Kesta did not say the hunter's name until his hook closed behind her neck.
He came down the channel root with both dark sails open, silver stitching bright on his right shoulder. Skykeel's sideways rain shoved at him. He leaned into it without looking, let one wing collapse, and dropped through a gap that should have broken a rider against the bars.
His free hand found the root above Kesta. His capture hook found the narrow space between her throat and her remaining frame.
"Beras." Kesta barely breathed it.
The name left Kesta quieter than fear.
Jiang had one foot against the wall and Aylin's fingers against his face when the moving chain snapped the water between them taut. Her hand vanished into the wound. Current flung Jiang backward, and Kesta's old wingmate tightened his hook.
"You cut your bell," Beras said.
"It was never mine."
Wood cracked below them.
Everyone looked down except Kaul.
