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

Kainda’s powerful body wilts under my touch. Her muscles go slack. Her back shakes with each sob and tears, bona fide tears—from Kainda—drip onto the cave floor.

I have no idea what to say. Or even if I should say anything. Kainda is more of an actions-speak-louder-than-words type, so I decide to stay quiet. My presence and physical contact are enough.

When I open my eyes and lift my head, I’m surprised to find Mira kneeling down on Kainda’s other side, one hand around her lower back, the other holding their heads together like they’ve known each other their whole lives. I can hear Mira whispering. She speaks about pain and loss, strength and courage, and about love. I only catch bits and pieces, but I hear my name in there a few times.

When Mira pulls away, all of the tension is gone from Kainda’s body. She’s no longer shaking and her strength has returned. She sits up, takes a breath and looks at me. Nothing physical has changed, but she looks different somehow. Not exactly a softness, but something...wonderful. While the Jericho shofar freed her from the Nephilim corruption, some part of her must have still been bound to her former master, maybe not physically or supernaturally, but mentally. Perhaps she feared facing him someday. Who knows what tortures he performed on her. Or maybe she feared realigning with him if he commanded it. Whatever the case, that part of her is gone. She is really and truly free.

She takes my hand and gives it a squeeze. Then she’s on her feet, clipping her hammer to her belt and acting as if nothing at all happened.

Message received, I think, don’t talk about it.

I’m pretty sure Mira picked up on the cue, too, because she moves on to a new topic without missing a beat. “So what’s next? We need to get to the FOB, right?”

“Yeah,” I say. “Your parents will be happy to see you.”

Mira gets a concerned look on her face. “Have...you heard about your parents?”

Fear grips my chest. Adoel didn’t want me to know, one way or the other, about my parents, but that was right before I was to face Ophion in battle. Maybe it would be alright to know now? But I already know, don’t I? If what Mira described about the crustal displacement event is accurate, and I believe it is, then the coast of Maine where my parents lived wouldn’t have fared any better than New Hampshire. “They’re dead, right? They must be.”

“Actually,” Mira says. “I have no idea. But...they moved to New Mexico a few years back. From what I understand, the climate is pretty nice there now.”

“Oh,” I say. “That’s...good to know.” Once again, Hope delivers. And that’s where I’m going to leave it. No more wondering, speculation or worry. If I dwell on the fate of my parents, I’ll never be able to focus on what needs to be done next. “We should get going. The FOB is three days from here and we have no idea how long it will be before—

The floor shakes beneath my feet.

I stop and listen.

The shaking returns, this time with an audible rumble.

“Maybe this is a dumb question,” Mira says, “But what is that?”

I look at Kainda and see my fears reflected in her eyes.

I sigh.

“Footsteps.”





9



“You said we were hundreds of feet underground.” Mira glances around the dull blue cavern. I can see a good distance in far less light than this, but she probably can’t see more than fifty feet, which is probably disconcerting. “Is something down here with us?”

“Actually,” I say, “it’s above us, and I’m pretty sure it’s still a ways off. Hold on.”

I close my eyes and focus on the stone around me. A shiver runs through my body as I allow myself to feel the Earth itself. Strata of stone, veins of water and shifting air. Then a footstep. I feel the compression. Massive. Water is squeezed down through the ground. The air in the cavern shifts. The weight is immense.

As I expand my senses, I hear Mira speaking to Kainda.

“What is he doing?” Mira asks.

“I’m not really sure. He can...feel the land.”

“Can he see through it?”

“If the land had eyes, maybe,” Kainda says. “It’s like the Earth becomes an extension of his body. He experiences the changes on Antarktos the way we might on our skin or in our bodies.”

Listening to Kainda’s surprisingly accurate description of what I’m doing, I start to lose focus and drift back to the cavern, but not before feeling the thunderous impact of a hundred thousand more feet.

“So that’s how he’s able to control the elements?” Mira asks. “Because he’s part of them?”

“Something like that,” Kainda says.

I return to my body with a gasp, shifting the women’s attention immediately to me.

“What is it?” Kainda asks.