CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT TREW #2
“And you implied…” I growled but grinned. Leave it to my Minx to tease me at a time like this. “I lied when I said I didn’t trust you. Even then, I did.”
“You did not,” she scoffed.
“We met under unusual circumstances.”
“Me behind a mask, pretending to be a lady dispensing mercy.”
“You’ve always had mercy; you just weren’t strong enough yet to wield it.”
“I’m strong enough now.”
“You are. You’re stronger than me. I wanted to die when you didn’t wake up.”
She climbed onto my lap, straddling me, holding my face to make me meet her eye. “You don’t get to do that, do you hear me? If something happens to me, you go on.”
“There’s no going on for me without you, Isi. I mean it.”
Her shoulders slumped. “I understand because it’s the same for me.”
“Then we live for each other.”
She gave me a jerky nod, then winced because it must’ve hurt her head.
Her laugh came soft and pained. “I really did stab you by accident, you know.”
“I do know. That doesn’t make the memory less perfect.” I stroked her hair, careful around the bandage. “I knew in that moment you’d destroy me or save me. It turned out you did both.”
“That sounds dramatic.”
“You love it.”
“I love you.” She rose up to kiss me, soft and sweet despite our circumstances. “Even when you’re being insufferably protective and heroic.”
“You need to look in a mirror, Minx.”
“I will once we’re free.”
Shouts rang out outside. And utter chaos.
Screaming.
Running feet.
“Fire! The market’s on fire!”
Isi and I scrambled to our feet, pressing against the wall to hear better. Smoke began seeping through the cracks in the shed, making us cough.
“What’s happening?” Isi asked.
“I don’t know, but—”
The door burst open.
Coralee stood in the entrance, her sword bloody and her expression fierce. “Move. Now.”
Magic flooded back into me like a dam breaking. The connection with Gavelle snapped into place, his relief and rage pouring through our bond. I grabbed Isi’s hand and we ran.
The village was in disarray. Flames engulfed a series of low buildings in the square, and people ran with buckets, shouting for help. Coralee’s ermine darted ahead, leading us through the confusion.
“The princess.” Someone spotted us. “She’s escaping!”
Villagers turned, their desperation for the reward overriding worry about the fire. A man lunged at Isi with a club. I caught his arm, twisting until bone snapped, and threw him into two others trying to flank us.
Isi moved beside me, dropping low, sweeping a foot across a woman’s legs, knocking her down. She darted upright, elbowing a man in the throat.
A roar split the air. Gavelle raced toward us in firecat form with Pherin, scattering villagers like leaves in a stiff wind. Pherin’s copper eyes blazed as she positioned herself between Isi and anyone stupid enough to approach.
“This way!” Coralee led us toward the village edge where shadows moved. Maddox and Malcolm materialized from their cover, and our dragons waited in a small meadow not far beyond.
“About time you joined us again,” Maddox called out, his sword swinging to block an arrow meant for my back.
I wanted to raze the village with magic. Overturn every stone, rip off every roof, and seek vengeance against every person who’d touched her.
The wanting was so clean and absolute it frightened me.
But I needed the power for the people who actually mattered.
An arrow grazed my shoulder. I barely felt it, too focused on getting Isi to safety. She stumbled once, her head wound making her movements less certain than usual, but she kept going.
We reached the dragons, and I helped Isi onto Lakast’s back, settling behind her. The others mounted quickly, Gavelle and Pherin shifting to their smaller forms to fly up into the sky.
“Go!” I shouted.
The dragons launched skyward as rocks and arrows filled the air. Lakast’s wings thundered, carrying us away from the villagers.
I wrapped my arms around Isi, holding her tight as we climbed. Gavelle’s fierce satisfaction flamed through me.
Once we’d gained enough altitude to be safe from pursuit, Coralee brought her dragon alongside ours.
“How?” I called over the wind.
“I disguised myself as a peasant woman and walked into town, shouting about selling mushrooms,” she called back.
“My companion scouted until we found the shed. I couldn’t break the dampening wards, so I had to get creative.
” A fierce grin crossed her face. “I caused a little distraction. Then I tackled someone and convinced them to show me where they hid the key.”
“You came for us alone,” Isi said, wonder in her voice.
“We couldn’t risk more of us, and we weren’t leaving you behind.” Coralee’s ermine climbed back to her shoulder. “We need to address provisions for the prisoners. When we reach them, some will be in no condition to go without food.”
“We can raid the castle’s kitchens,” Naveah said.
Coralee’s eyes lit up. “I like that idea.”
“Then we’ll incorporate that into our plan,” I said, and everyone nodded.
We flew hard, putting distance between us and the village. Only when we’d cleared the immediate danger did I let myself examine Isi’s head wound. The bleeding had stopped, and the injury was already healing.
“I’m fine,” she said, reading my concern.
“You’re not. But you will be.” I touched her face, desperate for the contact. “We need to discuss what comes next.”
Malcolm brought his dragon close enough we could hear him when he shouted. “We’ve lost time. The Day of Mercy is tomorrow afternoon.”
The words settled like rocks in my gut. There was no time to rest or recover. We’d have to fly straight through and carry out our plan exhausted or not at all. And once we’d rescued them, we had to turn around and flee toward Syllavar.
“Can you do this?” I asked Isi quietly. “Tell me true. Can you make this flight and participate in this mission with your head wound? Because if you can’t, we’re—”
“I’m doing this.” Her jaw set with that familiar stubbornness. “I’m not stopping.”
“We don’t have time to be tired,” I said, loud enough for everyone to hear. “We have time to save them or time to let them die. Choose.”
“Save them,” Maddox said immediately.
“Agreed,” Malcolm said with a sharp nod.
Coralee grunted. “I refuse to let them kill people with magic.”
Isi leaned back in my arms. “We’ll finish what we started, then.”
Twenty-three lives depended on us reaching Caldrith before tomorrow afternoon. The plan would have to be simple, fast, and more desperate than we’d originally designed.
But we’d do it anyway.
Because the alternative was unthinkable.