It was cooler tonight than it had been the last time she’d left the compound. Maybe the heat wave was finally breaking.

  The walk to whichever hunting grounds Sterling’s team utilized was far shorter than the walk to the village.

  Though by the time the blindfold was removed, they were deep into a thick darkwood forest, a slow river dimly splashing near their feet.

  A net was shoved into Corabelle's hand even before she had fully opened her eyes.

  “When you're done ripping apart rabbits," Ev drawled. “Catch fish.”

  Corabelle looked down at the rather wellmade hand-net that was tangled around her fingers, “I don’t know how to fish with a net. I could use a spear or a knife if you have it.”

  Ev laughed harshly, “No. You’ll figure it out,” She pulled a large burlap sack from where it was tucked into her belt, “Fill this,” She ordered, as she pulled her crossbow from her back. “We’ll be back for you when we’re done.”

  As she walked away, Sterling came up beside Corabelle and subtly passed her a thin dagger, “Val and I will be just downstream collecting Fishgrove root if you need us.”

  “Thanks,” Corabelle said, tucking the knife into her sleeve as Ev glanced over her shoulder back at them.

  The group then split, Ev and the vague outline of a swarm of bugs Corabelle had begun to associate with River heading upstream; Sterling and Val heading down, leaving only Corabelle with the shadows of fish in a lazily flowing river.

  She didn’t feel like hunting. She hadn’t when Sterling posed the question, she didn’t now.

  Her stomach was in knots thinking about that Ritual. Learning whom it came from didn’t help ease her nerves.

  Sterling had given her a reason that Ev was helping, but even he didn't seem to really believe it.

  While Ev’s attitude toward Corabelle had seemingly thawed to, at the very least, a lack of outward aggression, Corabelle wouldn’t have started the RItual if she’d known who sent it.

  She set the gear she’d been given down and sat in the grass on the bank of the river to take off her boots and roll up her pant legs

  A crisp wind blew through the air wafting an unpleasant smell of fear and blood.

  Ev was a good shot, that was no question, but it surprised Corabelle that her hunt had yielded results this quickly. Though an unpleasant smell, it was a good thing. The encampment was far beyond capacity, and rations were stretched as thin as they could be.

  Corabelle grabbed the blade Sterling had given her and waded slowly into the water.

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  The smaller fish scattered at her presence but the larger didn’t bother, merely swimming half heartedly an arms length away before setting back into their sleepy stasis.

  Corabelle flipped the blade over in her palm, and set her sights on the large brown bottom feeder as thick as her thigh that had been one of the lazier fish even compared to his peers.

  The blade flew with a light whistle, barely making a splash as its point pierced the shallow water and found its target at the back of the large fish’s skull. The fish thrashed briefly as it died, scaring away even the other large fish, before being pulled by the current right into Corabelle’s waiting hands.

  She hauled it from the water by the tail with one hand as she pulled the blade free with the other. Twitching with lingering muscle spasms, at it nearly full length it was longer than her torso and weighed nearly as much as a lamb.

  She grabbed the sack from the river bank and dropped the fish inside, letting the weight pull the bottom of the sack into the cool water.

  Yanking a large stone free of the muddy bank she placed it on the open end of the sack just outside the water to keep it from being swept by the river.

  She didn’t know how long the rest of the group would be, but the water would help keep her kill from spoiling, though the water turned murky as blood seeped through the bag.

  It didn’t take long for small crustaceans to begin examining the burlap with increasing interest.

  At first Corabelle jostled the bag with her foot to scare them off as they began futilely attempting to pull the bag apart with their claws. While they wouldn’t be able to tear it, she didn’t want them to weaken its integrity.

  She could catch them for the team, but their meat wasn’t worth the trouble of removing the shell. Her effort was better spent focusing on something bigger.

  Though, they were readily available. They may not have been worth the trouble of bringing back, but she didn’t want to hunt, though she’d all but told Sterling she would.

  Their energy was negligible, but it was almost better that way. It was all she could stomach and she’d rather not waste the Spark of something heartier.

  She reached into the water and selected one of the larger ones. She could have stopped it from nipping at her fingers, but there wasn’t much point. It couldn’t break the skin and allowing it to think it was hurting her, in some weird way, made her feel better.

  Though, the violent creature never made it to her lips as a sound piqued her ears. Just barely an echo of a high sharp sound unlike the rest of the dull thrum of the woods around her.

  Corabelle let the crustacean fall to her side as she listened closer, through the sounds of chirping bugs, singing night birds, and the breeze clattering the needles of the trees.

  The next sound came through clearer. A shriek, far enough there was a chance it could have been an animal in pain, having been pierced by a bolt; But Corabelle knew better. She knew that sound too well, heard it too many times.

  It wasn’t an animal.

  From upstream a far off wail, a human sound, echoed through the trees, in the direction River and Ev had gone.

  The crustacean hit the water with a miniscule splash as Corabelle took off running, her fishing blade still clutched tightly in her fist.

  Her mind raced, planning, readying for the fight. Neither Fae nor Demon would be sent this far into the middle of nowhere, but that didn’t mean the woods were without danger. And, under the cover of darkness, it would be easy to fall prey to any of them.

  As Corabelle burst through the dense brush into a small clearing, the first thing to accost her senses was the harsh metallic smell.

  The source of this smell found her eyes next, splattered across the small clearing was blood and scrap. More blood trickled free from…nothing?

  Wait.

  Not nothing.

  There was just barely the outline of a hand, pressing into the source of the blood.

  River.

  Then she caught the gleam of eyes. Just outside of the clearing were three sets of bright amber eyes attached to feral, bloodstained lupine faces.