The Boys of Fire and Ash by Meaghan McIsaac Read Free Book Online Page B

silent and crooked, weaving into each other, impossible to see through.
    “Cubby!” I screamed.
    He let out a cry, not far ahead.
    I ran. My legs were numb with the effort, begging me to stop, but I didn’t. Branches whipped my face as I plowed ahead through the thick, brittle forest. The guttural call of the Tunrar sounded somewhere to my left—not far. I couldn’t see, the light from the fires of the Ikkuma Pit were behind me, the forest was nearly all black.
    I kept running.
    Another Tunrar sounded to the right. I stopped and listened.
    Leaves and twigs crunched under Av’s foot as he caught up.
    “One of them is flanking our right,” he panted, bent over, gulping in air.
    My lungs felt like they were going to burst, and I thought I could taste blood.
    There was only silence, except for Av’s wheezing. I couldn’t hear the screams.
    “Go right?” he asked.
    I paced back and forth, frantically searching for any sign, any clue as to which way they’d gone. But the damn forest was so black, so dark, I could barely see a thing.
    “Cubby!” I cried.
    Something shifted to our right; we could hear its labored, sickly breathing. I could see Wasted in my head, what that thing had done to him—his blood, his eyes.
    “Cubby!” I begged.
    No response.
    I threw up.
    “Urgs, it’s on the right,” whispered Av, pulling out his dagger.
    I heard it, but I didn’t care.
    I stayed there, on my hands and knees, smelling my own sour puke, staring into the black.
    Then Cubby’s desperate shriek rang out.
    I was off in an instant, Av yelling after me.
    My foot caught and I fell. My hide ripped and I could feel I’d split open my knee. Didn’t matter. I scrambled to my feet and kept going, fast as I could.
    That was when the big one got me.
    The Tunrar slammed into my right side, throwing me into a tree. My head bashed up against it, stunning me a second. It threw me to the ground and was making a sick hacking sound as it clawed at me, trying to pin my flailing limbs.
    I kicked and punched with everything in me.
    It hissed and slashed at my thigh with its sharp claws.
    I grunted in pain.
    It pinned my legs and opened its hideous, gummy mouth, the rotten smell of meat on its hot breath.
    Wild and furious, I lunged at it as best I could and sank my teeth into its leathery shoulder.
    It screamed and bashed my head on the hard ground.
    I was dazed, couldn’t move.
    It circled me, shuffling around through the leaves, hacking and hissing. Then it brought down a huge, heavy fist on my stomach.
    I couldn’t breathe.
    It shrieked with triumph.
    The Tunrar raised both fists in the air, and I waited for the rib-crushing blow.
    All of a sudden it arched its back and squealed like a Larmy pig, falling on the ground and writhing around.
    I crawled away from it, clutching my stomach.
    Av ran up and pulled his dagger out of the squealing monster’s back, then gave it a hard kick to the head. It went limp.
    “You all right?” he asked.
    I sat up, still holding my stomach and noticing the hot blood pouring down from my split eyebrow.
    I cried. It wasn’t the pain, or the blood. It was the silence.
    I couldn’t hear Cubby.

SEVEN
    “Here, let me see,” said Av, pulling my hand away from the deep gash on my thigh. He winced at the sight, but I felt nothing. The lump in the back of my throat was swollen and throbbing, I couldn’t swallow. I’d lost Cubby. I’d failed my Little Brother.
    My stomach heaved and I couldn’t hold it in.
    Av jumped back and wiped away my bile from his legs.
    “Crow!” he called into the dark trees.
    I heard thumping feet. As Crow, Blaze, and Digger burst out of the shadows and into the dark clearing, I felt sicker. Images of Wasted, his limp body, then Cubby, his face twisted in terror, flashed through my head.
Not Cubby
.
    I stuck my head between my legs and lost myself in violent sobs.
    Crow’s cold fingers grabbed my leg and flattened it out as he tried to get a look at the gash from the