Chapter 149

It was just the hunters, hounds, and me disturbing the night, with my nose pressed into the earth and my tears flowing down my dirty face.

Before I could scramble to my feet, a hound lunged toward me. Its yellow eyes glowed in the dark as they fixed on me with hunger, its jaws wide open, its serrated fangs glinting in the moonlight and dripping with saliva.

“The hound got her!” Sara shrieked enthusiastically.

A few men shouted in harsh excitement.

Howling in rage and fear, I pushed myself up and thrust my hand

toward the hound in midair. In front of my eyes, my hand turned to claws with five blades at lightning speed.

The blades sank into the beast’s belly, slashing all the way through to his heart. The hound screamed horribly, and I rolled out from under it before it toppled over on me. I wasn’t fast enough. Its forepaw battered my shoulder. Gore and blood splashed across my face and half my body.

I scrambled to my feet and dove into a row of trees ahead for better cover. An idea hit me. Maybe I should stay and fight since I wasn’t as helpless and powerless as I’d thought. I had claws made of blades. I stared at them. My gods, I was a freak.

Maybe I could hide behind trees, darting here and there, and pick off the hunters one by one. I’d keep the last one alive and get answers from him/her about who I was and why they hunted me.

Before I turned back to fight them, my claws receded. I willed them to come out again, but they wouldn’t budge. I threw my hands forward forcefully, yet my blades still didn’t appear.

It was as if I’d imagined I had them, but the dead hound testified otherwise.

“That abomination bitch slaughtered my hound!” Sara wailed behind me as if she’d lost a child.

Bolts of light and fire shot toward me like a rain of comets. None of them hit me, but only because my senses had told me where they were going to crash, giving me time to dive away from the magical assaults a second before they hit.

Yet I didn’t come out completely unscathed from the magical show. A few strands of my long hair were singed as they flew behind me. The stench of burning filled my nostrils.

I didn’t need any further encouragement to scratch my plan of staying to fight. Instead, I ran.

Another streak of fiery bolts whooshed by my ears, disappearing into the darkness. A barrage of spells chased me, making my ears ring. As I wondered if they’d ever stop, a spell crashed into my middle.

 The pain was harsh but manageable. I dared not slow down. Low branches ahead slammed into my face, but I kept on sprinting.

Fatigue caught up with me, making my limbs feel heavier. At some point, I didn’t care anymore. I just wanted to curl up and sleep.

Only a rush of adrenaline and fear kept me pounding my bloody feet against the forest floor and zigzagging between trees to avoid bullets and spells that continued to shoot toward me.

While my wild heartbeat and laborious breathing filled my ears, I heard the sound of water not far away.