David woke to Lucas shaking his shoulder and the smell of something cooking somewhere in the estate and the feeling that he'd been asleep for about five minutes even though the sun was already high in the sky.
"Get up," Lucas said, already dressed, already energized, already annoying. "We're going hunting."
David pulled the pillow over his face. "No we're not."
"Yes we are. Becca's idea. She says we've been cooped up too long, that we need to stretch our legs, that if we spend one more day staring at files and journals and lists of names we're going to lose our minds." Lucas pulled the pillow away. "She's right. We've been in this house for a week. A week, David. I'm going crazy."
David sat up slowly and rubbed his eyes. The journal was still on his nightstand where he'd left it last night, open to the page about the Council, about the people who had been in power since before the portals opened. He'd read that section three times before he finally fell asleep, trying to understand how his mother had known, how she'd figured out the truth before they came for her.
"David." Lucas was waving a hand in front of his face. "You still in there? Because you've got that look again, the one where you're reading the journal even when you're not holding it."
David blinked, shook his head, tried to focus. "I'm here. I'm fine. Hunting, you said. What kind of hunting?"
Erica appeared in the doorway behind Lucas, her bow already across her back, her pack already on her shoulders. "Gorehounds. Nest in the D-rank zones, been causing trouble for the hunters going through. The bounty office put out a request last week but no one's been able to take them down. Too fast, too smart, too organized."
Becca was in the hallway now too, her hair pulled back, her daggers at her hips, her shadows already moving at her feet even this early in the morning. "We need the practice. We've been training in the facility, fighting simulations, running drills. But that's not the same as real combat. If we're going to be ready for what's coming, we need to be out there."
David looked at them, at his friends who had been cooped up in the estate for a week waiting for him to finish reading his mother's journal, waiting for him to process the names and the truth and the weight of everything she'd left behind. He'd been so focused on the past, on what happened eighteen years ago, on the people who killed his parents, that he hadn't thought about what they were doing to prepare for what came next.
"Gorehounds," he said, swinging his legs out of bed. "How many?"
"Three, maybe four. The reports aren't clear." Erica was already walking down the hall, her voice trailing behind her. "The first group that found the nest didn't make it back. The second group turned around when they saw the tracks. We'll need to scout first, figure out what we're dealing with before we engage."
Lucas was practically bouncing on his heels as David pulled on his clothes. "See? This is what I've been saying. We've been sitting around reading old papers and looking at photographs and getting sad about things that happened before we were born. We need to move. We need to fight. We need to do something."
Becca was leaning against the doorframe, her expression calm, her eyes following David as he moved around the room. "Lucas is right. We've been reacting to what happened in the past. We need to start preparing for what's coming. And that means getting stronger, faster, better. The training facility is good but it's not the same as the Expanse."
David pulled his jacket on, checked that the crystal was still in his pocket, checked that his mother's journal was still on the nightstand where he'd left it. He could feel the weight of it even from across the room, the words she'd written, the names she'd named, the truth she'd uncovered before they killed her.
"You're thinking about it again," Becca said quietly.
David looked at her, at the understanding in her eyes, at the patience she'd shown him all week while he read and reread and tried to understand what his mother had been trying to tell him. "Sorry."
"Don't be sorry. Just come hunting with us. Let yourself breathe for a day. The journal will still be there when we get back."
---
Elena was waiting for them in the main hall, dressed in clothes that Becca had lent her, a pair of daggers borrowed from the estate's armory strapped to her belt. She looked nervous, her hands moving to the hilts every few seconds, her eyes darting to the door like she expected someone to come through it.
David stopped beside her. "You don't have to come. If you're not ready—"
"I'm ready." Her voice was steady but her hands were shaking. "I've been in that house for a week, David. The same as you. Reading your mother's journal, looking at the names, thinking about what happened. I need to get out. I need to move. I need to do something."
Lucas put his arm around her shoulders, easy, familiar, the way he did with everyone he'd decided was his friend. "That's what I've been saying. We've all been going crazy in here. A good hunt, some fresh air, maybe a stop at Mara's tavern on the way back, that's what we need."
Elena looked up at him, something shifting in her expression, something that might have been amusement or gratitude or just the surprise of being treated like a normal person instead of a Vane or a traitor or a secret that had been hidden for eighteen years.
"Mara's tavern?"
"The best food in the Expanse, maybe the best food anywhere. I've been telling David about it for weeks. If we get these gorehounds, the bounty's good, enough for a feast." Lucas was already moving toward the door, pulling Elena with him. "You've never been to First Landing, right? Never had real hunter food? We're fixing that today."
---
The car took them to the portal, the same route they'd taken to the Expanse before, but everything felt different this time. David sat in the back with Elena beside him and Lucas across from them, Becca in the front with Erica, the driver silent as always, the city falling away behind them.
Elena was watching the buildings through the window, the districts they passed through, the people on the streets. "I've never left the city. Not once. My father kept me inside, kept me close, kept me where he could see me."
Lucas leaned forward. "Never? Not even for a trip? Not even for a vacation?"
Elena shook her head slowly. "He said it was for my protection. That the world was dangerous, that people would hurt me if they knew who I was, that the only safe place was with him." Her voice was flat, the same tone she used when she talked about her father, the one that meant she'd pushed the feelings somewhere she didn't have to feel them. "I didn't know any better. I was a child. I believed him."
David thought about his own childhood, the orphanage, the families who'd looked at him and looked away, the years of wondering why no one wanted him. He'd thought he was alone, that no one in the world cared what happened to him. But Elena had been alone too, in a different way, in a house full of people who would kill her if they knew what she was doing.
"It's not the same," Elena said, like she could hear what he was thinking. "What you went through and what I went through. It's not the same."
David looked at her. "It's not the same. But we were both alone. We both had to figure out who we were without anyone to help us. We both survived."
Elena was quiet for a moment, her eyes on the window, her hands in her lap. "My mother wrote about you in her letters. Before you were born, before everything happened. She told my father she couldn't wait to meet you, to hold you, to watch you grow up with Elena. She said you would be like siblings, that you would protect each other, that you would be family."
David didn't know what to say. His mother's sister had been planning for a future that never came, had been dreaming about cousins who would never meet, had been hoping for something the people she loved would take away from her.
"She would have been happy," Elena said. "Knowing we found each other. Knowing we're together."
The car slowed, the portal coming into view, the shimmer of light that marked the passage between worlds. David looked at Elena, at the cousin he hadn't known he had, at the woman who'd been waiting for him his whole life.
"Yeah," he said. "She would have been."
---
First Landing was busier than David remembered, more hunters than usual, more merchants, more people moving through the streets with purpose. Erica led them through the crowd without slowing, her eyes on something ahead, her hand on her bow. Lucas stayed close to Elena, pointing out buildings, naming shops, telling stories about the last time they were here and the rabbit that almost killed him.
David stayed with Becca, their shoulders almost touching, their pace matched. She was watching the hunters they passed, the way they moved, the way they carried themselves, the way they looked at each other.
"What are you looking for?" he asked.
"Hunters who've been in the D-rank zones recently. Anyone who might have seen the gorehounds, anyone who might have information about the nest." Her eyes didn't stop moving. "The bounty office said three groups have tried and failed. That's a lot of hunters who came back with nothing. Or didn't come back at all."
David thought about the reports Erica had mentioned, the first group that didn't make it, the second that turned around. "You think the nest is bigger than they're saying?"
Becca looked at him, her expression serious. "I think we need to be careful. We need to scout first, see what we're dealing with, make sure we don't walk into something we can't walk out of."
They stopped at the bounty office first, a small building near the portal where hunters registered their claims and collected their rewards. The woman behind the counter was the same one from before, her face flat, her eyes tired, her hands moving over a screen that David couldn't see.
"Gorehound nest," Erica said, leaning against the counter. "What's the current status?"
The woman looked up, her eyes moving over them, lingering on David for a moment longer than the others. "You the ones who took down that C-rank boss a few weeks back? The one near the mountain pass?"
Erica nodded. "That was us."
The woman's expression shifted, something like respect or maybe just interest. "The nest is three klicks north of the safe zone, past the old logging road. Four gorehounds, maybe five. The first group that went in didn't come out. The second group lost two people before they pulled back. The bounty's been increased twice."
Lucas stepped forward, his size making the counter seem smaller. "Five gorehounds? The reports said three."
"Reports were wrong." The woman's voice was flat. "The nest is bigger than we thought. The hunters who made it back said the alpha is something else. Bigger than normal, smarter, meaner. They said it looked like it had been hunting hunters."
Elena was pale beside David, her hands tight on the daggers at her belt. "Five gorehounds. An alpha. And we're supposed to take them down with four people?"
Becca put her hand on Elena's arm, steady, calm. "We scout first. We see what we're dealing with. If it's too much, we pull back and come back with more people." She looked at the woman behind the counter. "We'll take the bounty. But we're not walking into something blind."
The woman shrugged, turned back to her screen. "Your funeral."
---
They left First Landing an hour later, taking the northern road that led past the safe zones and into the territory where the gorehounds had made their nest. Lucas was in front, his body shifted slightly, his hands ready. Erica was beside him, her bow in her hand, her eyes on the forest. Becca was behind them, her shadows moving at her feet, her daggers drawn. David walked with Elena, his fire close, his senses alert.
The forest was quiet, too quiet, the kind of quiet that meant something was watching.
"How far?" Elena whispered.
"Another klick. Maybe less." David could feel something ahead, something that made the fire in his chest flicker, something that made the crystal in his pocket pulse. "There's something there. Something big."
Erica stopped, held up her hand, signaled them to halt. She was looking at the ground, at something David couldn't see, her face pale.
"What is it?" Lucas asked, his voice low.
Erica pointed. Tracks. Not gorehound tracks. Something else. Something bigger. Something that had come through the forest recently, moving fast, moving with purpose.
"That's not from the nest," she said. "That's something else. Something that passed through here maybe an hour ago."
Becca moved up beside her, looked at the tracks, her expression darkening. "A hunter? Someone from First Landing?"
Erica shook her head slowly. "No. Too big. Too fast. Too..." She stopped, her hand going to her bow. "Someone's coming."
David heard it then, footsteps in the forest, moving fast, coming toward them. He pulled fire into his hands, moved in front of Elena, waited.
A figure burst through the trees, a woman, young, her face streaked with blood, her clothes torn, her eyes wild with fear. She stumbled when she saw them, almost fell, caught herself on a tree.
"They're coming," she gasped. "The gorehounds. All of them. They're coming."