Page 16 of Hunt Me

“You must’ve gotten a hold of some bad mead because your recollection of events has escaped you, but we’ll let it be. We should discuss how our little investment is already paying off!” Belzar exclaimed, clapping Matilda on the back, making her choke on her beverage.

“Some investment,” Belzara scoffed as Matilda attempted to regain her composure. “She returned home with only ten measly rabbits.”

Matilda gasped. “Only ten? Last I checked, you could barely get two to cross the threshold, let alone ten. Besides, it’s only been a day.”

“I want boars, Tilda. Not puny rabbits. You got it?” Belzara snapped.

“I got it,” Matilda mumbled, not wanting a fight.

A commotion caught the trio’s attention when a man ran into the tavern yelling, piquing everyone’s interest.

“Th-there has been a murder… murders!” he gasped, trying to catch his breath.

“Murders? Who? How many? Spit it out, you nitwit!” a patron shouted.

“T-two children by the river!”

Matilda’s blood thundered in her ears, and the tavern lurched sideways. For one dizzying second, she couldn’t hear or think beyond the words that had just been spoken.

Two children… murdered… by the river.

“W-were they drained?” she asked, finally finding her voice.

“No! They appeared to have been strangled!”

It was him… Gregorio. And Matilda had no choice but to meet him.

***

Matilda rode Obsidian with the vigor of a mad woman. His hooves beat the ground in tandem with her racing heart. She knew what had happened to those innocent children wasn’t her fault, but she had a choice and couldn’t help but think she had chosen wrong. She had put her self-preservation over others, an act that was utterly foreign to her. For once, Matilda chose herself, and young lives were lost as a result.

She tugged on the reins, forcing Obsidian to stop abruptly upon arriving at her earlier hunting ground. She threw her leg over and dismounted, boots crunching in the freshly fallen snow. Her breath furled out, clashing with the arctic wind that rolled in from the north. “Stay,” she ordered, flipping her hood over her windblown curls.

It wasn’t long before she stood underneath the same tree “Gregorio” was earlier perched on.

“Show yourself, coward!” Matilda barked. She closed her eyes and focused on drowning out the background noise of the whipping wind, rustling leaves, and the tiny creatures scavenging in the forest. It was faint, but she caught it. A nearly inaudible whistling headed her direction. Quickly, she spun to the right, narrowly escaping her challenger’s arrow.

“You’re better than I thought,” a familiar voice praised.

“Don’t you find it counterintuitive to kill the only person capable of ending King Alesi’s reign?”

“Who said you were the only being who could vanquish the great King Alesi? Hm? You’re the most disposable being.”

“Why did you kill those children?”

“You required motivation, and I have little time to spare,” he answered with a careless shrug.

Matilda drew her sword.

Moonlight flashed along the blade, bright and cold, catching his eye like the fiercest star in the heavens. It was a fine weapon—slender, light, and perfectly balanced, and he found himself wondering how many of his kind had fallen beneath it.

“Perhaps you have time to die… hybrid.”

Silence sliced through the forest like a cleaver through muscle and bone.

“How, pray tell, did you come to this wild conclusion?”

Matilda pointed at the full moon.