" You're in search of monsters, aren't you?" Kael said, his voice steady despite the growls surrounding them.
Lily raised her finger.
Behind the hunters, the darkness came alive. Massive shapes shifted between the trees. Eyes glowed—dozens of them, in greens and yellows and burning reds. The sound of breathing, deep and predatory, filled the air like a second wind.
Kael's team tensed. Korgath's fists clenched. Jax's electrostatic field flared. Even Nisha's shadows seemed to draw closer to her form.
"I would advise you to think carefully about the words you're using," Lily said, her voice quiet and cold.
Kael held her gaze. He'd faced worse than this. Probably.
"We know a place," he said slowly, "with large kaiju-class creatures. The kind that might interest the Monster Queen."
Lily's empty eyes didn't change, but something in her posture shifted—the slightest lean forward, the faintest hint of attention.
"And what do you want in return?"
Kael met her gaze without flinching. "We want your help killing someone."
Lily stood. The movement was fluid, unhurried, the motion of someone who had never needed to rush.
"Name."
"Jenny Damber."
For the first time, something flickered in Lily's eyes. Not surprise. Not fear. Something older. Something that remembered.
Lily turned to face him fully. The scar on her cheek caught the faint light, a pale line against her skin.
"What's your reason to kill her?"
Kael's voice dropped, losing its cold formality for just a moment. "Same as yours, probably. She killed someone we liked. Ate them, from what I heard." He paused. "She has a habit of doing that."
Behind Lily, the growling stopped.
The forest fell silent.
Tusk had been lying still throughout the exchange, his massive body slowly regenerating from the wounds of the earlier fight. Now he rose, his flame-mane flickering back to life, his golden eyes fixed on the hunters with renewed interest.
Lily didn't look at him. She just reached out and tapped his head once—a signal, a command, a question.
Tusk lowered himself just enough for her to mount.
She settled onto his back, looking down at the eight hunters from her elevated position. Then she urged Tusk forward.
He walked past them—close enough to touch, close enough to kill. Kael didn't move. Neither did his team.
Lily kept going, past the hunters, toward the trees where her creatures waited.
She didn't look back.
"What are you waiting for?" Her voice floated back to them, faint but clear. "Come. Sitting around won't kill Damber."
Kael watched her go—this girl, this queen, this monster with empty eyes and a scarred face. She couldn't have been more than nineteen. But the weight she carried... that was centuries old.
He followed.
One by one, the others fell into step behind him. Stitch, Korgath, Nyx, Jax, Oracle, Nisha. Hunters following a queen, walking into the darkness where monsters waited.
The forest swallowed them whole.