Page 20 of Malicent (Seven Devils #1)

“Shhhh,” I murmur, running a soothing hand down my horse’s neck. She exhales sharply, but her body relaxes under my touch. Slipping from the saddle, I land lightly, bending my knees to absorb the impact. I lead her a few steps back and leave her to graze.

Cage and Kalix do the same, their whispered words of reassurance barely carrying over the thick silence.

I inhale deeply, focusing. My senses extend outward, seeking, but there is nothing. Nothing beyond the presence I’ve come to recognize as Cage’s.

Something is out there, and the horses know it.

Not trusting what my senses fail to detect, I move toward the pasture.

A flaking wooden fence marks the boundary.

The cattle were likely grazing when they were attacked.

The moon provides just enough light to see, and my dark vision sharpens the shadows.

Still, I keep my awareness stretched, reaching out to avoid any surprises.

It’s too quiet.

No bird. No rustling in the trees. Just the ceaseless drone of crickets, blissfully unaware in their small world, oblivious to what has taken place.

Bracing a hand against the wooden plank, I vault over the fence, landing in tall grass that sways against my shins. Boots thud behind me—Kalix and Cage are following.

Then I see them.

A cluster of dark mounds. Six, at least. I beeline toward them. Whatever the horses sense, I don’t feel it yet. Is it too faint? Waxing and waning in and out of range? Or is Cage’s presence drowning me out, his magic saturating the air like ink spilling in to water?

“No sulfur smell this time. Looks like an animal got to them,” Kalix observes, stepping up to the first carcass.

The cow lies on its side, its body torn open.

Its internal organs are missing—sucked clean out.

Only shattered bones and torn flesh remain, as if something with a massive maw took a single bite and hollowed it from the inside out.

Its eyes are glazed over, flies buzzing hungrily around the exposed tissue.

Some preen themselves on its brown coat.

I crouch beside it, narrowing my eyes as I study the remains. There’s nothing left but the ligaments and tendons that hang loosely like ribbons against torn muscles. “Does it usually smell of sulfur?”

Kalix kneels next to me, slipping his satchel off his shoulder as he retrieves a silver dish.

“Honestly? There are so many variations, we still don’t know what’s consistent.

Maybe you’ll have some insight, dark girl.

” He wiggles his eyebrows, smirking slightly as he flips open the dish and unsheathes a surgical blade.

Rising to my feet, I cross another cluster of bodies moving in the opposite direction of Cage.

My eyes scan the ground for clues. The field has been walked over by farm animals and workers.

No distinct prints can be made out. My mind riffles through bestiaries, piecing together what little I know.

Many creatures prefer organs for their high nutrition value, but the method of extraction here is unnatural.

I crouch again, my fingers ghost over the sheared flesh where the body was torn apart. The angles of the wounds suggest multiple creatures—or our lovely beasty has multiple mouths, tearing from various parts at once.

Hell, it could even be something worse. Something with a maw that unhinges, swallowing its prey from the inside out.

That leaves a bigger question.

How did no one see or hear this?

The farmstead is distant enough that the owners were spared the sight, but I can’t believe that cows were silent when they died. They cry. They thrash. They fight.

So why was there no struggle?

My gaze drifts past the farmhouse, across the open land, to the tree line Cage had identified earlier—Briarmere Forest. It isn’t nearly as menacing as the Twisted Hollows that surround my coven. There, magic of that magnitude warps nature into something unrecognizable. There is no such magic here.

Or is there?

The North is up to something. Cage mentioned mutations—evolutions—that have begun reshaping creatures into things he has never encountered before. They still don’t know the full extent of what’s happening, and they certainly haven’t explained everything to me.

That needs to change.

Pondering this, I move toward the forest’s edge. My eyes adjust swiftly to the darkness, sharpening the details of the towering trees. Their trunks stand far enough apart that I can see between them, unobstructed by dense brush.

I summon Ollie with a thought. A moment later, he materializes onto my shoulder, kicking his little feet in the air.

“Me Misses! Midnight stroll?” His screeching squeak rings in my ears as he twirls a lock of my hair around his finger.

“Ollie, something killed those cows,” I tilt my head toward the mutilated corpses then gesture to the woods. “Find it.”

“Of course, Me Misses!” He giggles, rocking himself forward before tumbling off my shoulders and vanishing into the dark.

I follow at a leisurely pace, though I can’t see him. I don’t need to. Our bond pulses in my mind, keeping me acutely aware of his location. His wings may be small, but he is fast (and lazy).

His movements erratic, Ollie is teleporting from space to space in quick bursts, covering a vast amount of ground at an incredible pace.

Lazy, but effective.

Then I feel it—a spike in his curiosity. His voice pushes through the link like a whisper against my thoughts. “Me Misses, come look.”

The eagerness in his tone pulls at me, his insistent tug on our bond pushing me to move faster.

Something’s there.