Chapter 86: The Second Hunt

Aina

Aina was currently ninety-nine percent sure that her pelvis was fractured.

Every single step the massive chestnut horse took sent a jarring, white-hot spike of agony straight up her spine. She sat rigid in the saddle, her fingers clutched around the leather reins so tightly her knuckles were stark white. She wanted to weep. She wanted to scream. She wanted, more than anything in the world, to throw herself off the animal’s back and lie flat on the dirt for the next three days.

They had been riding for an entire hour. One endless, brutal, agonizing hour. And they hadn’t killed a single damn thing.

She slouched slightly, trying to shift her weight to her left hip, but the saddle offered zero mercy. I should say something, she thought desperately, wincing as the horse trotted over an exposed tree root. I can’t take this anymore. My butt hurts. Everything still hurts from yesterday... or the day before yesterday... and now I’ve just been stuck on this damn horse!

Just as she was working up the courage to fake a faint, Vance let out a loud, dramatic groan from the front of the group. "Malric, when are we going to start killing something?" Vance whined, throwing his head back toward the canopy. "This is so boring!"

Malric didn’t even turn his head, his posture rigid as he navigated his horse through the thick brush. "I’m not killing a rabbit, Vance. That’s useless. It gives us, what, two points? We need something big. Something that’ll put us far above the others."

Aina squeezed her eyes shut, muttering under her breath in a low, mocking voice, "’Oh, the others are far above us with their two rabbits because they have got something and we’ve got nothing... Damn these Ego-driven bastards..."

"What was that?"

Aina snapped her mouth shut and jerked her head up. Malric had pulled his horse to a half-halt, turning in his saddle to glare back at her with dark, expectant eyes. "Excuse me?" she asked, blinking innocently. "What?"

"No, I heard you say something," Malric said, his voice dropping into that quiet, dangerous register he used when he was annoyed. "Say it."

"I... I didn’t say anything," she lied smoothly, forcing her posture upright despite the flare of pain in her lower back.

Malric’s eyes narrowed. "You know we are behind on points because you didn’t show up yesterday."

Aina let out a harsh, disbelieving laugh before she could stop herself. "Oh, come on, let’s be honest. You are behind because you want to be behind, I wouldn’t have been much help anyway. I can’t—" She abruptly bit her tongue, catching the words I can’t shift right before they tumbled out of her mouth. She cleared her throat quickly, fixing her expression. "You know what? Sorry. I was just in really bad health yesterday. I would have gotten you all sick."

Ahead of her, Theo let out a loud, mocking snort. "Ooh, that’s laughable. Who gets better in a day?"

"Me," Aina snapped, glaring at the back of his head. "I get better in a day."

Theo just shook his head, muttering something under his breath as he turned back to the trail. Beside him, Vance slowed his horse down slightly, falling back until he was riding right alongside Aina. A slow, playful grin spread across his face, his sharp eyes flashing with wicked curiosity.

"So," Vance asked, his voice deadpan and completely straight to the point, "what’s up with you and Roiner?" Aina almost choked on her own spit. "What are you... what are you talking about? There’s nothing with me and the Headmaster!"

"That’s not true," Vance countered easily, leaning casually over his saddle horn. "He gives you special privileges. We don’t get special privileges."

"Yes, you do!" Aina shot back, her voice rising in sheer frustration. "You have a whole table reserved for you in the dining room! You guys do whatever you want! I’ve never seen you guys go to class once! You have endless special privileges! I mean, this whole thing of you hating me is coming because I sat on a chair that was yours! A chair!"

Vance didn’t even flinch. He just nodded smoothly. "Yeah. That’s right."

"No, do not kid yourself," Theo called out over his shoulder, his voice cold and cutting. "We do not hate you. We do not think about you that much. We just find you to be an evil little bastard who refuses to tell us any information on where our mate is."

Aina threw her hands up, nearly dropping the reins. "For the thousandth time, I don’t know! Aren’t you the person who knows her scent supposed to know where she is? Like, for goodness’ sake, I have never once heard of someone losing their fated mate after they met them! That’s insane!"

Before Theo or Vance could shoot back another insult, a single hand shot up in the air at the front of the line. Malric pulled his horse to a dead stop. The abrupt silence settled over the forest like a heavy blanket. Everyone froze.

"I can feel it," Malric murmured, his head tilting toward the dark, dense thicket to their left. "There’s a bear. A winter bear." He turned his head slightly, his sharp gaze cutting to the quiet figure riding at the very edge of the group. "Keali. Stop."

Keali reined his horse in without a word, his expression entirely impassive. Aina swallowed hard, her eyes darting over to Keali. A subtle shiver ran down her spine. That’s the guy who saw me naked, she thought, her heart doing a nervous little flutter in her chest. That’s the guy who knows everything.

When they had first set out an hour ago, she had been terrified. She had spent the first ten minutes practically sweating through her clothes, waiting for Keali to expose her, to tell the others that Travis was actually a girl, or to demand answers. But as the miles dragged on, she realized something: Keali wasn’t just quiet. He was practically invisible. He spoke only when spoken to, stared blankly at the trees, and acted as if he were entirely detached from the mortal realm. Honestly, until today, Aina hadn’t even realized Keali was one of the royal princes.

Looking at him now, slouching slightly on his mount with an expression of pure apathy, she realized she had been worrying about him for absolutely nothing. The guy didn’t care. He might be the only person in this entire cursed academy who knew her secret and wanted nothing from her, but she was pretty sure he didn’t even care that she existed or know he, himself existed.

"It’s deep in the gulley," Malric commanded, turning his horse sharply toward the dense brush. "We move now. Go left."

"Wait, what?" Aina blinked, looking at the thick, thorn-filled bushes they were about to dive into. Come on. Why would we chase a bear?!

She didn’t get a chance to vocalize the thought. Before she could even brace herself, Malric dug his heels into his stallion’s flanks. The horse let out a harsh snort and surged forward, bursting through the thicket. Vance and Theo immediately kicked their mounts into a hard gallop, following close behind, with Keali trailing casually at the back.

"Wait! Hey!" Aina yelled, panicking as her horse instinctively lurched forward to follow the herd.

She was completely new to this horse-riding thing, and going at a trot had been torture, galloping through a dense forest was an absolute nightmare. Trees blurred past her face. Low-hanging branches slapped against her leather armor. She clutched the reins for dear life, bouncing violently in the saddle, her feet slipping in the stirrups.

"Slow down! Wait up!" she shouted, but the thunder of hooves completely drowned out her voice.

Within seconds, the princes pulled ahead. The distance between them grew exponentially until their figures dissolved into the thick foliage. Aina pulled desperately on the reins, trying to control her mount, but the horse took a sharp turn around a massive oak tree, and suddenly, the path vanished.

The sound of hooves faded into the distance. Aina finally brought her horse to a staggered, panting halt in a small, shadowy clearing. "Hello?" she called out, her voice echoing weakly through the tall pines.

Silence answered her.

She spun her horse in a tight circle, her wide eyes scanning the dense, ominous trees surrounding her. She strained her ears trying to listen for a shout, a horse’s snort, anything, but her sensory abilities were practically nonexistent unlike the average wolf-shifter.

"Hello?!" she shouted louder, her heart beginning to hammer against her ribs. "Theo? Vance?"

Nothing. Just the wind rustling the dying leaves overhead.

"Did these... did these people leave me?" she whispered to herself, her breath catching in her throat. Horror settled cold and heavy in her stomach. "When there’s a bear at large?! Oh, this has to be their plan. They’re going to have me killed by a bear!"

She backed her horse up slowly, her hands trembling against the leather reins. Panic clawed at her chest. She was lost and somewhere nearby was a massive winter bear could things get any worse.

Snap.

Aina froze.

The sound had come from the high ridge directly above her. It was subtle, the sharp, distinct crack of a dry twig under a heavy boot. She spun her horse around, peering up into the shadows of the cliffside. "Who’s there?" she asked, her voice shaking. "Malric?"

Before she could even register the shadow moving in the trees above, a high-pitched whistle sliced through the air. A streak of silver flashed down from the ridge. The arrow didn’t hit her, but it grazed the thick meat of her horse’s shoulder. The animal let out a high-pitched, terrified shriek and reared violently onto its hind legs.

"Whoa! Whoa!" Aina screamed, but it was too late.

Her foot slipped from the left stirrup. Her hands lost their grip on the leather reins. Gravity yanked her backward, and time seemed to slow down as she went airborne, slipping completely off the thrashing mount.

She hit the ground hard.

The impact tore the air straight out of her lungs in a sickening gasp. Her back slammed against the dirt, her bow and quiver clattering violently beside her as pain exploded across her ribs and vision spotted with black.