en

er spotted the indentation on the mattress. A slow, ugly grin spre

ittle rabbit

en muttered behind him. "At least until

h washing over me. As hi

clutched in my fist. With a surge of despe

. A gurgl

momentum to roll out from under the bed, snatc

eye. The other six roared, the sound shifting from human to beast as

wing red in the gloom, now stood w

fail. But the cramped room also woke something that belonged to the original Arden. Caleb's warriors had drilled her in basic defensive

vantage was the room-the bed, the walls, the narrow distance between

mped room to my advantage, dodging a snapping

n. A precise slice across the first wolf's hind leg.

ned my other senses. The world slowed. I could smel

heir faces. In the moment of confusion, my blade found the

crushing me against the wall. I tasted blood, my own this time. Th

it was boiling f

was

not winning this fight; I was buying seconds. Every wolf I dropped left less room

bed the oil lamp from a nearby table a

oo

limbing the dry f

ed from the heat and crashed into another, buying me the seconds I needed. It was a

Two.

y f

staggered, my body a symphony of pain, and la

knees nearly folded, but the shouts behind me

rest. Towar

ly chance to slow the po

the verge of collapse. I plunged in, the icy s

lse and bought me a few more minutes before th

me, tearing me apart. My c

en I f

gy in the water nearby. It was like a beaco

mory, but an instinct buried deeper than either. I did not know what it

unconscious, a faint black aura

ull away, but the poison had turned me into something starving. The m

from him, pulling his immense life f

steady strength. The black aura around him seemed to s

allic taste, and something black brushed the edge of my consciousness before recoi

he grew weaker. His br

ime in hours. I looked down at the man whose life

condition. The pragmatist, t

found a pulse beneath his jaw. Too slow, but present. For one terrible second, I considered holdi

of my hand down in a sharp chop against the back of his neck. It would keep him un

swam to the opposite bank a