Suddenly, as if its instincts had alerted Grendel to a new threat, the monster stopped struggling with itself. It reared its head, glancing right and then left, but somehow, Grendel didn't think to look behind where the hornbeam stood not ten yards away from it.
I breathed out. "You snooze—"
As if it had heard my whisper, Grendel glanced over its shoulder, but it was too late as I had already fired my arrow.
"—You lose," I said, and then I took a breath.
Quick as a, well, wolf, Reddington darted out of cover to circle behind Grendel. Not that the hornbeam's trunk was thick enough to cover the patchwork wolf's bulk.
Meanwhile, I notched another arrow to my bow—the one I coated in the chimera's snake venom. I drew, aimed, and then fired in the short blinks it took for the first arrow to hit its mark.
