Soon a lion stood in front of them. It emerged from between the trees without sound, as if the forest itself had decided to breathe him into existence. Gold eyes caught the light. Mane dark and heavy. Muscles rolled beneath his skin with slow, deliberate confidence.

  “You have him?” the lion asked. His voice was calm. Too calm.

  Collins stepped forward quickly, almost eagerly, and nodded. A smile stretched across his face, thin and nervous. “Yes. Your Benjamin Salim is here.”

  The name hit Harry like a stone to the chest. He kicked hard, the ropes biting into his ankles. Dust rose beneath him. “Guys, do not do this,” he shouted. His voice cracked before he could stop it. “We are a team.”

  No one looked at him. Cole stared at the ground. Sammy’s hands shook. Another boy wiped his face, as if sweat or tears, it was hard to tell.

  Collins kept smiling. “Where are my friends?” Collins asked the lion. His voice wavered now, just a little. “Can I have them now?”

  The lion’s lips curved upward, but there was no warmth in it. “I will release them when I get home.”

  Collins’ smile vanished. He shook his head sharply. “Well then, until I see them, I won’t give you Benjamin.”

  The air shifted.

  The lion hissed. Not loud. Controlled. Deadly. His claws slid out, carving lines into the earth. “You have no power to bargain with me, Idiot. I could kill you all right now.”

  Every boy felt it.

  Their bodies reacted before their minds could. Knees weakened. Breath caught. One of them whimpered. They backed away together, hands raised, voices tumbling over each other. “Please. Please do not kill us. Take Benjamin. Take him and his monkey, and let us live”

  The monkey snarled behind its gag, eyes flashing with raw hatred.

  The lion roared. The sound slammed into them like a wall. Trees shook. Birds exploded into the air. The boys froze, terror etched into their faces.

  “Get out of here,” the lion said. It wasn’t shouted. It didn’t need to be. They turned and ran. Feet slipped. Branches tore at their clothes. No one looked back.

  Silence crept in after them.

  Only the lion remained. He turned slowly, his gaze settling on Harry and the monkey. Harry felt suddenly very small, like prey caught in the open.

  Harry swallowed and tilted his head back as much as the rope allowed. “Why do you hate me so much?” he asked. The words came out thin, afraid. “Why me?”

  The lion frowned, as if the question itself was offensive. “It hurts me more than you simply forgot the havoc you caused to me,” he said. His voice carried something beneath the anger. Something wounded. “But I will have my revenge anyways.”

  He clamped his teeth around Harry’s rope and pulled. Harry slammed into the ground, pain ripping through his shoulder. Stones scraped his skin as he was dragged forward, helpless, breath knocked from his lungs.

  “What are you going to do to me?” Harry cried, panic flooding his voice.

  The lion didn’t stop walking. “I am going to eat you piece by piece. I will make you wish for death before you even get the chance to die.”

  The cave loomed ahead, dark and scorched. Heat rolled out from it, thick with smoke. Firelight flickered against blackened stone.

  The lion dragged Harry inside. The air was suffocating. Smoke stung Harry’s eyes. Flames crackled in the center of the cave, wood stacked high, already burning.

  Above the fire, Max and Frank hung suspended in a woven rope basket, drawn upward toward the ceiling. Their bodies swayed slightly, shadows dancing across their faces.

  Max’s eyes widened. “Harry!” he tried to say but his mouth was sealed.

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  Frank struggled uselessly against his bonds, terror written plainly on his face.

  Harry twisted as much as the rope allowed. “Will you let my friends go now?” he shouted. “You have what you want now.”

  The lion chuckled. The sound echoed against stone, hollow and cruel. “You really think I will let them live?” He paused, savoring it. His lips peeled back into something like a smile. “Nooo. They will all die. Just like you.”

  The lion stepped closer to the fire. Then his body began to change.

  Fur receded as if burned away. Bone shifted with sickening cracks. The mane melted into skin, into hair that fell against broad shoulders. When it was done, a naked man stood where the beast had been, firelight painting his scars in sharp relief.

  Harry stared, breath locked in his chest. The man crouched and threw more wood into the flames. Sparks leapt. Heat surged.

  “I will make you feel the same pain you caused my wife, Maria.”

  Something snapped inside Harry. “I did nothing to your wife,” he shouted. “I have never seen you before.”

  The man rose slowly. Crossed the distance in a heartbeat. He grabbed Harry by the collar and hauled him upright, their faces inches apart.

  “Look,” he said, voice low. “Look at me.” Harry’s vision blurred. Then his eyes burned. Silver-green light flooded his sight, and the cave vanished.

  Night. Cold water lapping at his boots. His hand gripping a knife, slick and heavy. A woman on the ground beneath him, blood everywhere, her mouth open in a scream that never came.

  His arm rose, then fell. Rose again, and fell.

  Harry tore back into his body with a gasp, heart hammering violently in his chest. Sweat soaked his skin. His breath came in jagged pulls.

  “You know what you did now?” the man growled. Harry’s jaw tightened until it hurt. His teeth ground together. “She killed my friend first,” he said.

  The words felt wrong even as he spoke them. Heavy. Rotten. The man groaned, turning away as if struck. His shoulders shook. “Your friend isn’t important,” he said. “You had more. But in this lonely forest, Olivia was all I had.”

  He stood there, breathing hard, fists clenched. Then he turned back. His eyes were empty now. “Now you will pay.”

  He dragged Harry towards the fire, the rope scraping against stone, sparks popping as wood shifted. The heat grew heavier with every step, pressing against Harry’s skin, crawling into his lungs. The pot sat above the flames, water inside it rolling slowly, thick steam breathing upward like something alive.

  The man bent and stirred the water. The surface broke and swirled. Bubbles rose and burst. The smell was sharp, metallic.

  Harry clenched his jaw and braced his feet, but the rope burned his wrists, pulling him closer.

  Then, a whistle cut through the air. Sharp, and clean.

  An arrow tore past the firelight and slammed into the man’s shoulder.

  He froze, shock.

  The stirring stick dropped into the pot with a splash. Steam surged upward. The man straightened slowly, breath hitching, eyes wide as if his mind refused to accept what his body already knew.

  He turned slowly.

  Collins stood at the mouth of the cave, bow still raised, chest rising hard, eyes blazing.

  “You!” the man growled. His voice shook, more from disbelief than pain.

  Harry didn’t wait. Something inside him snapped open.

  Heat flooded his veins, rushing down his spine and into his arm. The seal around his wrist tore apart like rotten cloth. Light flared. The rope around his hands split cleanly, fibers snapping as if sliced by an invisible blade.

  Harry landed on his feet. The man spun fully now, eyes darting between them. “You planned this?”

  Harry rolled his shoulder, feeling power hum beneath his skin. He smiled. It wasn’t wide. It wasn’t kind. “Today is your end.”

  The man snarled, fury twisting his face. He slammed his palm against the ground, muscles tightening, skin rippling as he tried to shift into a beast.

  Another arrow flew. This one struck his eye.

  The scream that followed tore through the cave, raw and animal. He staggered back, clutching his face, blood spilling between his fingers. Before he could recover, a third arrow punched into his chest, knocking the air from his lungs.

  He fell hard, gasping, body slamming into the dirt. Harry stood still, watching him writhe, feeling his heart hammer against his ribs. The fire crackled beside him. The pot continued to boil, indifferent.

  Footsteps rushed in. Collins and the boys poured into the cave, breathless, eyes wild. Smoke clung to their clothes. Fear clung tighter.

  Harry moved. He grabbed a sword leaning against the cave wall, blade warm from the fire’s glow. With quick strokes, he cut the ropes holding the baskets. They dropped. Max and Frank crashed to the ground with dull thuds.

  Harry was already there, slicing through the bindings on their wrists and ankles, tearing the seals from their mouths.

  “Collins!” Max screamed, disbelief shaking his voice. “You came back for us.”

  Collins lowered his bow and let out a shaky breath. He smiled, and this time it reached his eyes. “We are a team now. Nobody will ever get left behind anymore.”

  The man groaned behind them. Collins turned slowly. He crossed the cave and grabbed the man by the collar, hauling him upright. Blood streaked his face. His body trembled, strength bleeding out with every breath.

  “You prepared that water for us,” Collins said quietly. “But now you will go in.”

  The man’s remaining eye widened. His legs kicked weakly as Collins dragged him closer to the fire. Steam licked his skin.

  His voice broke. “Please,” he begged. “Do not kill me. I promise never to bother you again.”

  The boys gathered behind Collins.

  “Hohoho,” Larry mocked, though his laughter shook. “See who is begging.”

  “The legendary king of the forest,” Max added, bitterness cutting through his words.

  Collins paused. He stared at the man’s face, at the blood, the fear, the shifting shadows beneath his skin. “I would have believed you,” Collins said slowly, “if you did not have multiple faces. But my father always warned me. Never trust a man with multiple faces.”

  He heaved him into the pot. The man screamed once.

  It cut short as his body plunged into the pot. Water surged, sloshing over the sides. Steam exploded upward, filling the cave. The boys rushed closer despite themselves, eyes fixed on the boiling surface.

  The man thrashed. His form twisted wildly, skin bubbling, bones cracking. He shifted into beasts in rapid flashes. A lion. A serpent. A bird with burning wings. Then back to a man.

  Then nothing.

  The water became still.

  The cave fell silent except for the crackle of fire and the boys’ ragged breathing. Cole’s legs trembled so hard he had to brace himself against the wall.

  “He is dead,” Harry said. The words felt heavy, final. “Let’s get out of here, guys.”

  They moved quickly. Harry and Cole lifted Frank, who groaned softly, his injured legs dragging uselessly. Smoke followed them out as they staggered into the forest, night air slamming into their lungs.

  “I think you are forgetting one person here,” the monkey screamed.

  Harry froze.

  He spun back. The monkey still hung where it had been left, rope biting into its small frame, eyes blazing with fury.

  Harry ran to it and cut it free. “I am sorry,” he said, breathless. “You are too small for the eyes.”

  The monkey leapt onto his shoulder and scratched his cheek with a sharp fang. “You are as annoying as you were in your previous life.”

  Harry winced, then laughed softly despite the pain.

  They walked on. Alive, and complete in numbers.

  Harry unfolded the map beneath the moonlight, fingers tracing the worn markings. “The next is the wild bird,” he said quietly. “No man has ever been able to kill it before.”

  The monkey tilted its head. “I would advise you not to go near,” it said. “Aturo leaves no one alive. Not even you were able to defeat it in your previous life, even though you barely survive him.”

  Collins shook his head, a slow smile creeping across his face. “Killing it will make us a legend then.”

  Harry looked up from the map and met the monkey’s eyes. “Did I have a team then?”

  The monkey shook its head. “No.” Harry turned and looked at the boys one after the other. “Then this time is different.”