I shriek, and for one moment of utter terror I can't move. Then the adrenaline rushing back into my veins changes everything. Time slows down, and my eyes dart around in search of a weapon. Finding nothing better, I break the wine bottle against a table, brandishing it before me as I edge away.

Silhouetted against the bright light of the hall is a monster.

Over eight feet tall, its vaguely humanoid body is warped and stretched, as though its halfway through turning into something else. Something predatory. Antlers like blade-tipped tree branches add another few feet to its height. It drops onto all fours, moving towards me. I step back, holding the bottle as level as I can with shaking hands.

Every few seconds, flares of lightning paint the creature in violet light, and new details reveal themselves.

Arms rippling with muscles and covered in fur, massive hands ending in claws like dark scimitars.

A lashing tail.

A muzzle full of sharp, finger-length teeth.

Eyes with slits for pupils.

I don't know at what point I stopped backing away, but with each flash of lightning the thing is closer. Until its so close I can smell it. The scents of oncoming storm, of rain-washed stone, of metal and fur wash over me.

It smells...wonderful.

It's just a pace away from me now, rearing back up to its hind legs. Its pupils flare wide as its beautiful violet eyes fix on mine.

I drop the bottle.

The creature's wolfish nose twitches as it scents the air. I can see myself reflected in its eyes. Small, defenseless. It takes a step forward, claws outstretched.

Then there's the sound of something rushing through the air and a meaty impact. The beast yelps, falling forward as I jump to the side. It crashes to the ground, splayed out and unconscious. llluminated by Umbra light several paces behind it stands Kat the Keeper, this time without her crow companion. She lowers her tranquilizer gun, chest heaving.

~*~

"You're sure you're not hurt?" Kat asks for the third time as she leads me back up the stairs to my room.

"Y-yes," I say, but my teeth are still clattering. "What was that?"

"Can't remember the name of it exactly," she answers cagily. "A rare beast, from somewhere far up north. One of the zoologist's rehabilitation projects. The storms must have riled it up, and it broke out of its enclosure."

The hairs at the back of my neck raise. "How many creatures are being kept here? Does that happen very often?"

She snorts, shaking her head. "This is the first time it's ever happened, and it'll be the last, too. I promise you that. As to how many? I imagine that's more or less classified, as it were."

I wrap my arms about myself, shuddering.

"Why'd you drop your weapon?"

"Hm?"

"That broken bottle." We stop on the landing of the seventh floor, and she turns to face me.

"I just...I couldn't hurt it. When I looked into its eyes, I knew I couldn't. I don't know why."

"Hmph," she snorts. "That won't do at all." She puts an arm protectively about my shoulder, leading me down the hall to my guest room.

"What?"

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"Don't worry about it, honey. Here you are."

She sees me settled into one of my armchairs with a blanket about my shoulders. Then, flinging open a hatch I'd never noticed before to reveal a dumbwaiter, she murmurs a request to Somi. Minutes later I have a steaming cup of coconut hot chocolate cupped in my hands.

"I'm going to be assigning you a personal guard detail. I don't know why E.J. didn't order that to begin with, to be honest with you."

I just nod. I'd been assuming Somi was keeping an eye on me, that she'd send help if I'd needed it...and she probably had. But it couldn't hurt to have that help closer at hand.

Going over near the door, Kat pulls her Companion from her pocket belt and issues a rapid stream of orders into it. Then she reholsters it and turns back to me with a warm smile on her face.

"There now, we'll have you all taken care of. I'll stay with you until they're here. They'll be just outside your door."

"Th-thank you," I stammer, clutching my cup of cocoa like a lifeline.

"This is just a precaution, mind you. Particularly considering the reason for your stay here. As I said, you won't be seeing the likes of what happened tonight ever again."

I just nod. Eventually there's a knock at the door, and she leaves.

~*~

For hours I search the Aether and question Hex-but I can find no reference to any animal resembling the creature I saw tonight. My first thought had been that perhaps it was a Shifter-but since no two Shifters abilities manifest in exactly the same way, it's hard to tell. Besides, if that's what it had been, why hadn't Kat said so?

Some utterly insane part of me is desperate to go out looking for its enclosure, desperate to see it again. To understand this creature like something out of my deepest and most sacred self. Like the thing I see in my most treasured dreams.

A rare beast indeed.

I finally fall back onto my bed as the first blush of the sun paints the horizon. Eventually I find my way into unconsciousness. My nightly visions are dark and colorful at once, alive with light and dripping in shadows. Twisting forms with claws that beckon, neither human nor beast-but everything in between. A shadow falls over me in the dream, and I sit up with a start, breathing hard.

It takes me a few moments to realize I'm awake, to even know who it is I'm looking at. There's a form looming overhead, just like in my dream-its shadow pooling around me. Something clicks into place in my sleep-addled brain, and relief like pure rainwater washes over me.

"E.J!"

"I didn't mean to startle you. We tried knocking, but-oof!"

I throw my arms around her waist, hugging the wind out of her. She squeezes me back. For a few moments we're quiet and still, save for the gentle shaking of my shoulders.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. Your must be terrified. You must be livid. I told you this place was safe. It always has been." She pulls away from me, shaking her head. The circles under her eyes are dark as bruises now, and her cheeks look strangely hollow.

"I can't ask you to stay here after what's happened."

"But I-"

"And I can't send you back out into the world yet, either. Even with protection."

I wring my hands together, close to my chest. "I don't want to leave you,"

"I can't risk you staying here. Not when there's a chance that, well..."

"What?"

She sighs, running a hand through her hair. "I'm not entirely convinced that what happened last night was an accident. I thought I could trust everyone and everything here, but...I'm not so sure now."

"This place you want to take me to...would you be staying there with me?"

"No. I need to be here. Besides, I'm the target. You'll be safer away from me. Kat was right. I was being selfish, overconfident."

"I don't want to leave you," I repeat, imagining each word to be firm as stone. My tone must catch her off guard. There's a sudden intake of breath, and for a second E.J. just stares down at me, her eyes wide. She swallows.

"I'm sorry, Ashwyn. You can insist on going back out into the world, I won't force you to go anywhere else against your will. But if you do want to stay under my best protection-and I beg that you do-it can't be here. It can't be with me."

"What about my physical therapy?"

"There's a specialist at the other location who can handle it. They're far more experienced with healing and rehabilitation than I am. Besides, I'm sure you don't want guards following you everywhere all the time, and you won't need them there."

Tears of frustration run down my cheeks. I can't make her let me stay here, and trying any harder would only make things worse. "Alright," I accede unwillingly. "Ok."

~*~

My curls dance in the wind with the snow as I look out over a sea of mountains, blue-gray in the dying light. I pull my jacket close around me, wrapping my arms about myself. Taking a deep breath, I savor the purity of the air-the scents of stone and evergreens.

Beside me, a suitcase is packed full of what little I already had, plus a small wardrobe's worth of freshly-made clothes. Wherever I'm going, it's not outfitted with a self-supplying closet.

As to that-where I'm actually going-E.J. refuses to say. "It's safer if you don't find out until you get there," she'd explained.

So now I stand at the very top of Stormhaven Tower, at the center of an intricate port sigil, with E.J.'s hand in mine as we look out over the world together. She releases me after a minute, and suddenly I feel like a ship without an anchor. Adrift. She turns to hug me one more time, to apologize some more. But the wind howls over most of her words, and the sigil below us begins to glow a pale lilac.

Dashing away from me across the roof, she steps off the sigil just in time. It glows into blinding violet brilliance, and suddenly I'm weightless.