“I mean it. If I’m out of the picture, you need to go and you’ll need to drag Derek and Ascanio out of there, because they won’t leave me. Do not stay. Do not fight. Just grab the two kids and go. That’s as much information as I’m going to share with you. I have to stop this war from happening. Let me do my job and if you would like to be upset about how I went about it, you can address your grievances to my grave or to me in person at the next Council. Until then, I don’t want to deal with any more politics. It’s making my job more difficult and it’s hard enough as is. That’s an order.”

“Yes, Alpha,” Desandra said.

“Very well. I will—” Robert stopped and wrinkled his nose. Desandra inhaled sharply. Something clearly didn’t smell right.

I glanced back. Ascanio and Derek sped up, closing in. Robert had a look of intense concentration on his face. I felt it too, that alarming feeling of something behind you watching closely, waiting for you to stumble so it can leap on your back and sink its sharp, cold teeth into the nape of your neck. I could feel the gaze on my back and I knew if I turned around, I’d see nothing, just the shadows between the glass cliffs. But something watched me. Something was there.

Derek fell in next to me and turned around. I followed his gaze. Four eyes ignited in the shadows, one pair right inside the other, bright, electric turquoise about four feet off the ground. The eyes shone once and vanished behind the slanted glass iceberg.

We slowed down to a walk, falling into formation: Derek and I in front, Robert and Ascanio on the sides, and Desandra guarding the rear. If you ran, predators would chase. We wouldn’t be running.

Another set of four eyes flashed at us from the left, reflecting in the glass for half a second before melting into nothing.

“They’re herding us,” Desandra said.

Ahead three sets of twin pairs of eyes materialized from the gloom. They were trying to make us turn right. I pulled Slayer from the sheath.

Three squat, wide-chested shapes congealed from the gloom and moved into the light, step by step. About the size of a small calf, they stood on six muscled limbs. Their limbs ended in handlike paws with agile fingers, each tipped by a short curved claw. Pale hide sheathed their bodies, except for their spine and chest, where bony plates formed a protective carapace. Their jaws were massive, their teeth sharp, and they looked at the world with four eyes, nestled in two rows on their heads.

“I fought these before with Andrea,” Ascanio reported. “These are just pups. Their mother was huge.”