Chapter 20
Chapter
Twenty
GRAYSON
Pierce and I limped toward the clearing, both of us aching and bone tired.
We’d encountered a pack of wolven and had fought, our backs pressed together, until they were all dead.
We were bloodied. We were alive. And we were worried. Had another pack attacked Teal and Flynn?
Slowly—every muscle in my neck and shoulders screamed—I turned my head and studied my brother in arms.
He’d received a head wound, and his face was streaked with blood and sweat. He didn’t seem to care. Instead, he was focused on reaching Teal and Flynn.
I rubbed at the tightness in my chest. The wolven had been strong, and their numbers—well, we’d gotten lucky.
Above us, the sky lightened from purple to lemon, and I sent a silent prayer. Please, Jano, let us find them safe and unharmed. I didn’t hold out much hope. After all, the god had never answered me before. “What if—”
“No,” Pierce snapped. “Don’t think like that. They’re fine. They’re all fine.” He meant Flynn and Teal and the shield.
I gave a brief nod and trudged toward the clearing.
“Do you smell that?”
I sniffed the air. “What?”
“Smoke.” Pierce, who’d sustained a deep gouge in his left leg, sped to an uneven jog.
I followed him and wrinkled my nose. Not just smoke. The stench of the grave. Wraiths.
We raced toward the clearing. “What the—”
“Fuck,” Pierce finished.
A burning vortex spun in the center of the clearing.
“Where are they?” Pierce scanned the circle of charred trees before pointing at the flames. “And what is that?”
I edged closer to the swirling fire and yelled, “Flynn? Teal?”
“Grayson?” It was Flynn’s voice.
The fire flickered, slowly dying out as the wind subsided. Flynn, Teal, and the shield stood unscathed at what had been the vortex’s center. The shield, who held her hands out in front of her as if she’d created the whirlwind, wobbled.
“Flynn!” I barked.
He looked at me, ignoring the shield at his side. She fell to the ground, and I winced as her head hit the hard-packed earth.
“Fuck!” Teal knelt and pulled her into his arms. His body curved protectively around her, like a physical shield. He glared at Flynn. “Why didn’t you catch her?”
Flynn scowled back. “Why didn’t you?”
“You were standing right next to her.”
“You were paying attention.”
“Enough!” After the night we’d just survived, I didn’t have the patience for bickering. “What the fuck happened here?”
Teal looked up from gently brushing a strand of blonde hair away from the shield’s forehead. His touch lingered longer than necessary, and his hand trembled slightly. “She saved us.”
“Come again?” Stress had me clinching my jaw, and pain radiated from my neck down my back.
Teal nodded. “Actually, she saved Flynn twice.”
Flynn’s shoulders slumped as he kicked the ashy ground. “Fuck you, Teal.”
“She did. The first time when the wolven attacked, the second time when the wraiths tried to suck your soul.”
“She saved herself. I was conveniently nearby.” Flynn was upset that she’d saved him?
“Maybe with the wraiths. But the wolven? She totally saved your ass. You should be grateful.”
A bitter laugh escaped Flynn’s lips. “Yeah, the woman we nearly killed saved my life. There’s some fucking irony for you. I guess that means I owe her.” There. That was the problem. Women owed Flynn, never the other way round.
“How?” I demanded. “How did she save you?” She was a shield. I’d refused her a weapon. How had she done it?
Teal’s lips thinned to a tight line.
It was Flynn who replied. His lips twisted into a wry grin as he said, “The princess has been keeping secrets.”
Acid churned in my empty stomach. “What kind of secrets?”
“Ice spears, the power to control the wind, the power to control fire.”
I gaped at the unconscious shield. Ice spears? Wind control? Fire magic? My mind reeled. No one possessed multiple elemental abilities. It was impossible. Magic didn’t work that way. Flynn’s candid expression told me he wasn’t lying, but I still looked to Teal for confirmation.
He nodded.
Ignoring the elephant in the clearing, Pierce asked, “How badly is she hurt?” His voice was rougher than usual, and he’d fixed his pale gaze on the crimson trickling from Haven’s hairline. “She’s bleeding.”
Teal looked down at her waxen face, and his own cheeks went pale. “Oh. I—oh.”
Pierce’s hands clenched and unclenched at his sides. Something about seeing her hurt had snuck past his defenses. The man who never lost control looked ready to explode.
Flynn frowned at the woman draped across Teal’s legs. “It’s probably just a scratch. She passed out because she’s exhausted. No need to be so dramatic.”
Pierce took a step forward, invading Flynn’s space.
His pale eyes had gone ice-cold, angry—no, furious.
And there was something more, something that burned beneath his ire—something that looked almost possessive.
Then he shook his head and blinked, almost as if he were shaking off a spell.
“Did you, or did you not, dictate your last will and testament the last time you needed stitches?”
“Just for bringing that up, you can forget about getting that dagger with the ruby in the hilt. I’m amending my will and leaving it to Grayson.”
Pierce rolled his eyes before fixing his gaze on Teal. “How badly is she injured?”
Teal pushed back her hair, revealing a gash on the side of her head. Perfect. Just perfect. She was injured again. On my watch.
With gentle fingers, Teal probed the wound. “It’s not deep.”
“Still more than a scratch.” The corner of Pierce’s left eye twitched.
Pierce was calm. Pierce was cool. Pierce was collected. He didn’t have tics. Until now.
He turned his gaze on Flynn. “You should have caught her.”
“Look, can we not talk about how completely I fucked up tonight? Some of us are having a crisis here.” The tightness near Flynn’s mouth belied his flippant tone. Did he feel guilty? Because guilt and regret were not Flynn’s things. He did as he pleased, to hell with the consequences.
What was happening to the men I called brothers? Whatever it was, I didn’t like it. “We ride. Now.”
“Now?” Teal’s question was a challenge in disguise.
We’d barely survived the night. And that was when we were well rested. We couldn’t spend a second night in the forest. Wounded and exhausted, we’d make easy pickings for the wolven or wraiths. Not to mention that pesky arrive-on-time-or-die problem. “We ride.”
“What about Haven?” he demanded.
I turned to face him. “We’ll take turns carrying her. The horses?”
Teal pressed the pads of his fingers into the earth, and the barn he’d created with vines appeared. He scrunched his eyes shut, and the doors opened, revealing the five horses.
“I don’t get why you can do that for the horses but not for us.” Flynn sounded annoyed.
Teal shook his head. “There’s something about the magic in these woods. It won’t let me protect myself.” He glared at the trees. “I hate this place.”
We quickly saddled our mounts, then I climbed atop Caspian, and Pierce lifted the shield into my arms. She really was a pretty thing.
Even unconscious and bloodied, there was something about her that made it hard to look away.
Dangerous thinking. Especially dangerous when she kept secret after impossible secret.
What else was she hiding? “Let’s get out of this fucking forest before it kills us. ”