Page 107 of Harbinger

Then his knees hit the planks.

“Jude!” His name escapes me in a choked panic.

“Too late. He’s …”

Kieren doesn’t say it. He doesn’t have to.

Boots thud toward us, and he grabs my hand. We run until the dock lights vanish behind us. Branches snatch at my cloak. Thorns scrape my wrists. But we don’t stop running. We stumble over roots and half-buried logs until we reach a fallen evergreen, its rotting trunk large enough to hide us.

Kieren shoves me down behind it and drops beside me, chest heaving.

I collapse, lungs burning along with every muscle in my body. My legs shake so badly, I can’t tell if it’s exhaustion or terror.

“This is my fault,” I whisper. These aren’t soldiers chasing after us. “If I hadn’t …”

Kieren grips my hand. “No.”

“Yes,” I insist, tears blurring the dark edges of the woods. “They’re after me. They don’t care about you or Jude or anyone else.” My throat constricts. “You need to keep going without me.”

“There is no way in all seven hells.”

“Leave me.” My voice cracks on the plea. “Run. They want the witch, not you.”

He grunts, rolling his eyes. “No fucking way.” He squeezes my hand until it hurts, until it anchors me to the world. “You listen to me.” His face is a shadow, but I can feel the steadiness in him, the stubborn warmth that has never truly left me behind. “You’re my sister.”

The words gut me.

Not because it’s a lie. Because it’s true in a way that I’ve never thanked him for and never deserved and never properly earned.

“I’m not leaving my only family,” he says with such certainty that it makes my chest ache.

“Kieren, I …” There is so much I need to say to him, so much I need to apologize for before it’s too late.

I’m searching for the words as a whistle cuts through the night, answered by a low howl. Another howl follows. And another.

Kieren tenses. “We have to move,” he whispers.

We scramble up and start running again, moving deeper into the trees. Away from the docks. Away from Wolf’s Keep.

But with each step, the howls grow closer.

My lungs burn, unable to get enough air, but I don’t slow down.

“They’re gaining,” I choke out.

“I know.” He looks over his shoulder, and his eyes widen. He shoves me forward and starts to turn. “Go!”

I trip, nearly falling, but manage to stay on my feet. “Not without you.”

“I’m right behind you,” he pants.

I dash toward a clearing ahead, his footsteps thundering behind me. The road can’t be far.

The hounds crash closer. Too close.

I keep running, even when my legs want to give out. But it’s not enough.

A snarl splits the dark, so near I feel it in my bones. Something hits me from the side. Breath hot. Teeth snapping at my ribs. I scream and kick, and suddenly Kieren is there, swinging his pack like a weapon. He drives the beast back far enough to push me toward the woods on the other side of the clearing.