Page 92 of Hunted By Fae

He knows the stony hues that melt over the faintest of greens.

He knows the mousy hair falling into the pallor of that familiar face.

Dare’s smile is instinctual. It curves over his mouth, lazy and vicious. Because he is looking up through the smog at unfinished business.

I found you.

Daxeel traces his unwavering stare to the tower roof, but it’s another behind Dare who asks, “What do you sense?”

In answer, Daxeel raises his sword in a blur, aims it down the alleyway over Dare’s shoulder, and a warning flashes in his eyes. ‘Quiet,’ that gesture commands. ‘Wait.’

Silent stares pierce into Dare’s pale, hard flesh. The patience of their trust in his instincts. But they must wonder, hope even, that he’s sensed a group of humans, some who might put up a fight and quench some of their bloodlust.

He doesn’t tell them what he really senses.

Her.

The kinta.

Bee.

And she is staring right back at him.

Their gazes are locked, a moment that ripples through the air, thickens the breath in his chest and wets her eyes with tears of pure fear.

You should be afraid, Bee.

You should run.

She does.

A thunderous rumble hums up Dare’s chest, a shudder of instinct as his prey shoves from the wall of the roof and disappears.

A growl rumbles up his throat, and the brothers around him tense with their own hunting nature.

Dare gives chase.

The others follow, boots smacking down on the harsh ground of the concrete jungle.

Better run fast, kinta.

EIGHTEEN

BEE

The stillness clutching me snaps like a tether, and without another second wasted, I’m barrelling through the solid metal door to the stairwell.

I’m loud, too loud. The backpack bounces off my back, the thick soles of my snow boots come raining down on the hard steps, and my breaths are too grated.

The racket echoes around me, bounces off the concrete stairwell walls.

I cringe against it and pray to the gods that the dark fae don’t follow the sound, that they haven’t gotten high enough in this building to hear it yet.

But they will be in the building already.

They are faster than I am.

So I’m not wasting a breath as I crash through the door where the roof stairwell ends, and I come lurching into the top floor.