Chapter 813 A Coward

• Lexa
• I stalk forward. Meg turns her wide, wolfish head, her eyes bugging when she sees me stalking up behind her. She shifts into her human form as I reach for the spear, grabbing the rough end before she sinks out of her wolf and rises on human legs in front of me , pulling the loops of her dress closed.
• I have two seconds to react. A single, shattering breath. My fingers dance up the spear, and she strikes, two blades poised and lethally sharpened. I block her blades with the spear, pushing her deeper into the woods. Metal meets wood over and over. Her blades take chunks out of the spear’s handle, but I move my hands like Kaleb taught me during that week when this was all we did–defense. I use the spear like a shield, and I have the upper hand. She’s not facing the woods. I’m pushing her back, watching the woods fan out around us, the trees growing spindly and narrow as we reach what I know marks the end of the forest. Silver plains glisten in the moonlight beyond, a sea of rolling hills.