Chapter 28 Dae
Dae
Heaviness pressed in, like a hand holding me underwater, and I questioned if I’d somehow shifted without realizing.
A quick glance at my human hands told me I hadn’t, but the world felt heavy all the same.
Commotion sounded from the campfire as they beheld their prisoner, blood leaking from her skull where the arrow pierced.
Ro retched at my side. Not something I would have expected from a person who’d just willingly shot their friend in the head with an arrow and created a serious clusterfuck for us both.
The shock dulled the incredible throb in my leg momentarily before it resumed as I staggered back from the cusp of the ledge, trying to stay out of sight from the members scrambling down below.
I gently placed my hands on Ro’s shoulders, guiding her away to keep us from sight.
We were monumentally fucked. It would only take minutes for the members to reach us on the hillside if they accurately judged the angle of the shot. The pounding in my chest carried to my leg, and I didn’t doubt my wound started bleeding again.
My brain viciously tried to piece together what just happened. Had she lied to me this whole time? Did she even know that prisoner at all? What was her end game knowing she didn’t have enough arrows to take out the rest of them?
“What have you done?!” I whispered frantically as the forest swallowed us from their vision below.
If it had been daylight, maybe I would have been able to read her eyes.
From the way she barely seemed responsive, I wondered if no amount of light could help penetrate the vacancy that now roamed them.
She’d become dazed. I knew what grief looked like, and seeing the reminder fractured my heart along all its scarred lines.
Her hands showed no indication of retrieving another arrow, even as I forced her to move.
She wasn’t going to attack. Everything in me roared to hold her in my arms, to comfort her in the only way I could.
Grief and shock were a potent combination, and there was no remedy, only the comfort of what or who remained.
Then she suddenly snapped to and stood. Before I could speak, she was winding through the trees, heading back toward the road.
No, she couldn’t. The trees held our only cover, the night providing us a chance to sneak away unseen. Once she became exposed on that road, they’d take her next. I couldn’t let it happen, couldn’t sit back and watch.
I won’t.
I forgot what living without pain felt like as I staggered through the uneven forest, chasing after this mystery woman who’d splintered my life in one afternoon.
Why was I following her? She only brought the opportunity to screw up my plans.
Yet, I couldn’t help myself. My thoughts emptied as I raced to keep up, not wanting to lose sight of her.
Besides wreaking havoc on branches and bushes, the forest remained quiet.
The moon broke through the scattering leaves above, highlighting our path to the road with silver light.
Ro cleared the thick brush, but I wasn’t far behind.
I expected her to start running south, using the road as her guiding marker so she didn’t get lost. To my surprise, yet again, she faced north, toward the camp. And started walking.
I burst from the bushes, trying to snag her attention. “What are you doing?!”
She ignored me. Ignored, or simply couldn’t hear in her state.
Had her mind snapped? Her strides were even and calm as she ascended the path, clearing the peak before descending on the other side.
I pushed and pushed and pushed, my bandage now thoroughly soaked through and cold from the night's chill. What if I didn’t make it before they swarmed her?
Cries of terror rang out in my memory, and I swallowed the lump in my throat. I wouldn’t be too late this time.
I transformed. Nothing but a pure, animalistic need to protect coursed through my veins. My sharp fangs begged to tear into any flesh that threatened her safety, consequences be damned.
“Stop! Who the hell are you?!” Harlson called as I cleared the ridgeline. My form didn’t shock them, and they kept their eyes fixed on Ro who strode toward them with unnerving calm.
“You had no right to take her,” she said, a steady bite to her words.
Her voice may have come out level, but in this form I sensed her anger, her fear, her sorrow.
The scent carried on the wind that banked the fire in subtle wisps.
I remained behind her, intentionally staying out of her line of sight.
With raised hackles, I kept watch of their movements.
Subtle flexes in their muscles would tell me if they made to move, to strike her with their raised weapons or magic.
Daggers and swords had been drawn before we’d even breached the hill. They were looking for a bloody fight.
“Excuse me?! Who the fuck are you?” Val asked, her brow furrowed into hard lines as she relaxed her hand at her side. The forest began moving at her command, roots emerging from the soil in a slow crawl toward the redheaded huntress.
“I’ve been sent by King Taja. That woman was meant to be my offering when I made it to camp. You had no right to take her.”
If I hadn’t been able to detect her thundering pulse, she may have had me believing the lies that dripped from her lips, smooth as honey. Earlier in the day, she’d asked if the King of Windguard had known about the dark magic. She couldn’t have been sent by him, then. What was her game plan?
“Bullshit,” Johni spat, teeth bared and shining from the fire over the loss of his one bargaining chip.
Ro remained poised, her posture steady. “Why else would I be this far north and not have already put an arrow in each of your heads?”
The roots stilled, and the men spared glances at one another.
Gods above. She was convincing them.
“Dae, you know about this?” Dalin asked, having emerged from the tent sometime between when she fired that arrow and now.
“Not only does he know about it, he’s responsible for spooking the stag I almost caught,” Ro said, unaware of the feline shape lurking near her.
If I had been in my human form, confusion would have been plastered all over my face. Good thing I had fur to hide behind. What was she playing at?
“So not only have you lot stolen my offering, you’ve majorly screwed up my purpose for being sent.” Ro spoke with such disdain and superiority that the others shifted on their feet, trying to grasp the situation.
“Fuck this.” Harlson lunged, dagger in hand, toward Ro.
A heartbeat later, her arrow aimed directly at his heart, and he halted.
She didn’t let a second pass before saying, “I bet you’re all getting pretty close to eating each other up here. I’m sure you’d make an acceptable substitution if you hinder my task,” Ro’s voice bled with feral anger. One that promised she’d make good on her word.
I shifted then, regretting it instantly as I changed from standing on four legs to two. “She’s not bluffing,” I said, trying to calm my rapid heart rate as I joined her side. “I’d stand down if I were you, Harlson.”
The weary looks in their eyes told me she’d done it. She’d convinced them. Great divine, she almost convinced me with that speech and the confidence she exuded.
I wanted to throttle her, to try any and all methods to convince her to turn tail and get far away from here before the others figured out her ruse.
But from the time she and I had spent together, I knew she wanted answers—if she’d even been telling the truth.
No fucking question was worth this, though.
I’d told her the risks, and she still chose to proceed. Now, we’d travel north together. At least I could keep an eye on her that way, maybe satisfy her questions before we reached base camp, and free her of this insane death wish.
“Fine,” Val said, sheathing her sword. The sprawling roots lay flaccid as she released her hold. “You were sent to help us hunt, then?”
“I was. Taja thought you could use the help.”
Fuck she was clever, using all the information I’d given her.
Had she used me for that intent all along?
Not such an innocent young woman traveling the woods by accident, then.
Someone who’d survived the journey as far as she had obviously possessed a certain degree of skill. Underestimating her had been a mistake.
I caught a glimpse of her friend, or whoever this person had been to her.
Ro wore a stony mask of indifference under the pale moonlight, but I had seen beneath it.
Watched her lips tremble, her eyes gloss over when she beheld her friend.
Stood close when her stomach emptied itself over what she’d done.
What a cruel, clever tactic to place herself in this position.
“You could have at least let us keep her. The chances of bringing back anything from around here is slim,” Johni said, also tucking his weapons away.
Their bodies melted from a defensive stance to casual.
He, Harlson, and Val had all been in Windguard’s army before joining The Order, making them well trained and ruthless.
“You didn’t deserve to take her from me.”
I didn’t need to be in animal form to catch the increasing rise and fall of her chest. Before giving them a chance to see and hear the raging truth behind her words, the evidence that the dead woman was more than merely a magical offering, I stepped forward, the sudden movement causing me to stumble.
“What the fuck happened to you?” Val asked, crossing her arms. There was no warmth in her question, no care, just pure assessment.
“His punishment for spooking my kill,” Ro stated coolly before I had a chance to respond.
“Bloodthirsty,” Johni chuckled, running his hand through his mess of red hair. “I see why the king sent you.”
“Glad I have your approval,” Ro said sarcastically, holding the same air of arrogance that’d convinced them. “Now show me where to sleep in this shit hole. I have hunting to do tomorrow.”
Val scoffed, removing herself from the conversation, returning to her log at the fire.
“Looks like Dae owes you. He can offer his spot.” Harlson grinned smugly. That sadistic son of a bitch loved seeing me injured and wasted no time piling on to my misery.
“Well?” Ro stared at me for the first time since the ridge, but there was no evidence of the woman who’d criticized my name, who’d held me up when my strength waned.
“Right this way,” I crooned, sweeping my hand in a guiding motion.
She rolled her eyes. That could have been a real reaction.
I guess I didn’t know how to read her anymore, if I ever really did.
She was savvy, cunning even. She’d attempted to keep a facade of heartlessness until she’d collapsed from dehydration and woken to find I’d helped.
After that, her edges softened. She’d been playful and caring.
That part of her broke when she’d seen the state of the woman on the pole. When she’d learned of the inescapable reality they’d stumbled into.
It dawned on me why she’d shot that arrow. Not just for a perfect plan to infiltrate the outpost and display dominance to a group who only spoke a language of strength, but for mercy.
I limped until reaching my raggedy tent.
Nothing more than a bedroll and tattered cloth draped overhead.
I’d set it up earlier in the day before setting out to hunt, never in my wildest dreams imagining I’d be offering it to a beguiling new arrival.
It was tucked away from the others, giving us some semblance of privacy, but I didn’t dare say anything that would incriminate her. “You can sleep here.”
“Get that leg treated, I don’t want you slowing me down tomorrow.” With that loud and harsh authoritative order, she crawled onto the bedroll and turned over, effectively dismissing me.
I swallowed, equally worried and impressed over the situation we now found ourselves in. When I hobbled to the campfire, Harlson chuckled again, having overheard Ro’s biting order.
“Who wants to bet she’ll kill you by sundown?” He looked way too pleased at that possibility.
“Hand me the med kit,” I said to Dalin, one of the members I’d traveled with.
He did, and I opened it to find a pathetic amount of supplies.
I unwrapped the wet strip around my thigh, peeling it from the sticky skin.
Instead of rolling up the pant leg, or lowering them from my waist, I flicked the dagger from my back pocket and cut it open.
The salve with healing herbs had nearly been depleted, and I felt no guilt using the remains.
Slathering my wound had me grinding my teeth, beads of sweat gathering at my temple.
With the withering remains of the bandage roll, I placed the new fabric over the gash, tore another section from my pant leg and tied it tight. Whatever was in that salve had been a gods-send. Numbing properties were the most beautiful invention on the planet.
Rearing my head back, I sighed, feeling the first amount of relief in my human form since the afternoon. I stared up at the starry night, watching the cosmos.
The world had felt so stagnant before today, an endless continuation of routine. A steady deterioration of my soul. Not one that I regretted, but a hardship nonetheless.
I didn’t know why Ro had come here, why she’d crossed my path. But for the first time in a long time, as the stars twinkled above, it seemed as though the universe pried open a sleeping eye.
And watched.