Page 2 of Feast

Still, she pressed on.

She needed shelter. A hiding place. Somewhere safe to hunker down and ride out the coming storm.

Lightning flickered ominously in the gathering clouds. A moment later, thunder boomed across the sky. It reverberated through the forest around her and rattled her own weary bones. Flurries of wet snow sifted down through the trees.

Mara’s head ached. Her mouth was dry, and her heart felt like it would explode from overexertion.

She wanted so badly to stop. To give up. To just lie down and fall asleep forever.

But another peal of thunder roused her senses and spurred her on. If she stopped now, the nith would surely catch up with her. They would take her back to that slaughterhouse again. Her and the baby inside her too.

Suddenly, Mara halted.

Ahead of her, the shadowy foliage opened up, revealing a mountain blocking her path. A steep incline of scree and rubble angled upward into a sheer rock face that soared hundreds of feet into the air. Even a professional climber wouldn’t be able to scale that stone wall. Certainly a pregnant woman who was dying of exhaustion couldn’t do it.

Tears sprang to Mara’s eyes, blurring her vision.

So this was it. The end of the line.

If exhaustion didn’t kill her, exposure to the coming storm certainly would. Her skin was already wet and chilled from a residue of melted snowflakes. And even if she somehow survived the elements, she would only face a far worse fate.

The nith would find her. They would take her back to that place. They would slaughter her and eat her.

Mara’s skin crawled at the thought.

The baby stirred inside her, and she smoothed a hand over her belly.

“I’m sorry, little one,” she whispered. “I tried. I really did.”

She smudged away the tears with the heel of her palm and looked around for the most comfortable place to lie down and die.

Then something caught her eye.

She hadn’t seen it before in the growing darkness, but there it was. A small opening at the base of the rock wall practically beckoning her inside.

It was a cave.

A shelter.

Mara’s weary heart lifted inside her chest. Renewed energy surged through her cold limbs. If she could just make it to that cave, there might be some hope.

But first she would have to climb the steep grade of rubble.

Mara started to ascend, picking her way up the loose boulders and busted gravel that gnawed at the raw soles of her bare feet. It was slow going, but she was making progress. If she could just reach that cave before the storm hit.

Suddenly, a sharp pain clenched at her lower abdomen, doubling her over. Wetness burst and spilled down her thighs.

Oh God. Not yet…

Mara scrambled up the incline with renewed vigor. Loose stones rolled and fell away beneath her feet. One time she nearly lost her balance, and for a heart-stopping moment she wheeled her arms as gravel slid under her heels.

She caught herself and climbed onward.

More contractions stabbed at Mara’s core. Her lower back ached like a bone bruise. A hot surge of nausea began clawing its way up her throat.

Not yet. Please, not yet.

Just a little farther…