Page 31 of The Unseen Hour (The Unseen Hour Duology #1)

A ll the words I’d fallen in love with, and the man I’d fallen for. It had been Ry the entire time.

“Yours?” I took a step back. “But it said R. Holmes. Reginald? Remington?”

“Rion,” he supplied. “I wrote it.”

“But you told me you hadn’t traveled much! The brother who wrote that traveled quite a bit!”

“I said I hadn’t been able to travel in the manner I wished. That’s true. All those trips were strictly business, first with my father, and then in his place after he passed and I became Duke Holmes. No opportunity to really explore.”

He stared at me as I chewed my lip.

“Was there something else, Starlight?”

“To be honest, I’m a bit relieved. When I read the diary, I … well, I … I developed feelings for the author. It would have been incredibly awkward to tell you that I’d been pining after your brother for the better part of a year.”

He smirked, pulling me into an embrace.

“Are you telling me you were enraptured with me before we even met? I’m even more romantic than I thought. I really should provide tips to the other gentlemen. Apparently, they don’t stand a chance against my charms.”

I laughed, pushing against him without really trying to get away.

“I never said enraptured ! I merely meant that?—”

Orion opened his mouth, but he was cut off by the cracking of wood in front of us. I noticed that the tree hoppers had gone silent, and I couldn’t see a single squirrel.

A thundering roar erupted from the trees.

Orion shoved me behind him.

For a moment, I thought we were in for another slycat encounter. I began to reach for the knife at my side; then three creatures shoved their way through the tangled branches and into the clearing where we stood.

Each was notably larger than the slycat. Bears, of a sort. They were furred, with large heads and enormous clawed paws, but the shape was wrong. They had long snouts, more like a wolf than a bear, and a long tail with a series of small points at the edges.

“Orion, what are they?” He took a few steps back, with me still pulled against him.

The three creatures had paused, watching us.

Orion’s voice was barely a whisper, and he spoke through the side of his mouth, not opening it fully.

“Great bears. Celia, you need to run.”

“What about you?” I hissed as the great bear to our right let out another roar. The other two shook their heads, appearing to recover from the shock of finding two half-Shades in their woods.

“I’ll try to distract them. Don’t come back for me, no matter what you hear.”

“I could help,” I insisted, bending down again for the knife.

Orion grabbed my arm, holding it firm.

“No.”

Ry had been a stream of information on the plants and animals in the Ether. What they ate, how they behaved, if they were dangerous. If he wasn’t sharing a plan on how to beat these creatures, it meant he didn’t know of a way.

“I’m not abandoning you!”

The largest of the three creatures lunged at us. Orion threw us on the ground, rolling us awkwardly away from the great bear.

Unfortunately, the one on the right was prepared, and as we stood it snapped at the Head Shade. Orion dodged its jaws, shoving me out of the way, but the side of the creature’s massive head slammed into Orion’s ribs.

He grunted, stumbling backward and clutching his side. With what appeared to be difficulty bending over, Orion reached toward his boot and pulled out a dagger.

“I’ll hold them off. Head back to the cottage. Please, Celia.”

I’d spent more time than I wanted to admit admiring Orion’s physique, his muscled arms and strong shoulders. But facing the three great bears, it was clear that he was utterly outmatched.

We weren’t going to fight our way out of this.

Not with a couple of small knives, in any case.

We needed another solution. My mind raced like Pellix through the fields as I struggled to find any way to help us.

If only we had the stallion with us. Pellix could run faster than any animal I’d seen.

“Pellix. That’s it! Pellix!” The idea was so far-fetched that I knew it might get us both killed. Still, I couldn’t let Orion die while I ran away.

“Celia!” Orion yelled as the smallest bear moved in my direction. He swiped at it, and it redirected its attention toward him. “Run! ”

“Hold on, Ry,” I whispered, ducking into the branches. They scratched at my clothes and skin while I tried to stay out of sight. When I passed around the lightest-furred great bear, it raised its snout, sniffing the air.

Don’t see me. Don’t smell me, I beseeched silently.

It turned its head and ran toward Orion.

Not what I meant.

I found a tree with decent handholds, and an open area underneath it, and got to work.

Climbing was much easier in trousers than it would have been in a dress and corset, and my muscles had been built from my hikes with Orion, time in the garden, and even carrying our food back and forth from the Meadow.

I didn’t need to reach the top of the tree. I just needed to be taller than the bears.

Then came the part that really required bravery.

Below me, barely visible through the leaves, Orion screamed. He stumbled back into view, his right trouser leg in tatters and a sickening crimson coating the material.

“Over here! This way!” I yelled at the creatures, keeping one arm tight around a branch and waving the other furiously.

Two started toward me, but the largest kept its attention on Orion as he backed away.

Ry’s right leg gave out, and he fell against a tree.

The great bear swiped, and Orion threw himself, dragging his weight by his arms, to get out of the way.

He slid behind another tree, creating just a few seconds of confusion as the largest great bear looked for its prey.

“Come and get me!” I shouted again. I broke off a small branch of the limb I clung to, beating it against the tree to keep the eyes of the two other great bears on me.

The smallest one slammed its front paws against the tree trunk, standing on its hind legs and snarling so I was staring down into a mouth of saliva-dripping fangs .

The other, with its russet fur, was circling the tree.

Thank both gods that I’d spent all those hours riding Pellix around the ruins.

I’d never attempted it from a tree, and my feet weren’t as steady as they had been on a thick bit of stone, but it was this or a dead Head Shade. One of the bears lumbered just underneath my branch.

“Now!” I yelled as I jumped from the tree, plummeting toward the snarling beast. I landed on its back with a thwump , and scrambled to get ahold of its fur. It was much larger than Pellix, and without being able to get my legs around its sides, I began to slide.

“No, no, no!”

“Celia!” Orion screamed, and his voice was followed by the sound of cracking and splintering wood as the biggest great bear took another swipe at him, splintering tree bark.

I dug my heels in, trying to fix my awkward angle.

The great bear roared, rearing back.

I screamed, clinging to it.

The smallest bear had noticed me by that point. It swiped out a paw, and it was only because of the beast’s movements beneath me that I was twisted out of its path. Instead, the great bear underneath me was hit by its pack mate’s claws. It plunged back onto all four legs with a bellow.

Both creatures forgot me for a moment, snarling in each other’s faces instead.

Seeming to sense something amiss, the largest great bear roared at the other two, turning its head and making its way over.

I scooted up the creature’s back until I was seated in the nook between its shoulder blades. Before the larger bear could reach us I leaned down and punched the head of the creature beneath me with my fist.

“Hello in there!” I yelled.

The beast roared, tossing its head and nearly clocking me in the nose. I grasped the fur of the creature’s shoulders as it reared back again and then stomped into the ground.

All three great bears started shouldering one another, pushing and snarling. I was certain I was about to roll off and fall beneath a flurry of waving claws when I heard Orion in the distance.

“This way!” The call was followed by the sound of someone crashing through the undergrowth of the forest.

All three bears turned and barreled through the woods after him.

I knew Orion had no chance of outrunning the beasts but didn’t see him ahead.

The treeline thinned, and my grip on the great bear grew tighter. In front of the lumbering creature was what appeared to be a sheer drop-off into a deep canyon. I could hear water rushing somewhere below.

We were headed directly for the edge, with no signs of stopping.