Page 20 (1/2)

"What are you doing here, Edainst ot lost"

She narrows her eyes, trying to decide if she believes hs and lowers the knife fro me to the tree I fall to the earth with a heavy thuazes down at me

"It’s Theora," she says "My na how the word sounds on htly "Thanks"

Now that I’et a better look at her She’s wearing a floaty yellow dress, strapped at the waist with a chunky belt, and a hunting jacket Her gray eyes flicker toward soun! Before I can rabs the rifle and takes a cautious step back, keeping her eyes trained on me as I stand up I should be afraid, but I’m not In fact, I feel weirdly excited, like there are these little shivers of electricity rushing through aze, her expression an odd er It’s clear she’s just as intrigued by me as I am with her I’ve never seen anyone like Theora before She’s obviously a Lupine, but the ularities I notice Her nose is slimmer than a normal Lupine’s, her face is rounder, and her eyes are almond shaped She lookswell, she looks a little bit likeh she’s wondering why she did it "I didn’t want us getting bla," she eventually replies

"We wouldn’t have eaten hiht

I flinch, startled at the sound of the girl’s voice I’d forgotten there were other people here, I was so fixated on Theora I turn to look at the girl

If I had a heartbeat, it would’ve stopped

Standing a few irls The Lupine boy, who I presume is Kieran, is about fourteen or fifteen years old, based on his boyish features, although he’s very tall He has a silver streak through his white mane But it’s not the boy who’s turned irls next to hiirls, who looks a year or so older than Kieran, is wearing a green dress, and the younger girl--who is holding Kieran’s hand--is wearing boys’ pants and a gray top They both have pale skin, rippling black hair and gli eyes the color of onyx I let out a shaky breath

Darklings

A dizzying h rab hold of one and stick with it It’s thrilling to finally meet some of my own kind, but I’ve been raised to not trust these dehtfully so after one of their kind raped rowl

Kieran steps protectively in front of the two Darkling girls The younger of the two girls--the one wearing the pants and gray top--glares defiantly at me from behind him

"A little over six weeks," Theora answers

Six weeks? That’s how long the Lupines have been snatching people fro on?" I say "Why are you trying to start a war between our species?"

"We’re not We’re trying to keep the peace," Theora explains "I know it sounds like a contradiction, but you don’t understand Icarus is back"

Dread creeps over me Icarus? Why does that na who killed dozens of our people during the Misery

"When Icarus ca our people to feed on," Theora explains "There are so few of us left, Ed--"

"So you offered hihted with this bargain--fros and what I know from my owndesires, they prefer huh they will drink Lupine blood at a push

"We only took the weak and the sick ones, like that old woht?" I say

Theora nods "We gave theoodwill," Theora says "So far it’s kept him happy He hasn’t attacked your town or ours"

That explains why Mrs Hope was left out on a rock like a sacrificial lamb, because that’s exactly what she was

"Why was Ulrika’s sister found with Mrs Hope’s body?" I think about the Lupine girl we drowned

Theora lowers her pale lashes "She was guarding it, until Icarus turned up"

I glance at the two Darklings, feeling a surge of anger The older of the two girls, the one in the green dress, shrinks back, clearly frightened of ular face has an almost impish quality to it, with a small mouth and narrow chin

I look back at Theora "Why didn’t you just come to us and tell us all this?"

"We did," she says "Theas we kept Icarus’s return a secret froht it would cause unnecessary panic That’s why he ht; he wanted to s, so they didn’t suspect Icarus had returned" Theora sighs a little "We thought the rest of the Guild are of this arrangeuess not"

I rake a hand through s? He’s been lying tothe Guild! Why keep Icarus’s return a secret from them? I ball my hands into fists This is all Grandfather’s fault! If he hadn’t gone behind the Guild’s back, they wouldn’t have gone in search of Mrs Hope’s body, and the Howler girl, Naomi, wouldn’t have been captured and executed Alaric wouldn’t have entered the town to retrieve her body, and Eric and Catherine would still be alive And now Mr Langdon, Patrick, Harriet and Drew are down at the waterfall, on their way to kill Alaric Bane to avenge Catherine’s and Eric’s deaths, and I’ve been sent on a mission to murder Ulrika There’s been so much bloodshed How could he let this happen? Why didn’t he just tell the Guild the truth?

I’hts that I don’t i In fact the whole forest has becoazes up at the trees, clearly noticing the silence too

"What’s going on?" she says "Why’s it so qui--"

She doesn’t have tiins to quake, knocking us to our knees Thunder roars beneath the earth, like a Titan awakening The Darkling girls huddle together with Kieran as pebbles and s our arms and backs Around us the Carrow trees start to shake, the vibrationstheir leaves screa to crash down on top of us