Wyneth crouched at Vixie’s side and cupped the girl’s face. Her eyes fluttered open and Aerity let out a breath.
“Go,” Aerity urged Wyneth. “Swim for help.”
Wyneth’s voice shook as she stood and glared at the woman. “Don’t hesitate to shoot her, Aer.”
“I won’t.”
At this, Wyneth ran. Aerity stared down the Kalorian beauty, whose ice-blue eyes darted around with calculated desperation.
Aerity had never been face-to-face with a killer. This woman, in her bright red dress, seemed like some harmless, exotic jewel. But it was she who was at the center of the kingdom’s sorrow. At the heart of the evil they’d endured. The people of the land had feared and suffered—the king, Wyneth, Aerity herself . . . all because of this person . . . and this beast she and her father had created, with its strange matted hair and rows of scales. It didn’t seem possible. But then Aerityrecalled the room of animal carcasses, what seemed like dark experiments, of beasts being cut apart and pieced together with the wrong parts to make something bigger, stronger, unnatural. Oceans deep . . . it was disturbing.
The woman glowered on her knees, as the gigantic creature gave a loud huff. And then the Rocato woman opened her mouth to whisper.
“There are more, you know—”
As promised, Aerity let the arrow fly, filled with anger.
The woman howled in pain and fury as the arrow skimmed her upper arm, tearing through the fabric and gouging her with a deep cut. An injuring shot, dark blood staining her dress, just as Aerity had intended.
Vixie crawled into the room, weakened. She crouched next to the guard, grabbing the bunch of arrows from his quiver and thrusting them toward Aerity. She gave Vixie a grateful glance as she nocked the next arrow, pulling tightly on the bow. Her sister sat back on her haunches, keeping the injured limb straight in front of her.
The woman’s words suddenly hit Aerity. More? More of these monsters? She must have meant the ones in the other room. Aerity swallowed hard, trying to think straight.
The Rocato woman . . . Rozaria . . . surveyed the wound on her arm, her face taut. She let out a wail of anger and the beast stirred, whimpering.
“Shut up,” Aerity growled.
Aerity and Vixie both watched the beast with batedbreath, but it didn’t rise or show any aggression. Its massive head lay on its paws. It was hard to believe how much destruction this sleepy creature had caused.
Aerity had so many questions, but she was afraid to allow Rozaria to speak, afraid she’d make that clicking sound again.
They sat in silence, Aerity’s muscles twitching from holding her position, Rozaria staring, her mind obviously plotting.
The sounds of legs splashing through shallow waters drifted into the room. Aerity tensed and the woman’s eyes grew large.
“The hunters!” Vixie exclaimed. This word made something click inside Rozaria. She looked around wildly, panicked, then let out another guttural sound of pain.
“Quiet!” Aerity shouted, but the woman continued crying out in garbled mutterings. The beast raised its head. Kalorian. Aerity realized Rozaria was speaking in Kalorian through her cries. She couldn’t make them out.
“I said shut up!”
But the woman cried out again as Aerity’s face went pale. “Rise and go!”
“Enough!” Aerity yelled, just as the woman shouted again, louder now.“Aliment!”she said.
Feed.
The woman dived to the floor as the beast reared up, stretching. Vixie screamed, and Aerity moved quickly in front of her sister, changing her aim from the woman to the beast. But it had no interest in her. It simply turned and trotted fromthe room on heavy paws, its nails scraping the floor, heading toward the far side of the building, away from the sounds of the hunters.
Aerity turned to the woman, who had scuttled behind an old table. “Where is it going?” she shrieked, pointing the arrow at her. The woman exhaled an exuberant laugh, grinning. “Tell me!” Aerity screamed, panic coursing through her.
The woman laughed louder, her eyes twinkling like gems.
The stomp of footsteps against dirt rang out. Vixie leaned out the door, waving her arms. “Over here!”
Moments later, Paxton, Lord Alvi, and Tiern came to a halt in the doorway, soaking wet, shirtless, breathing hard. Their eyes darted from the guard’s body to Vixie’s leg to the rest of the room, landing on the partially hidden woman.
“She’s Lashed,” Aerity warned, heart pounding. “The granddaughter of Rocato. She’s the one. . . . She created the beast.”
