Chapter Sixteen
Calista
The water hit like a blade.
Cold slammed the air from my lungs as I dove beneath the surface, everything turning black-green and violent.
Sand and salt and churned silt filled the world.
I couldn’t tell which way was shore and which way was open sea.
The current dragged at my legs, twisted my hair, and shoved hard at my ribs as if it meant to split me apart.
I kicked anyway.
A pale shape moved through the murk ahead of me. A hand. Then hair. The flash of an eye wide with panic.
I reached out and missed.
Frost take me.
The current yanked Alma deeper, and for one furious heartbeat all I could think was if this female stabbed me the second I dragged her out, I was going to be furious that the Black Wolf had been right.
Ignoring the building dread, I dove harder. With my hands searching blindly through the surf, they finally closed on a fistful of wet hair.
Alma thrashed wildly, nails catching my wrist, and knee slamming into my thigh.
Selraya, help me. “Stop that,” I gritted out. “I’m trying to save you.”
For a terrible second, she continued to fight me like I was another thing trying to drown her. Water flooded my nose, and my lungs burned as I went under. I kicked upward with everything I had left and hauled her with me.
We finally broke the surface together.
Alma gasped once, choked, then slipped again as the undertow dragged at both of us.
“Take the rope,” I coughed, shoving her toward where I prayed the line still was. “Alma, take it!”
Another wave crashed over our heads.
This time when I surfaced, a fresh cord whipped across the water in front of us.
I glanced over my shoulder and found the Black Wolf.
He stood braced on the shore, hands gripping the line.
The rope cut taut through the surf. I caught it with one hand and wrapped the other in Alma’s hair again before she could sink.
“Hold!” I shouted, though I could barely hear my own voice over the sea.
The rope jerked. Hard.
The Black Wolf hauled us both in by brute force, the line sawing through my palm, each pull dragging us another body length toward shore.
Alma coughed and sagged against me, half-conscious now, dead weight in the freezing water.
The undertow tried to wrench her from my grip, but I held strong. Twice I nearly lost her.
Then finally, an eternity later, rock scraped my knees. And goddess, I’d never been so thankful for the burn. Sand rose beneath my boots.
Another pull, another, and suddenly hands were on the rope above us. The Black Wolf backed through the surf, dragging us the last few feet until we slammed onto the sandbar in a tangle of limbs and foam.
For a long moment, I simply lay there, coughing up seawater and dragging air into my burning chest.
Alma rolled onto her side, retching up half the crossing.
The Black Wolf loomed over us, chest heaving beneath the black furs, mask wet with spray. Fury burned in the blue of his eyes, but he said nothing at first. He just crouched over me, assessing any injuries.
Thankfully, there were none.
Then he turned to Alma and huffed out a breath. “Well, she’ll live.”
“Because of me.”
Anger flared in the depths of his eyes. “I gave you an order to hold,” he growled.
“And you are not my commander,” I barked right back.
“No, I am your guard.” He pressed closer so the heat of him seeped into my wet tunic. “And I’ve been charged with your protection. It is my duty—”
I pressed a finger to the sharp fangs of his mask, silencing him. “I never asked for protection. And I will not stand by and watch as someone drowns if I can help it. That is not the Hollowcrest way. No one is left behind.”
“Don’t you understand that your life is more valuable than—” He cut himself off, shaking his head. Despite his grunt of frustration, something else bloomed beneath the storm of navy.
I stared at him for half a beat. Alma was barely with us, her eyes glassy, lips tinged blue. She coughed again, weaker this time, but the color began to creep back into her face.
I pushed to my feet, shaking, the icy chill from the water rushing through my veins.
“You’re going to freeze,” he growled.
“It was worth it.”
“For now,” the Black Wolf bit out. “Next time you obey the order.”
I wiped salt from my mouth with the back of my hand and barely suppressed an eyeroll.
Moons, this conversation reminded me of a similar one I had with his king.
“Remove your clothes.”
“Excuse me?” I shrieked.
“Hypothermia will take you long before the hunters do if you don’t get out of those soaked clothes.”
“I’ll take my chances.”
His stare went colder still, but he only shrugged out of his cloak and attempted to drop it over my shoulders. I wriggled out of the way just before it landed.
“Are you really that stubborn?” He glared down at me. “You would rather die on the first day than allow me to do my duty and accept my cloak?”
“I have my own.” I ticked my head toward the shore where I’d dropped it. Even from here I could tell the salty spray had gotten to it.
“Mine is larger and warmer.”
I considered for only a moment. Clearly, he was right, but I hated admitting it. More than that, I refused to remove my clothes and let him see my scars. Ensuring my tunic covered any exposed skin, I finally gritted out, “Fine.”
He draped the warm mantle over me, and the heat of him hit me instantly. Then came the scent, cedar wrapped in frostmint. I couldn’t even pretend to hate it.
The Black Wolf reached down and hauled Alma another safe stretch above the tide line. Then he dropped a small flask beside her in the sand.
“She’ll wake with enough strength to crawl,” he said. “That’s all the mercy she gets. Let her hunter care for her.”
I couldn’t argue with his logic as much as I wanted to. I adjusted the rope at my waist with numb fingers and turned toward the cliff path. The Black Wolf tied my damp cloak to his satchel and easily fell into step at my back.
A quarter of an hour later and finally past the dreaded crossing, we climbed onto a low ridge and drew in a breath. To our right the waves of the Silverveil Sea battered the shores below. Had all the daughters made it across Tideknife? Had any already moved ahead?
My guard stepped into my line of sight, blocking view of the churning sea below. “Do you need water?”
“No, just a breath and we keep moving.”
He dipped his head.
“Do you think any of the competitors have overtaken us?”
The Wolf paused for a moment, head cocking thoughtfully.
“Doubtful. Each boatload of daughters was dropped at a different point to prevent a bloodbath before the hunt even began. As the goddess-blessed bride, you were granted the northernmost starting position. Even with the Alma delay, we should be ahead of the others.”
“Good.”
Again, he withdrew the map from his satchel and laid it out along the ridge.
I crouched beside him, eager for a moment’s rest.
“If we follow this path north from here, we should avoid most of the competition.” His finger traced the jagged cliff line.
“Because it’s the most dangerous?”
His chin dipped. “And most expedient.”
With a grumble, I rose to my feet before the urge to question his motives escaped once again. He had just saved my life. “Let’s go then.”
“After you.” He sketched a bow that looked absolutely ridiculous on such an enormous male.
Still, I refused to give into the laugh threatening to bubble up. Instead, I trudged on and the Black Wolf moved into step at my side.
After what felt like an eternity of silence, we came upon a ring of standing stones. Four arches cut through the enormous boulders hidden in the mists. I paused, eyeing the structure warily.
“That’s the Mist Gate,” my guard announced. “It’s a trick of the eyes.”
“What do you mean?” I took a step forward, but his arm landed across my stomach, preventing further movement.
“Only one archway is a real passage with solid ground. The other three are traps that will drop us into hidden tide pools below. Pick the right one and we cross. Pick wrong and we fall into a flooded pit.”
His possessive hold loosened a notch once I stopped struggling against him.
I moved closer to the gate, boots whispering against the rocks. Then I knelt, pulling a sliver of grass from between the stones and held it in the wind. The blade streamed through one arch and fell dead at all the others. “Here. Wind enters and air leaves. So we take this one.”
The Black Wolf released a grunt of approval and moved first this time.
We passed through the arch together and hit a run of open icy rock that felt blessedly simple after raging water and mist tricks.
Just as we’d hit our stride, a horn rolled from the cliffs behind us.
My stomach dropped.
The hunters were coming.