8.
1265 Words
I woke with a violent jerk. My lungs dragged in air so sharply it burned. For a moment I didn’t know where I was. Stone pressed cold against my back. The world was dim and silver-blue. Snowlight crept through the narrow crack of our hiding place. Then memory slammed back into place.
The test.
The forest.
The boy in the clearing.
Krystal.
My gaze snapped downward.
She was beside me, shoulder pressed against mine beneath Brynja’s blanket, her head tilted forward in sleep. One arm was still loosely wrapped around the knife she had been holding when she took watch.
Which meant— We had both fallen asleep.
My stomach dropped.
How long?
How long had we been vulnerable?
The wind outside had softened, replaced by a deeper, heavier quiet that meant the night had moved on without us.
Then I heard it.
Voices.
Close.
Too close.
A man laughed quietly somewhere beyond the rocks. Another voice answered, low and irritated.
“They can’t have gotten far. Their tracks are pretty fresh.”
My heart began to pound so hard I was certain it would wake the entire forest. I grabbed Krystal’s shoulder and shook once. Her eyes snapped open instantly, blade already rising. I pressed a hand over her mouth before she could speak. Her gaze locked onto mine.
Listen!
The voices drifted closer.
Boots crushing snow.
A branch snapping.
“…check the rocks.”
Krystal’s pupils widened in horror. She slowly turned her head toward the crevice opening. The moonlight shifted as a shadow passed in front of it.
Right outside.
My pulse hammered in my throat.
We couldn’t pack.
We couldn’t gather supplies.
We barely had space to stand without making any noise.
Krystal leaned her forehead briefly against mine, voice a breath against my skin.
“We run.”
I nodded. There was no other choice.
Outside, a man muttered,
“What about over there—”
Krystal moved first.
She shoved the blanket off us and surged out of the crevice like a wolf bursting from a den. I followed half a heartbeat later. Cold air slammed into my lungs.
Three figures stood less than ten paces away.
For a split second none of us moved.
Then one of them shouted.
“There!”
Krystal grabbed my wrist.
“Run!”
We ran!
Snow exploded beneath our boots as we tore through the trees. Branches clawed at my cloak. My lungs burned instantly in the freezing air. Behind us—
“After them!”
Boots thundered across the forest floor.
Too close.
Far too close.
“Left!” Krystal shouted.
We veered sharply between two trees, ducking beneath a sagging branch heavy with snow. I heard someone crash into it behind us, swearing as powder dumped down over them.
“Don’t lose them!”
My legs screamed already. The snow was deeper here, slowing every step. Krystal’s grip tightened around my wrist as she dragged me over a fallen log.
I stumbled but didn’t fall.
Branches whipped past my face. My breath tore from my lungs in ragged bursts. A blade whistled somewhere behind us.
Too close.
“Split them!” someone barked.
Krystal yanked me sharply to the right again, plunging us into thicker forest where the trees grew tighter together, and our female bodies were small enough to push in between. We zigzagged through them, forcing our pursuers to slow or slam into trunks. The ground sloped suddenly downward. I nearly slid.
Krystal caught me by the collar and kept running.
“How many?” I gasped.
“Three!” she shot back.
Three fresh recruits. Against two exhausted girls who had just woken from sleep.
Fucking fantastic.
The forest opened briefly into a shallow gully choked with snow. Krystal didn’t hesitate.
“Down!”
We slid down the slope, boots barely finding traction as snow cascaded around us. I hit the bottom hard, knees jarring painfully. Krystal hauled me upright before I could even curse.
“Move!”
We scrambled up the opposite side just as one of the pursuers reached the edge above us.
“There!”
A blade flashed again so close I could hear it flying past my ear. It buried itself in a tree inches from my shoulder. I didn’t look back. My chest felt like it might tear open with every breath. The cold air burned worse now, slicing into lungs that had forgotten how to be still.
“Trees—denser—there!” Krystal panted.
Ahead, the forest thickened into a tangled mess of old growth and low branches.
Perfect.
We dove into it.
Branches clawed at our hair and faces, but the maze forced us to slow, and forced our pursuers to slow even more. I heard one of them curse loudly behind us.
“Too tight!”
“Cut around!”
Krystal dragged me in even deeper, weaving between trunks so close together I had to turn sideways to pass. The voices grew fainter.
Still there.
But fading.
My legs trembled violently now. Every muscle screamed for rest. We didn’t stop. Not until the forest swallowed all sound except the wind again. Krystal finally slowed, then halted behind a massive tree trunk thick enough to hide both of us. We collapsed against it, gasping for air. My heart pounded so hard my vision pulsed.
Krystal held up a hand.
Listen!
We waited.
The wind moved through the branches.
Snow shifted somewhere far off.
But no voices followed.
No boots crashed through the underbrush.
After nearly a full minute, Krystal exhaled slowly.
“I think… we lost them.”
I slid down the trunk until I was sitting in the snow, chest heaving.
My pack.
My supplies.
Gone.
The blanket.
Gone.
Everything we had gathered to survive the night—Left behind in that crevice.
Krystal met my eyes. She knew it, too. For a moment, neither of us spoke. Then she let out a breathless, half-hysterical laugh.
“Well,” she said hoarsely,
“At least we’re still alive.”
I leaned my head back against the frozen bark, staring up at the black night sky through the branches. Dawn crept slowly into the forest. At first, it was nothing more than a pale thinning of the darkness, the black sky softening into a deep iron blue between the trees. Snow caught the faint light and reflected it upward, making the entire world glow cold and ghostlike. I could see my breath with every exhale.
Once we were sure we weren’t being hunted anymore, and dawn was creeping in, Krystal and I ran through the forest like hunted animals once more.
Which… we pretty much were.
My legs burned with exhaustion by the time we left our hiding place. Every muscle in my body screamed for rest, but stopping meant freezing—or worse, dying.
“We’re close to the capital,” Krystal rasped beside me. Her voice sounded thin, raw from the cold air tearing through her lungs. Ahead, through the skeletal lines of the trees, I could just make out the dark silhouette of the capital’s outer wall. And towering above it, carved from ancient ice, rose the massive castle where the ruling wolves lived.
The heart of the Skadi pack.
Safety.
If we could just reach the gates before—
A sound cracked through the forest behind us.
Boots pounding through snow.
My stomach dropped.
Krystal heard it too.
“No,” she breathed.
The footsteps were fast.
Closing.
“They tracked us,” I said.
Krystal cursed under her breath.
“Keep moving!”
- Writer
