The beast's shadow swallowed Aveline whole.
She bowed her head at once, bracing herself for the final horror of it; the crushing bite of its jaws, the tearing pain, the terrible end she had been trying not to imagine.
But the pain never came.
Only the stench.
It thickened around her instead, foul and rotten and suffocating, so strong it made her eyes sting. Aveline waited, trembling so hard her teeth nearly chattered, but the beast did not strike.
Then, all at once, the air shifted.
It was as though something invisible had been loosened, a pressure lifted from the cave and the forest together. A faint breeze moved past her face, startling in the stillness.
Then came a heavy thump.
Aveline blinked and slowly opened her eyes.
The monster was moving away from her… Toward the cave….Toward Helena and the newborn.
Her breath caught.
