Marked (The Coldest Fae Book 3) by Katerina Martinez (novel24 .txt) 📗

No, not wolves. These creatures ran on all fours, using long, lanky limbs to propel themselves, but they didn’t have hair on their bodies; they were all cartilage, and muscle, and teeth and claws. I could hear them yipping and growling at each other, the leader commanding his pack, telling them what to do.

Whatever they were, they were coming for us.

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER TWO

 

 

“Vrren!” Mira yelled, and in an instant she was on her feet, balancing one foot on the driver’s seat and another on top of the carriage. In her hands was her large, white recurve bow, an arrow already notched against the string, her white hair whipping around her face with the wind.

After aiming for an instant, she shot the arrow and it zipped into the woods. Something yelped in the dark, making a pained sound that echoed through the forest. Before the sound could dissipate, she was ready with another arrow, her hair flowing wildly with the wind, her body as taut as the string of the bow in her hands.

She looked like an action heroine, dripping with badassery.

“Keep us steady, Mel,” Mira called out.

“I’ll do my best,” Mel said. “Dahlia, hold on, okay?”

“I want to help!” I yelled.

“Help by holding on. I’m going to try to lose them.”

“In this?”

“I’m going to try.”

Ollie pulled the carriage along as fast as he could. The carriage wasn’t meant to be moved at speed even on an actual road. The dirt path we were following only made things worse, and more dangerous. Mel wanted to save the carriage, but it was slowing us down, and at any point, the wheels were likely to fall off or break, and then we were screwed.

Mira continued firing a steady stream of arrows, none of which came from any quiver I could spot. They were real enough, but she seemed to be pulling them from nothing and nowhere. One of the Vrren tried to leap onto the back of the carriage, and Mira quickly shifted her aim to place an arrow right between its eyes.

The creature yelped and fell off the carriage, hitting the ground with a hard thud and rolling along it. But there were many more where it had come from. Maybe half a dozen, maybe a dozen. It was hard to tell in the rapidly fading dark. I had to do something. I couldn’t just sit there, holding onto dear life.

Leaning over the side of the carriage, I noticed one of the Vrren was starting to pull in a little close, giving me a close look at it. I almost wished I hadn’t seen it. It was definitely some kind of doglike creature, but it looked like it was covered in hard ridges and even tougher muscle. Its claws were sharp, its teeth were jagged and large, and many sharp spines jutted out from its shoulders, its back, its elbows.

These things were killing machines, and there were way too many of them closing in fast, but I had to get into the carriage. I swung a leg around the side and placed it the small step jutting out underneath the front seat. Mel immediately caught me and shot me a hard look.

“What the hell are you doing?” she yelled.

“I need to get into the carriage!” I said, finding my grip.

“Why!?”

“I’ve got an idea. Just trust me! Gullie, get into the cabin right now.”

“No way,” she said, “I’m fine right here.”

I looked down the side of the carriage, at the ground racing past beneath my feet, at the Vrren that had now picked up its pace, having seen me dangle off the side. “Alright, fine, but if anything happens to me you take off, okay?”

“No promises.”

Finding my balance, I reached across the top of the cabin and grabbed hold of the railing that went along its length. One of Mira’s arrows flew over my head and struck one of the creatures in the tree line. She wasn’t going to be able to hit the ones getting closest to the carriage, not from her vantage, so I needed to act fast and reach the window.

It was too far to grab with my hand, so I had to stretch my foot out and try to hook myself into it. But the gap between the driver’s seat and the window seemed a lot closer in my head, and I was already having trouble.

The Vrren that was running alongside the carriage finally made its move and turned directly toward me. I was stretched to full extension, my toes just about touching the edge of the open window. I reached a little further across with my hand, dragging myself another couple of centimeters closer to it.

That was when the animal rushed the side of the carriage and smashed into it with its shoulder. The entire thing shook, I lost my grip on the driver’s seat and was hurled across the length of the carriage. If I hadn’t been holding onto the top with my other hand, I would’ve fallen face first into the snow and probably been crushed by the wheel.

Luckily, the Vrren had also pulled away to avoid being crushed by the carriage wheels, and I had fallen into position directly in front of the door. There was no going back, now. Fumbling for the handle, I opened the carriage door and threw myself into the cabin just as the creature came in for another attack.

This time it leapt toward the open door, managing to stick its head inside and grab hold of the carriage with its claws. It was too large to get inside, but it had a long neck and I had to scramble all the way to the other side of the cabin just to avoid being bitten.

“Get the hell out of here!” I yelled, and I kicked the creature in the snout to get it to back off.

The sound was like a thunderclap, and the beast yelped after being hit. It reared its neck, snarling, blood trickling out of its mouth. I noticed