Another howl echoed off the walls of the ravine as Thom and I reached the edge and I unslung the bow I was carrying. The sound shot shivers down my spine and bile rose in my throat. I said nothing, not wanting any of them to see how terrified I was.
Fucking werewolves. What’s the world going to throw at us next? I bit my lip for a moment.
“They’re getting close,” Thordin said as he and Thom flanked me. Matt drifted up alongside Thom and Cameron did the same on the other side of Thordin. “You can tell by the number of echoes. I give it another five minutes or so, assuming they can find their way.”
“They’re tracking Phelan’s scent?” It wasn’t really a question. I knew that they would be. We were lucky it had taken them this long to track him here.
“Like as not,” Thordin said, his expression grim as he stared out at the bare trees, their trunks ink-black against the stark white of the snow-slick slopes. “He came from the south, did he?”
“From Chicago,” I said, feeling slightly numb. “He’d been with Teague and Kira.”
Thordin didn’t bother to ask who Kira was, only nodded. “That’d explain why they’re taking a more circuitous route. Given the destruction west of here—”
“How do you know that there’s destruction west of here?” Cameron interrupted.
Thordin ignored the question and continued. “—it made sense that they’d come from due east, across that damned broken bridge, instead of from the south.”
“There’s three dozen of them,” Thom said. “Do you think we have a chance?”
Thordin winced and sucked in a breath. He exhaled it slowly and finally nodded. “Aye, well, we’d better believe that we do.”
That’s incredibly comforting. I bit down hard on my lip and stared down at the ravine, watching for colors and movement as a howl echoed, closer this
time. “Better make sure that everyone’s loaded and ready,” I said, my voice shockingly steady.
Perhaps there was more from a past life in me than I’d dared to imagine.
Thom squeezed my shoulder and turned away from me, shouting to the others where they stood along the ravine. “Load weapons and ready to fire. They’re getting close.”
Thordin tested the pull on the war bow in his hand. I could hear Cameron cocking the rifle he was carrying. Matt loaded Thom’s shotgun, then his own, his expression grim. I wanted to take my brother’s hand and squeeze it tightly, but there wasn’t time—and I was afraid that if I let go of my bow and the arrow I held at the ready, my hands would begin to shake so badly that I’d be useless for hitting any mark.
Keep it together, Marin. You can do this. You have to do this.
Why the hell did I insist on being on the front line anyway?
I swallowed hard again. I was in front because I needed to be—because there was no other choice for me. There was something inexplicable forcing me to the front of this, telling me where, exactly, I needed to be. I wasn’t sure that I liked it.
Then again, the first time I’d had a vision, I’d been sure I hadn’t liked those.
Deep breaths, Marin. Deep breaths.
Something moved beyond the bend in the ravine, a flash of gray and brown against the white and black.
In one smooth motion, I drew back the bowstring and let fly.
Suddenly, there was red splashed against the white of the snow. Something howled angrily, and that angry howl was joined by a chorus of others.
The battle was on.
