Aveline lifted her head… and the sky vanished beneath the shadow of the monstrous beast.
It was so enormous that it seemed to swallow the moonlight whole, blotting out both the stars and the trees around it. She could not make out where its face began or where its legs ended. It was all bulk and darkness and a terrible, shifting presence that made the cave feel smaller even from the forest's open air.
Helena had looked frightening when Aveline first saw her. But once Aveline had touched her, she had felt the creature's fear, her love, her desperation.
Could that work here too?
The thought came and went in the same breath as her fear.
Aveline's heart thudded hard against her throat.
For one terrible moment, she wondered whether Helena had brought her here as bait. As a sacrifice. As a shield. But she swallowed that thought down at once.
No matter what this beast was, there was a baby involved. Monster or not, that child deserved a chance to live.
