Page 57 of A Promise of Lies (Shadows of the Tenebris Court #3)

56

Bastian

R ose and Faolán tried to stop me leaving, but I pushed past them. Wild Hunt be damned. I would give my soul if I had to. For Kat, I would give anything.

I needed to get to her. I needed to stop whatever Braea was doing. This whole fucking trip… it was to get me out of the way. And like a damned fool, I’d gone along with it. I cursed my earlier cowardice—the reason I was here, too far from the city.

I hurried past the little white narcissi that smelled just like Kat, saddled my stag, and rode into the night.

Sensing my urgency, he galloped hard, cutting corners, leaping rocks and logs. The darkness of the new moon had swallowed up the countryside and it consumed us too. Over my shoulder, there was no sign of the inn’s lights. We passed a huddle of houses locked and shuttered without so much as a curtain cracked open.

At this pace, it was three quarters of an hour to the city, an hour at most. What were the chances of the Wild Hunt being at this exact location at this exact moment?

I’d just given a fierce smile at the thought when I heard the howls. Not quite hunting dogs. Not quite wolves. I’d heard Fluffy make the sound once, the day the Horrors attacked.

The hair at the back of my neck rose.

“Fuck.”

The Wild Hunt’s hellhounds had caught my scent.

Their riders would be close behind.

The stories said there was no escaping them, but Ari had told us how they’d chased her once, and she’d managed to flee to safety. I would do the same. I would beat them to the city. If that meant they came for me again at the next new moon, so be it. As long as Kat was safe.

I bent to my stag’s neck and whispered in that old tongue my father had always used to train them. All I said was, “Please.”

Head lowered, he put on a burst of speed, and I placed my hand on his shoulder in thanks.

But the keening howls grew louder and more hoofbeats joined those of my stag. I searched the darkness for some sort of shelter—if I holed up in a stable, perhaps they’d get bored and leave, then I’d be able to continue on my way.

There was nothing.

They thundered closer. The air shook with their presence. The magic around me screeched and scraped, discordant and agitated.

I clung to the reins, ducking lower, urging my stag faster. Anything. I would do anything . The Wild Hunt might take a bargain. They could have my soul, if I could go to the palace first and do this one thing.

My shadows spread, licking over the ground in a lake of darkness. They didn’t slow the riders or their hellhounds.

The white hounds sprinted through my shadows, crimson flames marking their ears and eyes, streaking behind their tails. Just like Fluffy in theory, and yet there was a sharpness in their eyes, a lean hunger in their bodies, like they would never be satisfied, no matter how much they fed or how many nights they hunted. No, she had never belonged with them.

Finally, I looked back. They were shockingly close—only ten feet away. Thirteen riders on stag and horseback, shrouded in scuffed armour and shadow. Death clung to their steeds, some skeletal, some not quite solid. Their eyes burned with silvery fire, just as Kat and I had seen when they almost caught us in the stable yard. Except this time, instead of searching, they fixed on me.

They would have me. There was no escape.

Still I leant and urged and begged my stag, desperation stinging my eyes. “Please. Please .”

But they surged around us, thunder made flesh and bone.

My stag bellowed in terror, but there was nothing we could do.

They forced us to a stop, blocking the way forward, back—anywhere. I swallowed, working out the best wording for my bargain to ensure they couldn’t take me until I’d made sure Kat was all right.

But before I could utter a word, the Wild Hunt bowed.