White Stag (PERMAFROST #1)

Chapter Two: Predators

Soren's pale eyebrows raised. "Interesting." His gaze flickered around the empty courtroom again. "Come, Janneke. You need medical attention."

Finally. I thought before falling to the ground.

Pale, cold hands wrapped around my blood-soaked body, picking me up. He said it quietly, but with my head resting under his chin, I heard it all. "This changes everything."

Then blackness.

###

When my eyes opened, I was no longer in the courtroom. I lay on a fur-covered platform, the multiple bear and wolf skins doing nothing to keep my naked body warm. It took a second to register how freezing the air was, but when I moved to cover myself, hands pushed me down.

Tanya, Soren's healer, stared at me with inquiring eyes. Her strawberry hair was tied back, but a few strains stuck to her face with blood. Both hands were covered with it. She leaned back, observing me.

I tried to shake away the heat that spread through my body. I didn't make it a habit for any goblin to see me naked—healer or not. But the hurt and wooziness from blood loss vanished and the gashes on my skin were shiny, pink, new scars.

"You got yourself into quite the fight," she said. Her tone was brisk and businesslike, her gaze although interested was naturally cold. Not like Soren's had been before I'd passed out. Thinking of it had me shivering. It couldn't be emotions, not truly, none of their kind had them.

But the way he looked and sounded, almost excited, almost like there was something about me that had turned our relationship into something more. I wasn't an idiot. I might've been treated better than the others, but Soren was no friend of mine. Sarcasm lessons aside.

"I think I got off lightly compared to my opponent," I said.

"Yes," Tanya mused. "Fighting Lydian with iron in the middle of the Erlking's court, you definitely got off lightly."

I narrowed my eyes at the acid in the she-goblin's tone but said nothing.

When I sat up, she rewarded me with a shove. I wasn't in any room I recognized. The quartz grey walls crowded around me and other than the sleeping platform only a mirror lay propped against the walls. The sliding wooden door was firmly shut and a lock clicked in place.

"Where am I?"

"The Hunt has begun," she said. "We are required to stay in the palace until Soren gives the command to begin."

I swallowed the burning in my throat. The Hunt. "He hasn't gone already?"

Tanya shifted to cross her legs. "He is deciding who and what to take with him. And perhaps he'll eliminate some competitors who are taking their time as well."

I didn't have anything to say to that. I might've never experienced the hunt in person, but I knew what was at stake. Everyone did.

"Do you think he'll win?" I asked, then bit my tongue. It wasn't like she'd say anything but yes.

She stood. "I think he has more than winning on his mind." Without looking back, she crossed the room and unlocked the door. "He wishes to see you in his residence as soon as you're able."

And she left.

I lay there, heart pumping fast in my chest, trying to recall everything I knew about the stag Hunt. The Stag was the symbol of the Erlking's power, the Erlking was the strongest, fastest, best predator in the Permafrost. If the Stag ran from the Erlking, then he wasn't the strongest anymore.