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

“Yeah,” I say. “But sometimes the brave are the first to die.”


Kainda’s expression sours for a moment, but then she grins, slugs me in the shoulder and says, “Then we’re all in a lot of trouble.” She sets off after Mira, leaving me alone with my thoughts. But I don’t linger, because if I think for too long, I’ll have to admit that I already know what we’re going to see when we reach our destination.

Only one creature—that I know of—could shake the Earth with such violence.

Behemoth.





10



As we run through the darkness, I realize that my assessment of the Nephilim forces might have been...inadequate. The idea of a behemoth joining the fight had never crossed my mind. Not only because the giant I faced on multiple occasions is now a hollowed out corpse, but I was also under the impression that the remaining two could not be controlled.

It’s Nephil, I think. If any Nephilim were powerful enough to control the mammoths of the underworld, it’s him. Thankfully, I know that behemoths fear fire, and humans excel at making things burn or explode. If we get back in time, maybe we can have a few jets loaded up and ready to go with napalm.

I nearly laugh at the absurdity of my thoughts. To me it’s been five years since Justin and I blew up a toy volcano with baking soda and vinegar and now I’m plotting to use napalm, which burns at 1,200 degrees Celsius and can literally melt people.

Would probably melt Nephilim, too, I think, ring or no ring on their heads.

Before my thoughts of war get too dark, I turn my attention forward, reaching out through the Earth as I run. The tunnel through which we have been traveling rises at a slight grade, bringing us roughly fifty feet nearer to the surface with every mile we travel. Having gone eight miles already, we were within thirty feet of the surface. Every giant behemoth footfall shook dust on our heads. But now the land above is growing steep, rising toward a tall rock formation. At first I thought it was a mountain, but now it feels more like a nunatak—a flat sided tower that might have once been a true mountain, or maybe just all that remains of a vast plain after millions of years of erosion and glacier movement. Basically, it looks like Devils Tower in Wyoming, the one from Close Encounters of the Third Kind, but wider or longer. One of the two. Of course, Wyoming is pretty close to the North Pole now. Devils Tower might be the only visible landmark for a hundred miles now.

I focus my attention on our path. It’s a fairly straight natural passageway that might have been formed by runoff from the tower, or from a natural spring. I follow the path as it bends up, its grade growing steeper until…

What is that?

I stub my toe, stumble forward and fall on my face, all before my senses fully return to my body. With a groan, I roll over onto my back and find Mira standing above me. She’s wearing a goofy, one-sided grin. She shakes her head slowly. “Some things never change.”

Kainda steps up next to Mira. “What never changes?”

“The first time I met him, he tripped and fell. Smacked his head on the ground. Thought he was going to cry.”

Kainda smiles. “He was...smaller before.”

I roll my eyes and sit up, pointing a finger at Mira. “I seem to recall you being nicer about it back then.”

“Yeah, but you were all small and pathetic,” Mira says, which gets a snicker out of Kainda. “Now you’re all—” She makes her voice deep and hits her chest with a fist. “—macho and strong. Me Solomon. I ride dinosaurs.”

“That’s it,” I say, focusing on the air around Mira’s head. I compress it, and then flare it out, filling every strand of hair with static electricity.

Now Kainda laughs loudly. “She looks like Zuh!”

Mira raises her hands to her head, feeling the pompom of blond hair.

“And this,” I say, “is how I remember you.”

At first I think she isn’t amused, but she smiles, and then laughs. “If only we had a Polaroid. We could take a new photo.”

I get to my feet. “Someday we will.”

Kainda huffs and pushes past us. “Then he might pine for you again for two years.”

Mira looks at me and whispers, “Was that a joke?”

“It’s hard to tell sometimes, but I think so, yeah.”

“And fix her hair,” Kainda calls back. “The enemy will see her coming a mile off.”

I quickly pull moisture out of the air and direct it to Mira’s hair as a thin mist. She pulls the now damp hair down, but doesn’t tie it back.

“I think you broke the elastic,” she says.

I reach into my pack where I’ve got some feeder-leather string that would work, but I feel something soft. When I remember what it is, I take hold of the fabric and pull it out. She kind of flinches when she sees it.

“Is that?”

I hand the blue bandana to her with a grin. “Your father’s. I found it on top of a wall. Where I think the two of you escaped from a pack of cresties.”