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Another rustle in the trees.

The dog spirit’s head snapped up. His tail thumped happily.

“I know,” she told him.

Slate appeared out of the trees. He was smeared with blood, long tongue licking his skull mask clean as he lumbered out of the trees.

Then he froze. He had spotted Ruby.

Ruby lifted her hand in a silent wave.

Slate waved a hesitant hand back. He wasn’t wearing his loincloth. His skin was bone-pale, which only looked paler in contrast to the blood coating his body. His skull mask was dripping with it, gore hanging off his bare chin.

The dog spirit barked and took off, tail high.

Ruby followed him. Slate seemed reluctant to move, petting the dog distractedly until Ruby arrived in front of him.

“How was the hunt?” Ruby asked.

Slate blinked. There was a shred of flesh on his eyelashes.

“Good,” he said cautiously.

“What did you eat?” Ruby asked, bracing herself. She was determined not to balk if he told her it was a human. Unless he hunted near Sweetsguard. Then she would have to ask.

“A demon.”

Ruby frowned, remembering the thin, ashy limbs of the demons she’d seen. “A shade?”

“No, a kobald. It was in another void.” Slate wiped a hand over his bloody jaw, only succeeding in smearing the mess instead of cleaning it.

Ruby nodded, keeping her face blank. Then she asked a question that surprised both of them. “Can I see it next time?”

Slate didn’t move. The dog spirit barked, jumping to lick his dripping hand.

“You cannot eat,” he told the spirit. He turned back to Ruby and said, “I was last hungry several years ago. You will not be around next time.”

“Oh.” Ruby forced a smile, hiding her disappointment and trying to figure out why she was so disappointed in the first place. Why did shewantto watch the monster she was sleeping with rip a demon apart with his teeth?

“That’s fine,” she said.

Slate grunted. Even though she couldn’t see his expression under his mask, his averted eyes were enough.

“Is something wrong?” she asked carefully.

Slate made another noise. A wet gurgle, like there was something meaty stuck in his throat.

“I thought it would be decades until I hunted again,” he said. “My hunger has gotten weaker with age. Until you came along. The fact that I would eat after mere years is… disconcerting.”

Ruby laughed. No wonder he had been baffled that she needed to eat multiple times a day.

“A kobald would have been more than enough, last time,” Slate continued slowly. “Now I am… I am still not full.”

“Is that so bad?” Ruby asked. “There will be other kobalds.”

“I am not worried about running out of things to hunt. I am worried about…” Slate growled, and the prey-animal instinctfilled Ruby with adrenaline. Getting her ready to run. To bechased.

“Changing,” Slate admitted.