Page 23 of The Faceless Queen

I nearly heaved my guts up on the spot.

We weren’t just facing one adult monster. We were facing two.

I spotted it hiding in the shadows, surrounded by a dozen men, their blades drawn, swords brandished. Each one was trying to corner the beast. Fuck! They didn’t know the chimera wanted to be there. That it was herding them together, lulling them into an attack.

Behind me, the half-lion, half-goat slammed its heads against the tavern wall, extinguishing its flames. Wisps of smoke rose from its neck. The pungent scent of burnt flesh prickled against my nostrils. Four eyes blazed with hunger and fury, staring right through me.

It pulled its bull-like leg back, its hooved foot stomping against the embers of my torch, preparing to charge. I knew the look it wore. I’d seen it before.

“Hey!” Finlay yelled. “You! Brute!”

My heart stopped as the monster’s eyes moved to my friend. He raced forward, carrying a spear as tall as he was. And by his side ran a redheaded man brandishing a sword. Rowan.

I set Cecelia down at once. “Run,” I told her. “Run now!”

“No! You’re—you’re coming with me? Aren’t you, Samara?” she cried. “Please!”

There was no time to argue. I scooped her back into my arms, racing outside. Night cloaked us with the chaos of everyone escaping. But I saw no sign of Brennan, nor his friends. And I knew mine were still inside.

I had to help them.

“RUN!” I roared at Cecelia

But she stood still, taking my hand in hers, until her eyes moved to my arms, seeing how they’d become thick and muscled, the way they burst through the seams of my tunic.

Cecelia released my hand, taking a horrified step back. “You—your arms. They-re—you’re…” She shook her head, backing away from me. And then a feeling poured out of her, overwhelmingly strong. And directed at me. My mind connected to hers, as her fear manifested into a single thought.

Demonos.

The backs of my eyes burned. I’d tried for years—tried to take care of her, to protect her. And yet …

It wasn’t the first time someone I’d cared for, or loved, had looked at me that way—with hatred and disgust. I’d been on the other end of those looks my entire life. I was well practiced at receiving it.

But it never got easier. Not once.

It was one thing to think I was a monster. It was another to see it confirmed in the eyes of someone I cared for, someone I thought was my friend.

“Go!” I said, my voice cold.

I turned away, blinking my eyes dry. The connection between us was severed. My heart ached, breaking for what I’d lost, but there was no time to dwell on it. I ran back to the tavern.

Finlay was still in danger. I ran after him, screaming his name, but crashed into a farmer running from the wolf. He knocked me and an entire table over in his panic. My ass hit the floor, and glass shattered at my feet. But I grabbed at a tablecloth nearby, shoving the shards of glass on top, then tied the ends together.

My new weapon in hand, I jumped to my feet, just as Finlay’s weapon speared the beast, piercing its chest. He pushed the spear in deeper as he shouted a guttural war cry. The sheer force of his strength had been unexpected. And had it been any other animal on the other end, it would be dying by now. But the chimera barely noticed. Even if Finlay had struck its heart, it didn’t matter. That wasn’t how to kill a chimera—that wasn’t how to survive.

My mother had thrown a dagger at the chimera’s heart, too, that day in the woods. The blade cut right through its torso. It didn’t even flinch. Finlay’s attack had only made the chimera grow more agitated. It charged forward, the spear in its chest becoming another weapon.

“Finlay!” I screamed. “Run!”

He stumbled back, his feet tangling beneath him, his hands still wrapped around the end of his weapon.

No!

He fell, his leg twisting underneath him.

I ran, twirling the glass shards above my head. I spun it around and around, then released, letting it soar. The cloth opened, the shards raining down and smashing against the chimera. But they all seemed to hit the goat skull.

Fuck! I’d been aiming for the Godsdamned lion’s head.