I was grateful for my armor. My body was being dragged across the ground at such speed that I had no doubt my skin would have been burned raw by the earth, spongy though it was. I struggled to keep my head raised, and I had not yet spared a thought for whatever was pulling me—or for whatever had injured Beret so grievously without my seeing or sensing it. No. I was too busy unwinding one of the iron wires wrapped around the pommel of my sword.

Once I managed to free it, I threw it so that it coiled around a tree. I knew it would not hold for long, but it would be enough to halt the creature’s charge. Naturally, I clung to the wire, bracing myself for the pain that would tear through my hand when we came to an abrupt stop. It did not disappoint. What could only be a bloodfeast continued dragging me forward until the wire stretched to its limit and brought us to a violent halt.

The metal cut painfully into my palm, but I used that moment to wrench my ankle free from its grasp. I released the wire and rose quickly—or at least, I tried to. The bloodfeast that had been holding me was already gone. Cold sweat slid down my back as I held my sword before me and strained my ears, determined not to be taken by surprise as Beret had been, even though I was uncertain any of us could have prevented what had happened to him.

“That’s him!”

The cheerful voice made me whirl around. It took a superhuman effort to keep my blade raised and ready to defend me, so violent was the shock of what I saw. Bloodfeasts? No. I was no longer certain. Three individuals stood before me. They looked so human that the sight unsettled me—or almost human, at least. Although they resembled purebloods, one difference was immediately apparent. Their veins did not disappear beneath their flesh. I could still see them, as though their blood ran more vividly and their skin were thinner.

“Of course it’s him, Raj. There is no one else like him in Blood.”

The woman who had answered was sitting nonchalantly upon the branch of a saune. Her bewitching beauty only made me more wary. I did not care for the mischievous expression she wore. Yet she did not move. She remained seated with her legs crossed, balanced perfectly. Only her long, dark hair proved that she was not a statue, unlike the other two. Those two practically overflowed with excitement, all of it directed at me.

One of them appeared younger and far more animalistic—the one who had been called Raj. She crouched low, her hands resting between her knees and giving me a clear view of her long claws. Her slit pupils never left me, sparkling with… delight? Her teeth, sharper than those of a pureblood but not quite those of a beast, were fully bared in a grin. With her tangled, unevenly cut hair, she looked like some feral child of the forest. The last of them, a young man who seemed about Raj’s age, stood more upright, but the same claws tipped his fingers.

“Papa doesn’t want us to play with you!” Raj complained.

“And Rune is far too possessive, so it made us curious!” the boy added excitedly. “That’s why we came. Oh, but don’t worry! We’re not going to attack you all at once!”

Raj giggled as though the very idea were absurd and pointed one claw toward the woman sitting in the tree.

“Luna will stay right where she is! We promise we won’t hurt you fatally! Papa and Rune would be furious with us otherwise!” she assured me.

I understood nothing of what was happening. They spoke normally. Humanly. And at the mention of this “Rune,” I guessed that all three of them must be monarchs. Then, if… if only three of them were here with me, were the others with Beret and the rest of our group? Selene was with them. I did not need to worry. For now, I only needed to keep myself alive, even though they apparently had no intention of “hurting me fatally.” I did not trust them in the slightest.

Raj sprang toward me, barely touching the ground. A true wild beast. I easily avoided the swipe of her claws while the boy remained motionless. Raj burst into euphoric laughter, and I watched her rebound from the trunk of a saune. Her hands and feet propelled her toward me with such strength and agility that I was forced back.

“Papa likes you very much, you know?”

I avoided another strike. I still did not dare retaliate. Evading her attacks seemed far too easy, and I sensed a trap. We still did not know precisely what the monarchs were capable of, but we knew they could bring afflictions upon our lands, so I doubted the ease of this fight was accidental. She was amusing herself. The genuine smile fixed upon her lips proved that she was only playing.

“You look like us,” the boy said, “but Papa says you are different.”

I ducked when he finally attempted to strike me. I aimed a kick at his legs, but he sprang back with a small, graceful leap that carried him just beyond my reach. The movement was calculated and perfectly controlled, proving that he was not yet trying to injure me. These were the creatures who had harmed Beret—who had torn off his arm. I could not allow myself to become distracted. I knew a single mistake could prove fatal. No matter what they said, I had to focus on their actions.

“Don’t you speak?” Raj exclaimed mockingly. “Rune says you have a very pretty voice! We wanted to hear it, but if you refuse to talk, we’ll have to make you!”

The two of them suddenly vanished. I could not tell whether they possessed some ability to render themselves invisible or whether they moved too swiftly for my eyes to follow. Raj abruptly reappeared before me. She rose from her crouch and swept her claws toward my chin. Had I failed to evade her, she would have torn open my throat.

“What if we made you scream so we could hear your voice, Bloody Vicar?” the boy suggested.

By speaking, he warned me of his presence behind my back. I truly sensed nothing from them. I suspected they were deliberately holding my attention and alerting me to their positions whenever they spoke. If my eyes could not see them and my instincts could not detect them, my ears could still hear. They truly did not intend to kill me. Otherwise, I would already have been dead. Raj attempted to rake her claws across my side, but a small step carried me out of reach. Her claws struck my armor instead and sank through it. They were strong and sharp enough to slice through the metal as though it were nothing more than a sheet of paper.

Seeing the boy’s attack coming from behind me, I twisted until my hands struck the ground. I drove my foot into Raj’s face, and the surprise of my movement made her react too late. She was lighter than I had expected and flew backward into a saune. My legs completed their motion by closing around the boy’s neck. With my hands still planted upon the ground, I pushed through my arms and forced him down as well. His hands closed around my ankles, and rather than risk being wounded in such a vulnerable place, I allowed both of us to fall.

Raj exploded into wild laughter. I raised my head, pushed myself upright, and returned to my stance. She spat upon the ground, and one of her teeth fell with a spatter of blood.

“That hurt!” she cried with a broad smile. “You hurt me!”

The boy rose and cracked his back in a manner that was assuredly not human, the same delighted smile upon his lips.

“Papa was right! You are nothing like the other purebloods. Big sister, what if we took him back right now?”

I cast a panicked glance toward Luna, whom the boy had addressed. If she began to move, I clearly would not be able to keep pace. I could already find scarcely any openings through which to attack, so… I could not allow her to join the fight.

“Calm yourselves. That is not our role,” she crooned. “Rune will not remain inactive much longer. I suggest you amuse yourselves more quickly.”

Raj whined and dropped back onto her “paws,” wearing a petulant pout. The boy, whose name I still did not know, threw himself at me with such speed that I failed to evade him. Despite his graceful appearance, he managed to immobilize the arm holding my sword. My back struck the trunk of a saune with brutal force, and the impact briefly stole my breath. I gasped, and Raj seized the opportunity to snap my sword apart with her claws.

A sudden image of Selene flashed through my mind.

I saw him deliberately letting his sword fall.

His feint returned to me so vividly that I used it as inspiration. With my free hand, I picked up a shard of the blade and drove it sharply into the boy’s shoulder. He released me with a grimace of pain and a muffled cry. The broken edge of my sword dug into my palm and sliced deeply into it, but I did not let go. I tore the shard free, letting blood spray across my face, and tried to inflict the same wound upon Raj. I did not know what she saw in me, but something unsettled her so deeply that she lost her composure.

I saw an opening. I kept the hilt of my sword, with what remained of the blade, in one hand and the broken shard in the other, though it tore through my flesh and stained the metal red with my blood. I unleashed strike after strike until I cornered her against a tree. She ducked beneath a blow that would have severed her jaw and, panicked, leaped away on all fours like a rabbit. I kicked her hard enough to send her crashing to the ground, then sat upon her to prevent her from moving.

Ready to deliver the final blow, I raised my bloodied hand, but someone caught it. I lifted my head and found Luna standing above me, having finally left her tree.

“That is enough. They were not going to kill you,” she declared.

With my other hand, I attempted to slash at her thighs, but she lifted me with one hand and hurled me away. I rolled across the ground and recovered several paces farther back. Raj and the boy remained behind Luna, whose gray eyes warned me not to approach again. I was not foolish enough to start the fight myself. Suddenly, she lost her balance. Her gaze blurred, and she was forced to stagger several steps to keep from falling beneath the wave of dizziness that struck her.

Raj and the boy growled, clearly seized by a pain I could neither see nor understand.

“Rune,” Luna hissed.

Raj collapsed and rolled upon the ground like a wounded beast, growling.

“We are leaving. You have amused yourselves enough,” Luna snarled.

“See you soon,” the boy called to me, his expression twisted with pain. “And sorry, but the little ones do not listen to anyone.”

“The little ones?” I felt compelled to repeat.

The boy and Raj smiled through their pain. Were they truly delighted to hear my voice?

“Yeah, the little ones,” Raj repeated, as though it were obvious. “The ones you call bloodfeasts. Even when we tell them to leave you alone, they do not listen to us or Papa.”

She clutched her head and growled more heavily.

“Rune!” she cried. “All right! Stop! We should not have bothered him!”

With those words, she disappeared along with the other two. I remained motionless for several long seconds, simply incapable of moving. I still held my broken sword in a death grip. Letting it go felt unthinkable. Was it… over? I lowered my gaze toward my mangled hand. My heart was slowly returning to a normal rhythm. I raised my head toward the sky. Calm had returned. Once again, I could hear the faint wind stirring the leaves of the saunes and the mocking song of the red whistlers.

Then I allowed myself to fall to my knees. Once again, I had survived. I closed my eyes and thanked my God. I thanked the father of us all, our God Rodel, for watching over me once more.

Once calm had returned to me, I rose and turned around. I had to find the others, quickly. I prayed for them throughout my frantic run. I prayed that Beret was still alive. I prayed that I would not arrive too late. My pace became desperate, and my heart began pounding wildly once more. Tears slowly gathered in my eyes at the thought of losing them too. I had only just lost my final Triad. I had lost Mara. I did not want to go through it again. I would not survive it again.

I did not want to survive it.

So when I finally found them and saw Beret lying upon the ground, Pero weeping over his massive body and Fratera sniffling beside him, I could barely force myself forward. I released my broken blade and dropped beside his body.