The night went quiet aside from a beastly rustling in the undergrowth.

Tobei’s monstrous eyes scanned the Darkness around them, but his ears already knew that what beasts could still so much as stagger were doing just that, as fast as they could away from the train. The ones who couldn’t stagger lay in pools of their own black, star-sprinkled blood. They’d all been at most half the size of the biggest beasts in Silvax Forest, but there had been far too many of them, so those pools of blood were quickly becoming one great, shining lake.

His shoes were ruined. He sighed.

“Cut?” Tobei shouted, and he got maybe ten Aye!s in response. No one sounded especially panicked, and as he glanced around everyone seemed to be standing, or at least leaning against a train car. Still, his heart skittered a bit before he called, “Killed?”

Surely, if he heard a response to that, it would mean one of the train crew had fallen, not any of his people. Under his command. He counted to one, two, three, four—

“Aye,” came a small, choked voice from the other side of the train, quiet enough he wouldn’t have heard it if not for his monster’s ears.

Tobei scrambled forward, splashing through blood and vaulting a fallen beast, then the coupling between two cars. No, no, no. Not on his watch. Not because he took too long stopping the train. Please, no.

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Tobei slid down the slope on the other side of the tracks, scattering little stones and dirt on Lenna at the bottom, crouched on her hands and knees in a shining pool, staring at a dead beast. “Len!”

A chunk of flesh had been torn away from her left shoulder, and Tobei dropped to his knees to check for more wounds. There was blood—human blood—weeping from an ugly, scarred spot on her neck. But that was a wound he’d seen before. He scanned the rest of her as more dirt and rocks rained on them both as others slid down to join them.

“Len, where else are you hurt?” He saw only the shoulder wound, but she wasn’t moving. Wasn’t speaking. It wasn’t like her to let herself be seen in a position she’d consider weak, but she didn’t seem to notice as Ori and Nadir slid to a stop on either side of them. “Len?”

She just kept staring at the beast before her.

And then she choked out, “She killed me.”

“You’re alright,” Tobei said warily. “Kadie can fix up that bite. The physical therapy won’t be fun, but you’ll be fine.”

But he knew from that glazed look in her eyes, that terrified tone in her voice, that it wasn’t a physical wound that had done this to her.

“I killed her.”

Tobei looked at the beast again, and began to piece things together. The thing’s horse-like face and black leather skin. And Lenna’s sword still in its neck.

He threaded an arm under her, around her waist, to support her, and said gently, “Get up, Len. Let’s go home.”

A little sound bubbled from between her lips, and Tobei thought for a moment she had spit up blood. But it was just a tiny sob. Then she blinked, and her eyes finally focused, truly seeing the dead monster before her.

She screamed—