Crisped + Sere (Immemorial Year Book 2) by TJ Klune Page B

monster. Clever little cannibal.
    He left his gun. He left his bow.
    He took his knife.
    Just as a precaution.
    The stairs creaked under his weight. He didn’t think they’d support much more for very long. He wondered if Grangeville used this barn. Except they were all dead now. They wouldn’t have a use for it anymore.
    The moonlight flashed across his face between the slats of the wood. His breath trailed behind him.
    He reached the top of the stairs. It was dark. He closed his eyes. Gripped the knife. Opened his eyes. They adjusted.
    He could make out rotting bales of hay. Piles of wood. Piles of brick. A scarecrow, ancient and ugly off in the corner. The wind blew. The scarecrow waved at him.
    “Lucas,” he said in a low voice.
    No response. But how could there be? This clever little monster, this clever little cannibal no longer had a voice.
    Cavalo waited, listening for any sound.
    Lose something, Charlie?
    Do you trust me now?
    He didn’t want to. He couldn’t.
    He took a step into the hayloft.
    My most immemorial year , he thought.
    He took another step and remembered the starving bear with the hooks for claws.
    He took another step and remembered the coyotes covered in tumors.
    He took another step and remembered the look on Lucas’s face with the knife coming down again and again.
    Withering and sere.
    When it happened, it was quick. The second before the knife came to his throat, he realized he was being hunted. The bees were electrified at the scrape of cold steel. A body pressed up against him.
    Familiar, this. From when they’d first met in the haunted woods.
    The knife bit into his throat. The smallest of cuts.
    “He’ll smell the blood,” Cavalo said quietly. “Bad Dog.”
    The knife froze. A breath near his ear. A sigh.
    The knife pulled away. Lucas took a step back.
    Cavalo turned.
    Lucas scowled at the floor. Half of his mask had been scrubbed away, leaving dark streaks down his cheeks. Dried blood in patches on his arms. His hands. His fingers.
    “Lucas.”
    Defiant eyes. The knife at his side.
    “You….” Cavalo struggled for words. “Those people. The Dead Rabbits.”
    Yes.
    “You killed them.”
    Yes.
    “Why?”
    A snarl. Fuck you. Fuck you.
    “I….”
    You did this.
    “Did what?”
    Gestured between the two of them. Back at himself. Made me this way. Made me bleed. Out in the open. I bled in shadows. You took that away from me. He gripped the sides of his head as if trying to block out all sound. The flat of the blade pressed against his scalp.
    “The bees.”
    A savage look. Yes! Yes! Your fucking bees! Yes, the goddamn bees! Yes, you asshole! You bastard. He paced in a small circle, holding his head, his face stretching into a grimace.
    “Lucas.”
    Fuck you. Kill you. Stab you. Eat you.
    “Lucas.”
    Break you. Smash you. Fuck you. Cut you.
    Lucas fell to his knees, his mouth open in a silent scream. He dropped his hands to his sides, the knife clattering on the floor. He threw his head back and screamed again. Though Lucas could make no sound, Cavalo heard the scream in his head. It was filled with rage and fury, despair and sorrow. Cavalo had never heard a sound like it before.
    He took a stuttering step forward. Stood above Lucas. With the knife in his hand, he pulled Lucas’s head to his stomach and held him there. Lucas beat against his back with his fists. Tried to scratch him through his coat. Tried to bite the flesh of his stomach. Cavalo held on, gripping as tightly as he could. He knew if Lucas tried to jerk away, his neck would break or the knife would slip into his throat. Either way, it would be over for him.
    He was giving him a choice.
    Lucas fought.
    Cavalo knew the bruises that would bloom purple and black on his back by morning.
    The only sounds were the fists. The sharp breaths.
    Eventually Lucas made his choice.
    His hands gripped Cavalo’s back. He breathed heavily into his stomach.
    Cavalo let him.
    They stayed that way as the moon came out again. As