The Night Hunt by Alexandra Christo

Author:Alexandra Christo
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

24

ATIA

The blade sinks into Silas’s neck, deep enough that only the hilt is visible.

“Separate them from the Herald. Do not let them escape,” Vail snarls.

I stagger backward as her banshee advances.

Silas chokes out something, a warning perhaps.

All that comes out is a waterfall of blood.

My hand twitches with the urge to pull the dagger out and try desperately to nurse his wounds, forcing the blood back inside.

He can’t die on me now.

He is immortal, I remind myself. He will live.

Unlike me.

I wipe the blood from my nose.

I didn’t realize how much more powerful a full banshee would be compared to Cillian, especially when able to target her screams so accurately.

Vail’s banshee prowls forward.

The queen herself stays back, away from danger.

Now that she has disabled Silas, our only means of escape, she’ll try to stick us into one of her cages. Maybe mount our heads in trophy cases ready for the Gods.

I’ll be damned if I’m going to let that happen.

I lunge with Silas’s dagger, but the banshee’s arm swings out, the beastly claws of her hand slashing across my shoulder as she knocks me into the bars of one of the nearby cages.

My skin chars against them.

I cry out and Silas’s dagger drops from my hand.

The vampire inside howls and then darts for me.

I leap quickly out of the way, its teeth just nipping the edge of my neck.

“Opportunistic bastard!” I yell.

The vampire runs its tongue along its tooth, relishing my blood. “Nightmare eater,” it says in a growl.

I snarl, just as the banshee yanks me backward.

“Nightmare eater?” she echoes.

Her voice is like shards of glass in my ear.

She opens her mouth wide and her tongue licks across my neck.

I swing my head back to smash into her face, but she catches me by the hair and pulls, holding me in place.

“Mmm,” she moans, turning back to her queen. “This one contains the most rarities. She is a fear bringer. A child of nightmares. A Nefas.”

“Is that so?” Vail asks.

Her voice trickles into the air like the first drop of rain.

The banshee keeps ahold of me, gripping my hair so fiercely that my jugular is exposed.

She runs a pointed nail across it.

If I move now, she could slice my throat.

I grit my teeth, biding my time.

“And to think,” the queen continues. “I was going to put you in a tidy little case with the others. Perhaps you’d be better suited beside your companion instead?”

She rolls Silas onto his back with the tip of her foot.

I flinch at the sight of his closed eyes.

Heralds don’t sleep, he’d told me.

So wake up, Silas, I want to scream. Wake up. WAKE. UP.

“A God’s messenger alongside a nightmare,” Vail says, mulling over his corpse-like form. “Such an intriguing display it would make.”

I angle my elbow, readying to ram it into the banshee’s ribs when—

“Please, just stop it!” Cillian yells.

Not to the queen.

The banshee’s attention clips onto him.

“You of the sullied blood,” she says, disgusted. “Why have you come?”

Cillian flinches at the insult, as though the banshee had struck him dead in the face.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.