Anji wheezed a reply, but the man’s hand shot out like a snake and wrapped around her throat. His fingers were like iron barbs, tips digging at her neck. She yelped and kicked her legs against the hard ground, sending up a cloud of gray dust and clattering rocks skittering down the trail. She beat at his arm but it was like smacking a tree branch. Then a slice of thin fire streaked against Anji’s cheek and he brought the blade back, dark blood shining on its edge.

“Answer me, girl, or I’ll take out your fucking eye!”

Blood thundered in her skull. She needed air, the pressure on her throat a vise squeezing tighter—

She choked on a breath, tears spilling down her cheeks.

The Goat laughed and pressed the dagger’s tip into Anji’s shoulder. “Words, girl! Words!” The blade worked into her flesh like a hot iron. A streak of blood dribbled down Anji’s arm. Her bladder released. She gulped a lungful of air.

“Th-they do!”

“They what?” said the Goat, digging the dagger deeper into her skin. She shrieked and kicked and sucked in another breath.

“They keep th-their jokes to themselves!”

The Goat shoved her away, standing straight once more.

“Looks like you’ve got a brain in that potato-shaped head of yours. You might put it to good use if you want to keep it on your neck for the next couple days.” He sheathed his dagger and gestured down the trail. “Name’s Goat,” he said. “Now get up and keep your mouth shut.”

Chapter 17

17

Anji never thought she could hate someone as much as she’d hated Rolandrian, or the Hawk, or her parents’ killers, but the Goat had climbed his way to the top of that list in an astonishingly short time. In just a few moments, with even fewer words, he’d made her feel small and useless in a way the Hawk or even Matron never had. The way he’d brandished the knife, the rise of his jawline under the mask, like he enjoyed torturing her. The careless way he’d cut at her face and wheezed and cackled. Like this was all one big joke.

They trekked in silence toward the tundra plains below, the Goat’s bootsteps sure and solid, Anji’s breath shuddering. She scanned the jagged slopes, searching for a sign of movement, the glint of black metal.