not one of them reaching out to attack or capture. They’ve streamlined their bodies with the intent of reaching the ground first. But unlike Kainda and me, they won’t slow before impact.

Then it happens. The first of the warriors strikes the ground below us in a startling display of gore. Purple blood sprays, bones crack in half, pop from joints and stab out through the tattooed skin. All the while, the monster howls in ecstasy.

It happens again. And then three more times. By the time the fifth and final Nephilim strikes the ground beneath us, the first is standing, his body nearly fully knit back together. Purple blood coats every blade of grass, tree branch and pebble in a fifty foot radius. The very ground beneath our feet will kill us if we land.

When we land.

Hunters should really start wearing shoes, I think, but then I’m on task, looking for a solution in the few seconds before we reach the ground and die on impact, or from overexposure to Nephilim blood, or if that can be avoided, at the hands of the five warriors now drawing their weapons.

We’re falling too fast to change our trajectory fully, not without being picked off by the warriors armed with bows and arrows. But maybe we can fly past without changing trajectories.

“Kainda!” I shout, reaching a hand out to her. She takes hold of my wrist and I pull her close. “Hold on!”

She wraps her arms around Mira from the other side. We’re face-to-face now, looking over Mira’s shoulder. Kainda’s eyes burrow into me, searching for a hint of my plan. But there’s no time to explain. Instead, I tip forward and we fall the remaining distance head first.

The confused expressions on the warrior’s faces is priceless. But there is no way for them to know what is about to happen, and when it does, they just stumble back in bewilderment.

Twenty feet and a fraction of a second before impact, the ground opens up. The hole is just eight feet across, but it stretches down for several hundred feet and is still deepening even as we fall inside, passing the Nephilim as a blur. Darkness consumes us as the land above comes back together again, sealing us off from pursuit.

We fall in silence for another ten seconds when a strong wind from below slows our descent before depositing us gently on the stone floor of a wide cavern lit by an array of glowing blue crystals. Once we’re settled and Mira is in my arms, Kainda steps away, hammer at the ready, scouring our surroundings for any hint of danger.

While Kainda slides away into the dark, I lay Mira on the floor and sit beside her. Slowing a fall from 1000 feet is one thing; doing it for three people after opening a several-hundred-foot deep passage through solid stone is something else. Even a few months ago, an effort like that would have knocked me out. I’m stronger now, but I feel like I’ve just run a marathon.

I lean back on my hands, regaining my strength, and look at Mira. With her eyes closed and her nappy white-blond hair puffed out around her head, she looks so much like the little girl I knew so long ago. The girl that made my stomach twist with nervousness. The girl who made me feel like a normal kid. The girl who gave me hope.