knuckles white around the stone

stepped int

ulders and arms that looked like they were carved from stone. He wore nothing on his upper body,

s brain completely st

. One was red.

ike th

umb fingers, landing on the

. His face was completely blank. He didn'

as a circle of stones surrounding a pile of ash and dry g

arm blaze was crackling, illuminating the man's sharp jawli

arby. It was huge, raw, and freshly killed. He skewered

t smelled like... just meat. No salt. No pepp

spoke. His voice was deep and rough, like gravel scrapin

no mate'

er jaw dropped. "

brow creasing. "It is the co

the monster in the forest was too real. The beast. The impossibly huge snake. Her mind reeled with the insane impli

her voice. "That... that big snake.

second, something flickered in those mismatched

said, his voice turning col

g. She knew he was lying. Those e

side was charred black, but the inside was still red and bloody

r first-a nauseating mix of burnt hair, charred flesh,

ade her gag. She waved her hands frantically, shak

in them intensified. He thought she

ice harder. "Or you will d

ing into frustrated anger. "I lost my phone! I can't call an Uber!

tand 'Uber' or 'cops'. But he understood

rying. Fat tears rolled down her cheeks, cutting t

hand toward her face, his fingers rough and stained with soot. But he stopped an inch

ave with a snake-eyed man who wanted to feed her raw meat, in a worl

ke a guardian angel carved from stone, if that angel had the eye

ted her head just enough to peer over her knees. The fire had burned l

ion rolling over her. But beneath the exhaustion, a tiny spark of som

she asked, her voice

slightly, as if the

allon pressed, her tone edging toward the demanding reg

warm-bloods to say." He paused, the firelight dancing in his mismatche

nd

berate, as if he'd carried it alone for

nge-old-fashioned, almost Biblical. But somehow it

e repeated qu

Some instinct told her to hold onto that