Freya

It's impossible to move fast. Every step comes with a risk of falling, of slipping and twisting an ankle, of mistaking uneven rocks for the paths in the dark.

In my chest, my heart hammers with adrenaline, echoing the desperate screams in my mind. I can't help but run through scenarios in my mind. What could possibly be waiting for us at the end of the tunnel?

Is it Hana? Launching an attack on Lei while I was distracted? Was Alaric supposed to separate us?

"Hold on!" Alaric's voice is just behind me. "Slow down!"

"Something happened," I say, shoving on. I stumble over the edge of a rock, catching myself against the narrow walls.

A hand catches mine, halting me. "Freya, wait."

I spin around to face him; I can make out the outline of his face in the darkness, soft angles.

"Are you trying to keep me here?" I demand. "Are you trying to separate us?"

"What? I—" He halts, grip on my wrist tightening. "Do you feel that?"

"Feel what?" I ask, exasperated. "Let me go, you're wasting—"

"Listen to the ground, feel it beneath your feet." His grip on mine tightens. I want to ignore him, to tear myself from his grip, but as soon as he mentions it, I feel the pound of the earth. It vibrates beneath me. The cave rattles.

"What... what is that?"

"I don't know." He hesitates. The thumping grows stronger, closer. "But I don't think it's Lei down here with us."

Fear drags an icy finger up the length of my spine. My breath, shaky, seems to shatter the air. I'm aware of every movement I make, unsure whether to run to the entrance or deeper into the dark abyss.

Alaric decides for me. Yanking hard on my arm to pull me against the wall. He switches our positions so he's standing ahead of me, closest to our path out. Opening my mouth, just as the pounding halts, Alaric cuts me off.

"Don't. Move."

Every muscle freezes. Sharp, ragged breathing fills the space. The only movement in my body comes from my eyes, dragging to the path leading to the entrance. Two glowing green eyes stare back from the darkness, sending my heart into my stomach. I focus on the feel of the wall behind me, uneven and cold.

Alaric grabs my hand, squeezes so hard it almost hurts. I can't drag my eyes from the shifter as it starts to growl, eyes locked on us pressed against the wall. It snarls. The glow from its eyes reaches its teeth, gleaming green in the darkness. I search the darkness for anything to protect us, any semblance of a weapon.  It pads the ground, prepares to charge. I try to kneel down, to find a loose rock to throw towards it, but Alaric's rigid grip keeps me upright.

"Alaric!"

"Hold still!"

The shifter charges. A scream escapes my throat as I attempt to pull free of Alaric's grip, but it's iron-tight. Squeezing my eyes shut, the shifter leaps off the ground towards us. I think of Casimir. Of Killian and Cadence and Samu. Of my father. And as they filter through my mind, I can't help but notice that there's no strike.

Peeling my eyes open, body ice cold, the shifter yaps in our faces, backing up and charging, making contact with an invisible wall, launching backwards, and trying again.

My breath quivers as I turn to look up at Alaric by my side. His eyes are squeezed shut, eyebrows furrowed in deep concentration as the protective layer of air ripples against the shifter's violent attempts at us.

"Stay still," he orders without opening his eyes.

His words freeze me completely, so much so that I'm afraid to breathe, that the simple movement of my chest will expel me from his protection.

The shifter launches again, undeterred by the pulse of energy that throws it back each time. It only agitates it, mouth foaming, teeth clashing as it charges again.

I squeeze Alaric's hand. His pained expression flinches with each attack of the shifter, as if it somehow weakens him.

"How long can you hold it?" I ask as it ripples the air around us.

"The energy... it's resisting and I..." He flinches again. "Holding you here..." Another hit. He stops talking, his grip on my hand tightening.

Not long.

My heart rate picks back up. We're sitting ducks. The forcefield isn't going to hold the shifter our forever, and it doesn't look in any mood to give up.

"We should start walking to the entrance," I breathe. "At least outside there are weapons, places we can run."

"When you move, it is harder to track you. To hold you under with me."

I blink at the shifter, hopeless as it charges again, the evocian determining every bloodthirsty movement. What does it see when it peers at us? What is the rage that flows through its veins? Is it the primal instinct to kill that has taken over, or does it hear what we hear in the cloud, remnants of our loved ones crying out for help?

This is what the shifters thought I could fix. That maybe, just maybe, I could save their loved ones from this sickly disease.

A burning sensation awakens my arm. My eyes dart to it, alarmed at the glow of the black marks.

"Alaric!" I say desperately. The last time it did this, the cloud crawled through the forest. "My arm! I think... the cloud..."

He doesn't open his eyes. "Ground yourself, Freya. Focus on what's around you."

I squeeze my eyes shut. The rough rock behind me, the icy ground, the narrow roof. But none of it dulls the burn, nor the glow. I want to cry out.

"Freya," Alaric says slowly, "when I tell you to run, you have to go. Find Haris, and if you can't find him, get Hana. Tell her what happened. She'll send people."

"The cloud—"

"If you've summoned the cloud, you can get through it. You've done it before, you'll do it again."

"Alaric—"

"I... can't hold you here much longer. Not if it continues to charge. I can distract it while you escape."

I let out a shaky breath. "It'll kill you."

"The forcefield will protect me, that doesn't take much energy," he assures me.

"But to distract it—"

"Just do as I say!" he orders. In front of us, the forcefield glimmers and faults. With the charge of the shifter, a fault line forms across it. "Run!"

When I don't move, Alaric shoves me to his right, in the direction of the entrance. My heart hammers as I force my feet to move, scrambling up the shingle, half expecting the shifter to launch itself at me.

Alaric lets out a loud shout. The attack doesn't come, even as my ragged breath echoes through the cave, knees scraping against rocks as I tumble in the darkness and pull myself back up.

Stop it. A voice in my head halts me momentarily, forcing me to glimpse over my shoulder only once. The mirror of Alaric's forcefield remains intact, a slight shimmer in the darkness, the shifter still launching itself towards it, blood-thirsty, growls vibrating through the earth all the way to my feet.

Anxiety for Alaric settling somewhat, I turn again, continuing forward, when an unintelligible shout echoes from the entrance towards us.

The growling from behind stops momentarily, freezing my blood cold in my veins. I halt, turn slightly, half expecting the shifter to be right in front of me. It still stands by the forcefield, but it no longer charges. Because the shout has distracted it.

Its glowing green eyes meet mine.

Stop it, the voice says again, more forceful this time. More familiar. Samu.

The shifter charges. Behind it, Alaric shouts at me. But I do not run, I do not kid myself that escape is possible. I know even in daylight, the shifter would outrun me within seconds.

Stop it.

Stop it.

Stop it.

I scream the words in my mind, willing the shifter to listen. At the last second, it leaps off the ground, launching itself towards me. I roll beneath it, its underbelly grazing the top of my head as it lands on the other side of me, blocking the way out.

Ragged breaths fill my lungs as I rise to my feet, Samu's voice pounding through my head. The shifter stamps the ground, letting out a blood-thirsty howl that rattles the walls of the cave. I stare into its eyes, petrified at the primal look, the lack of humanity, the hunger.

The markings on my arm glow brighter, making its eyes appear dull in the cave. Sharp pains shoot from my arm to my chest, but I ignore them as the shifter charges at me once more.

Alaric screams at me. "Freya! Run!"

I meet its gaze, quivering where I stand, holding my hand out towards it, light shooting from the veins of the black markings.

Inches away, the shifter halts, skidding across the ground in its approach. The light shooting from my markings should blind it, but its eyes remain on me while the markings bathe both of us in white light that covers the cave walls in silk.

Its ragged breaths fill the air, the rise and fall of its body making it quiver. But it does not proceed, does not—

"Freya!"

The voice, deep and desperate and familiar, breaks through my trance.

Killian.

The light falls away, my arms grow heavy, the shifter's gaze fixes on me once more and it charges. I reach for the energy to move, but my knees buckle beneath me instead, energy seeping out of me like a rushing waterfall. Arms brace me from behind, Alaric's forcefield discarded, both of us tumbling to the earth as the shifter launches off the ground towards us.

I can't scream, can barely breathe as I squeeze my eyes shut.

The strike never comes. A whimper, a large thump of a body falling.

Then, the voice.

"Freya."

It draws my eyes open. The shifter, whimpering with blood dripping from its abdomen, lies between us. I struggle to believe my eyes as they draw to him.

To Killian.