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A water basilisk perched on the edge of the riverbank. Its beady eyes were fixed on her, its big, scaly body coiled in a way Briar really didn’t like. She hadn’t encountered many water basilisks, but she’d seen her fair share of regular ones, usually when she was trying to sneak through a dungeon.

This basilisk was ready to strike. And this wasn’t some weak, underfed basilisk languishing in some nobleman’s dungeons. This was a well-nourished bastard with gleaming scales and strong, sharp fangs and a strong snake body that was almost as big as her.

Briar eyed her pack. It was several feet away from the basilisk in the long grass, her dagger strapped to the side.

This is what I get for not staying close to my pack,Briar told herself.Rookie mistake, Copperwood.

Briar looked around, careful to only move her eyes. There were no rocks in reach to throw at it. What were the basilisk rules again? Make herself really big? No, it was moving slowly. Usually, she had a sword to stab them with, and she never had to worry about running into them in the wild.

“Nice basilisk,” she whispered, bending as slowly as she could manage. “Don’t mind me. Just picking up a rock. Nothing to do with you.”

The basilisk’s eyes followed her as she moved. Briar stared back at it, cursing herself for being such a city dweller. She foundherself in enough forests to know what to do with a damned water basilisk.

She dipped her hand in the water. The basilisk’s tail twitched.

Briar tensed in preparation. Her hand closed carefully around a river rock. It was only as big as her fist. She would need to get in a good shot, then dive for her pack and hope for the best.

She drew her arm back to throw.

The basilisk lunged.

Briar swore and lobbed the river rock. It bounced off the basilisk’s cheek, disrupting its path.

Briar dove for her pack. She could hear the basilisk hiss and rear up to follow, a flash of scales racing over the riverbank toward her. She braced herself to fight off a scaly body while she wrestled for the knife?—

—only for a loud noise to make them both look up.

Wick sailed out of the sky, teeth bared.

He slammed into the basilisk feet-first. Scales and flesh splattered into the grass, the wet noise immediately drowned out by the agonized basilisk’s scream.

Wick roared back at it. His wings flared, a clawed hand whipping out to slash the basilisk’s throat in half.

The basilisk’s cry fell silent. Its body fell into the grass, limp and partially headless.

Wick growled. His clawed foot rubbed against the holes it had carved into the basilisk’s body, as if he wanted to drag its head from its body entirely. Then he paused and turned to her. He had a sack over his shoulder, filled with fruit.

“Briar,” he said. “Are you alright?”

Briar stared. She was propped up against the riverbank, naked and dripping. But she barely noticed the water running down her back or the grass against her hip. She was too busygaping at Wick, who was standing over her with his claws bloody and his wings arched.

Several days ago, it would have been something out of her nightmares. Now, she wastouched. Even as she tried to beat the feeling down, it made her heart flutter and her sore cunt throb.

Wick lifted his head. Sniffing the air, Briar realized. He was looking at her like he was searching for fang marks.

Briar pulled up a smile, wringing out her wet hair and flipping it over her shoulder in a way that drew focus to her bare, wet body. “My hero! You should become a guard. You would get a lot of coin.”

“I am not made to be a guard,” Wick said after a moment. His gaze had dropped to her breasts, she noted with pride. His attention was easier to deal with when he was interested in her body, not in her safety.

Briar climbed out of the river. “You’re getting basilisk blood on my clothes.”

“What? Oh.” Wick stepped away from her pile of clothes. His claws had been dripping blood onto her pants, which were thankfully black for the very purpose of hiding blood.

He looked so concerned about her clothes that her heart clenched once more.

She stepped up to him. Despite all her intentions, her voice was annoyingly earnest as she said, “Really. Thank you for protecting me. I would have been basilisk food if you hadn’t shown up.”

Wick blinked. He held out the bag of fruit he had dangling from his non-bloody hand.