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“No. And no. Everything I’m telling you is the truth, I swear.”

I was convinced that she was lying, but I didn’t press her any further, at least for now. I studied her, staring at her. I could tell that she was uncomfortable by my trapping gaze, but I didn’t care. If she did kill my uncle, she was going to have far more than my icy stare to deal with.

Moreso, if we stood out here long enough, the other beasts would come out to play. I needed to find shelter, nurse my injuries, and figure out what to do next with this human woman before sending her off to the king.

“We need to go,” I mumbled.

“Go where?” Her eyes widened with dread.

“Shelter,” I grumbled and nudged her to follow me. “Keep up. Don’t do anything stupid like running off. We need to move before the dust storms arrive.”

“D-dust storm?” she muttered. “What’s that?”

“You don’t want to be out here when it happens. Trust me.”

The storms could prove just as deadly as running into another ravenous beast could be—or even the mud pit for that matter.

I took a short piece of rope from my satchel and tied it around her wrists.

“No, I won’t…” Before she could finish, I had already secured her wrists.

“Let’s go.”

I moved ahead and the woman had no choice but to put one foot in front of the other. We happened to pass by the Barb I had killed earlier and she halted in her tracks. She doubled over and coughed as if she would vomit. If I didn’t have the stomach for it, I’d probably find the manner in which I gutted the beast offending too.

“Did you do that?” she croaked.

“He will have learned a lesson. And in the Afterlife, he will think twice about forcing himself on a weak human woman,” I replied.

She yanked her attention away from the beast carcass and we moved along. This time, she didn’t offer a protest or a struggle.