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She stumbled backwards over a stick but regained her balance briefly before she fell.

“I don’t believe you. I know you’re in there.” Her voice trembled unsure.

I hunched down and bared my teeth.

She raised her arrow at me.

Good.

Fear me.

There were tears in her eyes. I could see it was breaking her.

Before she could fully take aim, I darted off into the woods, leaving her on her own.

I watched from a distance and saw her standing there, lowering her bow, looking around.

“Gage!” she shouted. “I know you’re still out there and can hear me!”

Silence.

“You aren’t a monster, no matter how bad you want me to believe it.”

She looked up at the sky. “Help me find my way home.”

It only took a second, but Mother Nature responded like it had before. The wind kicked up around her, sending her scent to swirl all around me, suffocating me like a noose.

I watched as it guided her home.

Chapter nineteen

Merla - Hatching a Plan

Iwaslosingmytouch.

In a fit of rage, I swiped my arm across the dresser in my room, sending everything smashing to the ground. The sound of glass shattering echoed throughout the room.

Historically, people feared me and now a measly huntsman thought he could take my money and try to trick me?

He would pay with his life. That was certain.

But how?

All the ways I had killed people filtered through my head, but none of them seemed dark enough. Brutal enough.

No. This needed to be special.

He tried to embarrass me… to use me.

An example needed to be made so no one would ever dare cross me again.

It needed to be a long, drawn out torture.

As ideas flowed through my mind, excitement slowly replaced the anger I felt.

Perhaps this was a gift. The huntsman had given me a gift.

I haven’t executed someone in so long and I missed the smell of blood in the air and the look of fear in people’s eyes.