Page 129 of Blood & Claw

Something flickered in his golden eyes. It was subtle. Fleeting.

Fear? Revulsion?

Or was it anger?

Darach blinked then, a muscle in his jaw flexing. “Time to go,” he said finally.

Ailsa nodded, following him on shaky legs out of the shieling.

33: FIGHT TO KILL

RÙN SNORTED A nervous greeting, and Darach went to him, soothing him with a stroke to the neck. Ailsa watched them, suddenly feeling excluded.

Just a few moments, that’s all it had taken, and now the world had tilted.

The truth she’d been running from had just tackled her, had just brought her crashing to the ground.

Suddenly, everything about her made sense.

Horribly so.

She started to shiver then, quashing the urge to bolt into the trees and throw up, yet she swallowed the nausea down. She wished she’d never set foot inside that shieling. But she had, and there was no undoing it.

“Come on,” Darach said, not looking her way. “I need to scout … and neither of us should linger here.”

In case the bavaan come back.

The words were unspoken. Nonetheless, they hung between them.

With that, he untied Rùn and led him through the trees, north.

Ailsa followed at their heels, sickly and shaky.

She wanted Darach to reassure her, to insist there was nothing wrong with her.

But he didn’t. Instead, he’d withdrawn.

Have you been manipulating me all this time?

A hard knot clenched like a fist under her breastbone. Just a short while ago, he’d wanted her. He’d kissed her as if he were starving for her. Now, after seeing those dead hunters inside the shieling, everything had changed.

It felt like betrayal.

Her belly started to burn then. She’d thought he understood what it was to be different, to fight the beast within.

And he had—until now.

They moved through the woods, and gradually, the way grew rockier, slower. The light had nearly faded, and a freezing mist drifted like smoke through the trees. Ailsa’s nose started to tingle, her fingers were aching from the cold, their tips numb.

They shouldn’t be out tonight. However, they had no choice. Kayla was too near to let slip through their fingers again.

On and on they walked, night falling in a black curtain. And then, Ailsa smelled it. Her nose twitched. Halting, she breathed in slowly, testing the dank air.

Faint but definitely there.

They’d reached the bottom of a shrubby hill now and were pushing through tangles of bramble.

“Darach.” She’d whispered his name, but he heard. Back stiffening, he halted and glanced over his shoulder. It was dark now, yet her eyes had adjusted to it. She marked how guarded his expression was. “Woodsmoke.”