Chapter 36
Allie
Igripped my bow and crouched behind a mound of snow and ice, tense as if the ground itself might decide to betray me next.
Dax ducked and rolled on the opposite side of the path, a dagger ready in each hand.
We exchanged only one glance, before our gazes narrowed at the mist ahead.
Nothing but a hazy, milky sight awaited.
But within it, I heard steps.
Twenty.
No.
Twenty-five souls, walking as cautiously as we hid.
My bow string creaked as I waited, a storm brewing inside of me.
An attack? Already?
They couldn’t have been lying in wait, we hadn’t even known we’d be back.
My lungs tightened. Had the city been attacked and–
“Who goes there? Reveal yourself!” A rough voice echoed through the mist.
A voice I could recognize in my sleep.
I sighed in relief.
Of course Vylkor was taking his duty of protecting the city seriously.
Dax relaxed his grip on the daggers, but he didn’t rise.
I didn’t let go of the bow, either. “It’s me. The Huntress.”
“And her cousin,” Dax yelled and looked at me from the corner of his eyes. “I don’t want to be impaled just because I startled them.”
“The Huntress is off to war,” Vylkor called back.
Another arrow flew above us, but this time I recognized it as a warning.
Above all else, Solkar’s Reach and its people wanted to be left alone.
“They’re good at hand to hand combat, but you need to teach them proper archery,” Dax grumbled.
I sighed and flicked my wrist, blue tendrils shooting up into the sky, lighting the mist, careful not to call on any of the crater’s wind. Vylkor had seen enough of my powers–had begged for them back in the passage–to recognize them.
“It’s a trick.” Nadya’s voice shrilled through the wilderness, shocking me. “It can’t be her. The Huntress is no coward, she wouldn’t turn her back on battle.”
That singed my pride more than I would have liked.
Dax rolled his eyes. “I told you she’s weird.”
“Nadya, cut it out,” I called out. “It’s me.”
“They even mimicked her voice!” she went on. “Whoever’s there is dangerous.”
I narrowed my eyes. What had Ryker told her and Geryll about Evie’s kidnapping and the replica to make her this suspicious?
Two more arrows flew toward us.
“For the love of–” I gritted my teeth. “Do you really want me to go into excruciating detail about how the wolves hunted us down on the city streets and what we had to do to escape them?”
Silence.
The tip of my arrow caught the few rays of light that dared reach us.
Silence was dangerous.
The longer it stretched, the tighter I held onto the bow’s string.
I’d expected our return to be hard–perhaps shameful–but not deadly.
In the stillness and with the haze playing tricks on my eyes, my other senses sharpened.
Steps.
Coming toward us.
Hesitant.
Through the veil, exactly twenty-five blurry figures emerged. Vylkor leading them, Nadya right behind him. He clutched Ryker’s sword like it already belonged to him.
Something ugly inside of me bristled as I rose carefully.
We’d been gone less than three days.
Vylkor and I stared at each other for much too long, neither backing down.
“You want me to light up the sky again to prove it’s me?” I asked, voice like a whip. “Or do we need some ash and darkness for you to believe?”
Everything was a struggle, even proving my identity–and I was tired of it.
Vylkor’s good eye twitched, but he lowered his weapon.
I angled my bow at the ground and stepped forward, Dax behind me, still tense, armed, and ready for an attack. Nadya hadn’t lowered her ax, either. These two were more alike than they wanted to admit.
“What are you doing back?” Vylkor asked me with a bite, as if I was trespassing.
And that annoyed me.
No.
It angered me.
“Change of plans.” I flung my bow behind my back and looked at the young warriors, all of them bewildered. “The Commander decided I should stay back and protect the city. Just in case.”
“You argued again, didn’t you?” Nadya asked, but mercifully closed her mouth when I slashed a warning look her way.
“We have enough protection.” Vylkor raised his brow. “As you can see.”
“Yes, he left the city and crater in good hands,” I said. “Yours–and now mine.”
Whether Vylkor and the rest wanted to accept it or not–and, honestly, I still had a hard time with it myself–once Ryker and I fulfilled that marriage contract, I would lead this place. And, yes, I had been raised to rule and strategize. They hadn’t.
They threw me the same curious, disbelieving gazes they had on that day Dax had first come here.
Back then, I’d known I could rely on Ryker’s return to quiet the waters.
Now, I was on my own to keep the whispers at bay.
My return surely didn’t do me any favors in a place where you needed to be tougher than the land to survive, but I was sick and tired of this mistrust. I’d been ready to march to war with these people.
I didn’t have time to soften my return.
Whether the outside world knew I’d gone to war or not, it was common knowledge the warriors of Solkar’s Reach had marched toward the battlefield. Our only hope was that nobody knew the crater’s defenses were down.
Vylkor didn’t know the lip of the crater had allowed Dax to enter. Maybe if he had, he wouldn’t have been narrowing his eyes skeptically at me, like I’d planned my return all along.
“Your attention should be on the sky, in case the scouts sound an alarm, not on me,” I said.
Dax rolled the daggers in his fists with such ease, it seemed he’d grown claws. Claws prepared to strike. “I’d listen to her.”
Vylkor’s nostrils flared and his eye tightened even more. I didn’t know why my return bothered him so much, but it did.
This wasn’t about recognizing me. Not anymore.
For the briefest moment, my powers stirred deep within me, ready to burst.
With a mighty grimace, Vylkor handed me the sword. I braced my muscles, but its weight still threatened to pull down my arm. It mercifully remained still and unbending as I grabbed the massive pommel, even as my ligaments screamed in pain.
No show of weakness.
Not right now, when they all expected it.
I brought the sword to my side with the confidence of someone who could actually swing it above their head, and started walking, tall as ever.
The duty of the crater’s protection now lay on my shoulders, and I planned on keeping them straight.
“Everybody back to your posts,” I said and something locked inside of me. Something familiar. Unavoidable. “We are at war.”