“I knew you couldn’t be fucking trusted.”
“Apparently not,” I say groggily. “Since you followed me anyway.” I’m not sure what possesses me to provoke him. Adrenaline, I guess. But the foolhardy, taunting words will surely only be the start.
Pinning me in place, he grinds his forearm against the ball of my throat. “Oh, I knew you were up to something. You either set the trap, or you were gonna lead us to who did.”
All things considered, I’m feeling pretty smug for a human girl who’s cornered and struggling to breathe. Or at least, I am until he smiles.
“Never thought you’d lead us straight to the whole nest.”
My eyes widen at the realization, a wriggling worm of dread sinking deep into my gut. All this time I thought I was the one with a leg up. I thought I was in control. But he was just using me. And like a naïve little girl who thinks herself smarter than anyone else, I fell for it.
I led him here. To a community no different than Hulbeck. And now that he knows where they are, if he escapes, he’ll run back to his king and tell them where they can find a nice big catch for their Hunt.
An arrow whirs overhead, drawing the attention of both of our gazes. Thanks to a large stack of rocks beside us, the sentries can’t get a good aim.
That just means I need to make it easier for them.
With as much force as I can muster, I cram my knee into his groin. Gregor staggers back, but the moment he exposes himself, instead of fighting me or waiting around for another archer to take aim, he hobbles away, dodging behind every source of cover he can find—upturned carts, beams, doorways.
I can’t let him go.
My first instinct is to take aim myself, but Gregor would already be around the corner by the time I loaded Sable. And by the time I’d chase after him, he’d be around the next. And then the next. He’s lumbering enough though that I might be able to catch him in a run. But then what? I can’t take him hand-to-hand. And I don’t even know how far away his gang is. What if they’re close? If I chase after him, how long before I raced headfirst, neck exposed, into a den of fangs with appetites?
I’ll just have to catch him before then, and hope that my knife and my bullheaded determination to survive will give me the edge I need.
Realizing with a heavy heart that I’ll be faster without her and therefore less likely to find myself in a noctis den, I cast Sable aside and run after the big guy.
By the time I round the corner, feet slipping and sliding on the freshly damp cobblestones, making them even deadlier than usual, Gregor is already at the end of the street. Once again, I’ve underestimated him. I should’ve known his bulk is more athletic than sluggish, especially since I saw him make use of his impressive speed earlier when he suddenly appeared on the rooftop beside me.
I forgot how fast the noctis can be. It’s usually limited, and once they use their preternatural burst of haste, they resume a more human speed. But even as brief as it is, that burst was enough to give Gregor a major advantage over me.
I’m in the very predicament I feared. It’ll take me blocks to catch up to him at this rate, and by then, who knows how far away from the community I’ll be, how far away from Sable, and how nestled into noctis territory I will have cozied.
Legs thrashing at full-speed ahead, Gregor glances over his broad shoulder. Something like glee flashes behind his dark gaze, like he thinks he can actually win this. Like he thinks a human girl couldn’t possibly catch up to him.
But he’s wrong.
I may be small, and I might not be as strong as someone of his stature, but I’ve been running my whole life. It’s what I do.
Never underestimate someone who’s greatest asset is the ability to survive.
He takes the next turn wide, his body too top-heavy for the tight corner-hugging that I’m able to do. It doesn’t cost him much, but it’s enough. Each corner we fly around, each pile of rubble we clear, I gain that much more on him, until eventually he’s not even halfway down the road from me.
I’m so close to the racing noctis that the puddles he tromps through splash onto my pants as I race right behind him. I’m tempted to grab my knife now. Without Sable smacking my back, it would be a comfort to have at least some weapon at my immediate disposal for when I catch him.
But suddenly Gregor takes a hard right. He disappears into a near-black alleyway, and I follow after him, hell-bent on ending this chase and the terror he’s likely inflicted upon hundreds of innocents once and for all.
It’s not until I’m shrouded in the cool darkness that I realize that something is terribly wrong.
The glee I glimpsed in his expression earlier flashes before my eyes again. It was more than mere ego or arrogance that had him smiling. It was a primal sort of relishing. The sort of dark triumph reflected in a hawk’s amber eyes the moment they lock onto their prey. The hawk knows the field mouse stands no chance against it, and watching it race for its futile life only makes the predator all the more excited for the kill.
And it means Gregor has fooled me again.
He stops at the end of the road. I don’t have to look around to realize that I am completely, and utterly alone, and I made myself this way. We are so far from the sentries that not even Sable and I could make that shot were our positions swapped. As nice as it would be to rely on the aid of others, a lifetime of experience has also taught me that reliance on anyone but myself only breeds false hope. Those same sentries are the ones who didn’t time their shots correctly and missed the one clean shot at Gregor they had. They’re likely still standing in their towers wondering what the hell just happened and why I was with the noctis. If we were still within shot, they might’ve even shot me next, unsure if I’d have turned into one of the creatures myself—it’s rare as fuck, but it does occasionally happen, if someone with druid blood is bitten.
Better to have no one around to further botch things up for me than to have clueless, frightened strangers holding my life in their hands.
I wish I had Sable though. With Gregor holding still now instead of dashing around every corner, my aim would be true. With his haste gone, I might’ve even had enough time to load her up and fire.
