and forced the claws to slide back. Heart hammering, panic growing, Ren raised her gaze to the other girl.
The girl’s eyes had gone wide, but there was no fear in her face.
“You’re the monster.”
Despite her words, her voice was full of wonder, not insult. Ren wiped her palms on her skirt. She fought the urge to change. To slip back into the dark. She suddenly didn’t trust herself. Not around a human.
“I am not a monster,” she said.
“I saw what you did to Jakub,” said the girl.
Is that the Wolf-Lord’s name?
Even the possibility made Ren’s anger burn. Liar. She’d saved him. Blood thundered in her ears. It took every ounce of her strength to keep her voice level.
“I saved him,” she said. “Whatever lies he has been telling. I saved him.”
“You ripped his face off!”
Ren froze. Her heart plummeted right into the cobbles. The girl hadn’t meant the Wolf-Lord. She’d meant . . .
Then all at once, it was flooding back. The smell of fresh snow, metallic blood. The cold. The sudden warmth of fur. The wet black body heaving in the white. Her best friend, dying.
And the huntsman.
“He deserved it,” she whispered.
The girl shook her head. It was short, clipped.
“No one deserves that,” she said.
A door banged up the street. Ren’s head snapped over. A shadow appeared on a threshold. She felt her eyes transform, drink in the darkness. She caught the silhouette of a man’s face, eyes wide. Skin pale.
Then the door banged again, and he disappeared.
“He’s seen us,” said the girl. “You need to leave.”
“I need to find—” Ren began.
The girl cut her off.
“Don’t you understand? They’ll kill you. You need to go.”
Ren turned her eyes to the girl, and they slid from green to gold. Her voice came out as a growl.
“I am not afraid of them.”
The shadows of houses bled into the street and formed the shadows of people. A crowd gathered in the darkness, forming a wall against the night. There might have been fifty of them—maybe more. Their voices blended together, and she didn’t know their language well enough to understand what they said.
The girl had not moved. They were still crouched by the flowers.
“It’s all right,” she said, and put a hand on Ren’s lace-clad arm. “Stay quiet.”
They smelled like fear.
They all did. Ren could smell it sticking in their throats. She could smell it dripping from her skin. The girl smelled most like fear, and Ren could feel it in the hand trembling on her arm. She could hear it in the tightness of her voice. This girl was the most terrified person in the village, and yet she stayed.
“Don’t say anything,” she whispered. “Let me talk to them—”
The humans crowded around. The murmur of their voices rose to dull thunder. A few began to shout. Metal flashed among them, and Ren shifted backward. They stood in her presence, and they thought weapons could save them . . . ? Ren climbed to her feet. Mist clung to her, wreathed the street behind them.
“Please,” said the girl. “Please, let me—”
Fear washed over her. Not her fear.
“Please—”
Theirs. Ren began to shake. The fight was struggling to get out. Trying to force its way out of her skin, rip off the humanity. Leap into the frightened, spectral shadows. Ren reined it in. Clenched her teeth and bit it back.
This had been a mistake. The faceless wall of darkness was closing in, suffocating her with fear. As the whispers scuttled out at her, she caught the same word repeated, again and again.
Monster.
Monster.
Monster.
And she didn’t mean to. She couldn’t help it. It just slipped out from between her teeth: a growl. It was low but loud enough to cut through the whispering. For a moment, silence held the village.
Ren took another step back. If she attacked, she would not be able to stop herself. She would tear through them faster than they’d demolished the strzygi. And she might even kill the Wolf-Lord. . . . She needed to get back to the forest. Escape into the darkness before her human skin was covered with fur and yellow fangs pushed her teeth out of her gums . . .
She shouldn’t have come.
“Get out!”
Ren spun around, just as something sailed out of the shadowy crowd. A rock collided with her cheek and stars exploded.
Ren hit the ground. Wet poured down her face and stung her eyes. The word pounded her into the earth.
Monster. Monster. Monster.
Ren hissed. It ripped out of her human throat with animal volume. She