Chapter Twenty-Seven
Calista
“Hunters!” Everest growled before he jammed his helm back on.
I was already moving toward the narrow window slit cut into the upper wall. The room sat high enough that I could see the broken path winding up the slope below, the world beyond it blurred by snow and moonlit dark. For one wild, desperate moment, I saw nothing at all.
Maybe they hadn’t seen us.
The wind screamed around the tower, hurling rain in sheets.
My pulse thudded harder.
Behind me, Everest said nothing, but I could feel the shift in him. Alert. Listening. Muscles coiled.
Shapes began to form beyond the rain, dark blots at first, then larger, sharper, unmistakably hunters. One shape became two. Then three, emerging and disappearing between gusts.
“Oh, gods,” I whispered.
“They’re coming.”
“Maybe we should leave. Now. Take the back slope before they box us in.”
His gaze remained fixed outside. “And run blind into that?”
I looked back out. The storm had only worsened. The cliffs beyond the tower were little more than shifting white and black, a sheer drop slick with rain. One misstep in the dark and the cliffs would kill us faster than any hunter could.
My fingers tightened around the hilts of my crescents.
“We hold the stairs,” Everest growled. “If anyone touches you with a bind, you cut it and scream for me.”
I forced myself to stand straighter. “I know the law.”
“I am the law tonight.” He set himself on the steps, half a turn below me, a wall of black iron and breath. “Stay behind me.”
My fingers wrapped tight around my blades. “I can still fight, Everest.”
“I know, but please, let me help you.”
I finally nodded, reluctantly.
The minutes churned. My heart drummed against my ribs. Rain pelted the glass, an endless countdown.
They came fast.
The Nightreef hunter hit the broken door first, silent as a tide sliding in over black rock. A hook flashed from the dark.
Everest caught the line on his bracer, but before the hunter could yank him off balance, I lunged past him and hacked down with one crescent. Sparks spat where iron bit iron. The hook-line snapped, recoiling into the hunter’s face hard enough to make him curse.
He pushed his way up the stairs low and fast, knife reversed and eyes fixed on me.
“Calista, Dax is—”
“I can handle him.” I kicked out at the hunter’s leading knee. He twisted just enough to save the joint, but it threw off his angle. Everest used the opening instantly, stepping into his space and driving him hard into the railing. Bone cracked against wood.
“Second horn for bind,” the hunter hissed, shaking off the hit and trying to surge past him again.
I slashed for his hand before he could reach me. My blade skimmed his knuckles, drawing blood. He snarled.
“Touch her,” Everest said, voice flat as winter stone, “and you won’t hear the third.”
Nightreef paused, as if considering the threat, then stumbled back a few steps.
The Ironcliff hunter appeared on the stairs next with a shield, trying to wedge the narrow stair with his body. He slammed into Everest chest-first and shoved.
As Everest gave ground one step, then another, I darted along the inside curve of the stair and slashed low at the shield straps. It wasn’t quite enough to sever them, but enough to loosen the leather and make the hunter glance down.
That was all Everest needed. He shifted sideways, letting Ironcliff’s bulk crash into Nightreef’s knife arm.
“Careful, Heathcliff,” Everest drawled, even as he blocked another rush. “Or Dax will take your prize. And gods help us all if Nixon wins the bride and Selraya’s gift.”
Ironcliff snarled and shoved harder. Nightreef swore as the shield rim smashed his wrist against the wall.
I drove my shoulder into the back of Ironcliff’s shield, and the extra force tipped the balance. Nightreef lunged and Ironcliff twisted. The two of them tangled together and went crashing down the stairs in a snarling mass of armor and limbs.
For one heartbeat, the stair belonged to us again. Then Gloomheath’s hunter appeared, wet and fast, a leather moonbraid already looped in his hand.
Gods, damn it.
He lunged straight for me.
I slashed first.
One crescent caught the braid and dragged it wide. The other cut for his wrist. He jerked back, but not fast enough. Blood flashed dark across his glove.
He came again.
Everest moved at the same instant, but I was already in it now, ducking under the grab and driving my elbow hard into the male’s ribs. He grunted, surprised enough that Everest caught his wrist mid-reach and twisted.
Bone popped, and the moonbraid dropped. The scream ricocheted down the stairs.
Heathcliff tried to use the opening from below, storming up again with his shield half-loose and murder in his eyes.
I snatched the fallen moonbraid first.
Everest shoved Gloomheath straight into Ironcliff’s charge, and both males slammed together chest to chest. I flicked the braid low, tangling it around Ironcliff’s ankle just as he tried to regain his footing.
He went down hard.
Gloomheath followed him with a curse and an elbow to the face.
“Again?” I said breathlessly. “They really are stupid enough to do our work for us.”
Everest’s helm turned a fraction toward me. “Stay sharp.”
Dax came back up the stairs then, blood on his hand and murder on his face. His blade flashed for my thigh.
I caught his wrist on the flat of one crescent, twisted, and drove the heel of my boot into his chest. He stumbled back a step, but his blade still nicked my skin. A hot line opened along my thigh. I didn’t even feel it at first.
But Everest did. Everything in him changed.
A dark heat seemed to roll up his spine, settling into the space around him until the air itself seemed to grow teeth. “You made her bleed,” he snarled.
Nightreef smiled like a fool. Idiot.
The Black Wolf stepped into his space and hammered the hunter’s knife hand against the stone until the blade skittered.
A headbutt cracked helm to brow. The Nightreef hunter reeled, blood spattered across his forehead.
Everest hooked his boot behind the man’s ankle and dropped him to a knee.
“You broke the law,” he growled, and drove the hilt of his knife into Nightreef’s throat.
“And now I’ll have to break you.” The man gagged and went limp.
Ironcliff roared and charged up again, shield first.
I whipped the moonbraid around the shield rim and yanked with both hands, dragging it off line. Everest caught the edge and wrenched. The loosened straps tore free completely, and suddenly Heathcliff was blind behind his own shield.
Gloomheath, wild with pain and fury, swung wildly and hit Ironcliff square in the side of the head.
The two hunters turned on each other with gratifying speed.
“See?” Everest said almost conversationally. “This is why no one respects your Court, Niall.”
Ironcliff ripped the shield free and bashed Gloomheath across the mouth. Gloomheath, or Niall, stabbed low and sloppy. The two of them went crashing back down the next flight, cursing and striking and bleeding over the stone.
Nightreef tried to rise again, clutching at his throat.
I was on him before Everest had the chance.
“Down,” I snapped, and kicked the loose moonbraid straight into his reaching hand.
It snagged around his wrist instead of his fingers. He jerked back to free it, lost his footing on the blood-slick step, and went hurtling backward. His skull cracked the landing below with a sickening sound.
He didn’t get up again.
I killed him. I should have felt pity, remorse. Something. Instead, I felt only numb. For one suspended heartbeat, the tower went still except for the storm outside and the rough sound of our breathing.
My thigh burned now. Blood ran warm beneath the torn fabric. My hands shook with effort and cold and the brutal rush of it all.
Everest stepped in front of me, putting his body between mine and the stair, breath loud behind the black wolf helm.
I hated how relieved I was to let him. I wiped one crescent on my sleeve and looked down the stairs where the surviving hunters were still snarling at each other. Hopefully, they’d kill each other off.
Everest’s head turned just enough that I caught the flash of his blue eyes through the slits. “I told you to stay behind me.”
“And let you have all the fun? I think not,” I rasped, crescents still tight in my fists.
“You never make anything easy, do you?”
I bared my teeth. “You say that like it’s a flaw.”
Below us, Gloomheath and Ironcliff finally broke apart, both bleeding and panting.
“How far you’ve fallen, brother,” Heathcliff snarled at my guard. “From the legendary Black Wolf to babysitting a wolfless outcast.”
“The things we do for duty.”
“The Savage isn’t the only Alpha in Lunaris, Wolf. Let me take the bride, and upon my word, Ironcliff will reward you handsomely.”
“Hmm.” Everest rubbed at his chin.
“Sampson is a strong Alpha. With the bride’s gift, he’s more than capable of uniting Lunaris just as Savage has. He’d do it better even. Perhaps, there’s even a position as Beta for you.”
“Beta, you say?” Everest cocked his head.
“Yes. And all the females you can handle. You know how they go wild over a male in a powerful position.”
“You know, maybe you’re right, old friend. Only a few nights and already I’ve grown tired of this.” He ticked his head in my direction. “Maybe there could be more for me than simply guarding a Hollow bride.”
Everest’s callous words sliced through my ribs, the icy tone cracking through the wall I’d spent years building.
This was all a ploy… right?
“Much more,” said Heathcliff with a sneer.
“What about Gloomheath?” asked the other hunter. “We would also like an opportunity to win the bride.”
“Let’s play a game then. First one to best the other will be allowed to set a lawful bind on her.” Everest lifted his chin toward me. “I promise not to interfere.”
For a second, they both froze, brows furrowed. As did I. They glanced at each other then at Everest.