I won't abandon her.
I won’t run.
Ahead of me, I hear Mira shriek. Not the kind of sound one might make when being bitten, but the kind heavy with defeat, a yelp that says it is only a matter of time before the noctis have their teeth around her neck.
As silently as I can, I push harder through the dead woods, and when I see movement ahead,only then do I slow.
Through the thick undergrowth, I see Mira. Then I notice the noctis advancing on her in slow, deliberate steps that make her quiver. Her back thumps against the base of an old, blackened tree.
"End of the line," the noctis says, sharp teeth exposed through his sickening grin.
Mira's hands reach blindly behind her, grasping at leaves and twigs. She snaps one off from the bush next to her and thrusts it between the two of them.
The male noctis erupts with belly-aching laughter. "My, oh my. What a terrifying twig you found yourself there. What do you plan to do with it? Brush me to death?"
He’s not wrong. She isn’t going to swat a fly with that thing.
Heart racing, I scour the area around me. Maybe I can find something better? Something that might actually injure him or slow him down long enough for us to get away. My options seem just as limited as Mira's though.
She swats at the young noctis as he takes a step closer. "St-stay back! I'm warning you."
Her voice is about as menacing as the limp stick in her grasp, but this is a new side of Mira that I haven't had the pleasure of seeing before, and I think I like it. Survival. Doing everything in our power to breathe another day, another second. That's all we have. Her weapon might be meager, her circumstances dire, but I admire the fight in her bones, and wonder where it's been hiding these past few days. Hibernating and conserving energy for this very moment, I suppose.
Her bravery emboldens me, and I come crashing through the bushes. The noctis barely has a chance to register me. Or he assumes I'm one of them, another crazed monster ready to feast. Whatever is going on in that unperturbed skull of his, I use it to my advantage.
Before his full attention can spring upon me, I lunge. My arms wrap around his torso and Mira's eyes go wide.
"What in the Shadowthorn—"
The noctis thrashes, trying to knock me down and assess the situation. But unlike the last noctis I faced on my own, whose body was a mountain of muscle, this one is slim, delicate in a way that I am not.
"Ch-Charlotte?" Mira stutters, finally catching a glimpse of my face as the noctis bends forward and I with him.
"Find something"—I grit out; he might not be strong, but even a bucking horse can toss down the most skilled rider if they have reason—"to kill him with."
Understanding illuminates her features despite the dark wood around us. She springs into action, zipping around the surrounding area while my battle with the noctis continues. His fangs are bared now, and every time he jerks my grip slips, my arms rising closer and closer to his snapping jaws. One prick is all it would take. One puncture. One drop of whatever toxin is in his saliva to infuse with my blood, and I’ll be doomed like the rest of the sorry, vicious husks that haunt the realm.
Mira bellows in a panicked frenzy, "I—I can't find anything!"
"Get the fuck off me," the noctis growls. He swings his body into the tree Mira had been pressed up against.
I'm able to dodge the first blow, leaning in the opposite direction so as to protect my head, but I can’t save my shoulder. It slams into the tree trunk. Hot pain bursts from my shoulder, ricocheting against the raw nerves in my elbow, and turning my fingers numb.
My grip loosens and the noctis seizes his moment, throwing an elbow into my ribs and, arms wide like a bird in flight, bursts free from my grasp.
I stagger to my feet, barely catching myself as he whirls around on me.
The corners of his mouth curl like dying ferns. "Well, isn't it my lucky day?"
Mira stills when she sees him free. Part of me expects her to run now that his attention is fully on me. It would be the wise thing to do. There are hundreds of noctis infesting these woods as we speak, and the more distance she can put between her and the rest of them, the better.
For whatever reason, she stays.
The noctis drags his tongue over the point of one fang. "Here I was, prepared to settle for the boring prize because eating anything is better than eating nothing. But then you come along and serve yourself up on a platter."
“Go fuck yourself,” I spit.
But he only delights more. “Feisty, feisty!”
