This has to be the place. If resources in the fort are so slim, they wouldn’t have that many men guarding nothing.
I duck back around the corner and reverse course to the other side of the building. I eye an unstable-looking emergency ladder that leads to a window on the second floor.
I don’t want to go near the thing. I just want to see why they’re keeping it.
I place a tentative foot on the first rung of the ladder, slowly shifting my weight onto it. Mercifully, it doesn’t creak. I climb to the top, fighting the dress constantly tangling around my legs, and peer in the window. It’s dark inside and the glass is too dirty to see much.
There’s enough of a gap for me to wedge my fingers beneath the pane, and with a soft, labored moan of the wood, it opens.
I poke my head in. The air is musty and the room is quiet except for the soft patter of pacing footsteps down below. I pull myself up the rest of the way, struggling with my dress as I slide inside and onto an elevated catwalk about fifteen feet above the room.
The footsteps stop, and I freeze too, holding my breath as I peek over the railing. The Drained one is looking right at me.
It sniffs the air, and I swear to the Divine it smiles.
It’s the faintest upturn in the lips around vicious-looking teeth, but the room is dim enough that my mind could be playing tricks on me.
I expect the Breeder to be under guard, or at least locked in a cell, but it’s wandering freely on the ground floor. Those idiot hunters playing cards outside are probably supposed to be watching it, but when they decided to fool around instead, it took its chance to find a way out.
I duck down behind the wooden railing again. It’s time to go. I need to get out of here and tell Henry.
I still. Henry, who gave me a safe room today. Is this why he offered that gift?
Now isn’t the time to solve that mystery. I turn back to the window, but to my horror, Stefan Laurence’s face is there waiting for me.
“Hey, Carrenwell,” he says. His voice is all menace as he climbs over the windowsill.
I’m torn between the beast in front of me and the one down below.
I could make a run for it to the door on the other end of this catwalk, but it could be locked. If it’s not, my cover will be blown the moment I pop out the door on the other side.
Better to live to see another day.
I jump to my feet and try to sprint toward the door, but I trip over the hem of my dress and my knees slam onto the wooden catwalk floor. I’ve had extensive training, but all of it was done in pants. There’s no accounting for the way a dress moves and tangles as I try to fight.
I spring up, but Stefan is on me. He grabs my hair and yanks my head back.
“Quite a show you put on last night,” Stefan taunts. “But I bet the beast down there would take you for a better ride.”
I’m vaguely aware of the sound of two other people at the window, their graceless climbing making it hard to hear where the Breeder is down below.
I twist, gripping Stefan’s wrist, and yank us both down toward the catwalk floor before slamming my head back into his face.
He curses and lets go of my hair. I grab the blade wedged in my boot and stab it into his side. He howls and backhands me so hard I stumble back into the arms of one of his minions.
“Grab her, Joe.” Stefan’s voice is muffled by the hands trying to stop his nose from bleeding.
Joe wraps an arm around my throat so tight I can barely breathe.
Stefan regains his composure and yanks me away from Joe. He wraps a fist around my hair and shoves the top half of my body over the railing.
I’m bent at the waist, perilously close to falling headfirst to the floor below. That alone might be enough to break my neck and kill me instantly, but I don’t want to find out. I try to shift my legs wider to brace myself, but my dress is tangled around them.
The Drained one hasn’t moved from its spot, but it’s watching me. I recognize the difference in it immediately. It’s terrifyingly calm and unnaturally still.
The Drained in the woods would not be waiting. They don’t have that same intelligence in their eyes. This beast is something else. Real fear bolsters me.
“I went to the nest where they found this thing.” Stefan’s voice is ecstatic with menace. “You should see how it fucks. You think your Henry is a savage?” He whistles low. “He’s got nothing on what that Breeder will do to you, but I bet you’ll love it. After all, you were sent here to be bred like a little traitor whore.”
