Chapter 4: The Yard

Kit took me back to Cinderhold on the storm beast's back.

He refused to ride behind me and refused to ride in front.

So he ran alongside with one hand wrapped around my ankle, and neither of us mentioned it.

The beast carried us through the outer gate, which was standing open, and into the yard.

The yard was a wide square of black gravel under white floodlights, with four cell blocks around it and every window lit red.

Faces pressed against the glass of the other blocks.

Dozens of men, all watching.

In the middle of the square, a huge man stood on his hind legs and roared.

It was not Rafe, or it was not only Rafe.

His beast had come all the way out of him and settled over his body.

Black fur covered his shoulders and arms, and his claws were as long as my fingers.

A panther's jaw was opening out of a man's face, and his amber eyes had gone solid gold.

Bastian was wrapped around him from behind with both arms locked across his chest.

His brown beard was soaked in blood from a bite on his shoulder.

"Selene," Bastian said, when he saw me.

It was the first time any of them had said my name, and he said it with his voice cracking.

"I can't hold him much longer."

I slid off the beast's back.

"What does he do when he's like this?" I asked.

"Kills what's nearest," Kit said, behind me. "Which is Bastian."

"Then keep everybody back."

I walked across the gravel.

Every step, the panther's head turned a little more toward me.

Rafe's mouth opened, and the sound that came out of it shook the floodlights.

"Let go of him, Bastian," I said.

"He'll tear you open."

"Let go."

Bastian looked at me for a long moment, and then he did.

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