Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX
W hirling around, I sprint down the street in the other direction. Pounding feet echo behind me as the dragon shifter gives chase.
“Stop her!” he bellows at the citizens on the street.
My heart lurches.
But none of the humans step out into the road to stop me. In fact, after casting a glance towards the man I just saved and the unconscious soldier I left in my wake, they do the opposite. They leap out of my way when I hurtle down the street.
Grabbing the railing of a small porch, I swing myself around the corner of the building and sprint into a narrow alley. I need to make him lose sight of me. My heart thumps in my chest as running footstep pounds against the cobblestones far too close behind me.
I whip my head from side to side, trying to plot out an escape route. Running from pursuers? I’ve done that a hundred times before in the Seelie Court. The only problem is of course that, back then, I knew every street like the back of my hand. And now, I have absolutely no idea where I’m going.
The alley ends abruptly before me. I blink in shock as I skid right out into a wide square full of market stalls and people. And more soldiers in silver armor.
Panic pulses through me. I need to get out of sight before the man behind me can call out and tell them that I?—
“The human in the black cloak!” the soldier behind me shouts. “Stop her!”
Three soldiers in silver armor whip their heads in our direction.
Mabona fucking damn it.
Sprinting to the left, I weave through a sea of market stalls and shocked people who gasp and stumble out of the way as I barrel past them. Colorful awnings on their wooden booths flutter in the wind, and the scent of baking bread and spiced meat drift through the air.
I dart around a wide stall selling meat pies. A sheet of fabric appears right in front of me. Shoving it up, I roll underneath it and jump to my feet at the back of the booth on the other side. A man with large round glasses scrambles out of his chair so fast that he knocks it over. It hits the ground in a clattering of wood.
“Sorry,” I mumble as I duck underneath his shelves full of clocks and pocket watches.
“There!” an angry voice shouts from somewhere on my left.
A soft curse rips from my lungs as I take off down the alley of market stalls. Ducking and twisting through the crowd of people, I set course for the nearest road that leads away from this crowded square.
I let out a breath of relief when I finally detach myself from the last group of people and can run unhindered down the side street I picked.
But I only make it halfway down before dread washes through my veins like ice.
At the end of the road I’m sprinting down is a house.
Panic blares through me.
This is a dead-end street.
Screeching to a halt, I cast a panicked look over my shoulder. There is only a matter of time before the dragon shifters reach this road. And once they do, they will see me.
And I have nowhere to hide.
My heart slams against my ribs as I turn around so that I’m facing the mouth of the street while I continue backing farther towards the dead end. I’m going to have to fight them. Or manipulate their emotions. Or manipulate their emotions and fight them. Four of them.
If only I had my knife. Then I could… Then I could what? Take on four trained dragon shifter soldiers on my own? Goddess above, this is never going to work.
A yelp slips from my lips as a strong hand suddenly wraps around my upper arm and yanks me to the side. My stomach lurches as the ground disappears underneath my foot when I take a step to the side.
Someone curses under his breath next to me, but I don’t have time to look at who it is because I’m busy falling down the short steps into some kind of cellar. The wooden steps dig into my body as I roll down them before I hit the floor with a huff.
Wood groans as the trapdoor I fell through is pulled shut. It’s followed by a soft thud as the man at the top of the steps bolts it with a thick wooden bar as well.
“Ow,” I groan as I roll to a stop against the side of a crate.
The man whips his head towards me and puts a finger against his lips. I snap my mouth shut right as voices echo from somewhere above.
“I swear she ran in here,” someone says.
“Then where is she?” another male voice growls back. This one I recognize. It’s the first shifter who was chasing me. “There’s no one here.”
“If you’re looking for a woman in a black cloak, she pretended to run in here but then she doubled back and took the other road,” a new voice says.
“Which one?”
“The one just to the left there.”
Angry cursing echoes through the air but then grows fainter along with the stomping of boots.
I heave a deep sigh of relief as the soldiers who were hunting me leave to search the other street that some kind soul lied to them about. Pushing to my feet, I turn towards the other kind soul who saved me.
A human man with thin brown hair and a scraggly beard walks down the steps to the stone floor of the cellar. His blue eyes look me up and down in an assessing, but not hostile, way.
“I saw what you did for ol’ Jerry back there,” he says. “Was watching from the roof, ya see.”
“Thank you for hiding me,” I reply as I dust myself off and straighten my clothes.
“Mm-hmm.” He scratches at his beard as he comes to a halt in front of me. “Got very strange eyes, you have. Don’t look like no dragon shifter I’ve ever seen. So who are ya?”
Hesitation blows through me for a second. Revealing who I am might be risky. But at the same time, I need to find the human resistance as fast as possible. And if this guy was willing to hide me from the Silver Clan soldiers, he must at least share some of the same sentiments as the resistance. He might even be one of them. Or at least know how to contact them.
“I, uhm…” Worry flickers through me, but I ignore it and instead reach up to push my hood back. “I’m not a dragon shifter.”
He sucks in a sharp breath between crooked teeth. Stumbling a step back, he stares at me with wide eyes. Or not me. Rather, he stares at my pointed ears.
“Y-you, you’re one of them fae, ain’t ya?” he manages to press out at last.
I nod. “Yes.”
“Father Almighty.”
I have no idea who Father Almighty is, but he says it the same way that I curse using our Goddess Mabona’s name, so I’m assuming that it must be the human god.
“Well, ain’t this something to shock my socks off,” he says while shaking his head at me in disbelief. “How did you even manage to get into the city? Ain’t all of yous supposed to be in some forest leagues from here?”
“Yeah, I, uhm…”
Goddess above, how am I supposed to summarize everything that has happened to me these last few weeks? How much does he even know?
“Do you know anything about the Atonement Trials?” I ask instead.
“Them competitions where they pick their life slaves?” He smacks his lips and nods. “Yep. Heard the rumors, I have.”
“Okay…” I trail off, trying to figure out how to phrase this. In the end, I decide to just say it. “I’m one of them.”
Blood drains from his face and he takes a step back. “You…? You’re one of their life slaves?”
“I was. I escaped.”
“Father Almighty.” Running a hand through his beard, he tugs at the tangled hairs on his chin. “Whose?”
“Draven Ryat’s.”
His hand falls away from his beard as he stares at me. “The Shadow of Death? You’re his?”
“I was ,” I repeat. “I escaped.”
“Aw, woman. This is… You’ve gotta come with me. Quick.”
Taking a step around me, he waves frantically with his hand while he hurries across the cellar floor and towards a door set into the wall on my right.
Hope surges inside me. He does know the resistance. He has to. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be reacting like this.
With excitement coursing through my veins, I jog after him. Metallic clicking echoes between the stone walls of the cellar as he unlocks the door and pulls it open.
“Hurry,” he calls, and casts an impatient glance over his shoulder. “Ain’t got much time.”
I pick up the pace as he disappears across the threshold. My feet thud against the stones as I hurry into the room after him.
Blinking, I come to a halt. It looks like some kind of storage room. Wooden crates are stacked floor to ceiling, and it’s dark. The only light comes from the torches that were set into the wall of the main room we just left. And the man is nowhere to be seen.
“Where…” I begin right as something creaks behind me.
I whip around.
But it’s already too late.
The man, who was apparently hiding behind the wall right next to the door, has already darted back out and thrown the door shut behind him. I sprint towards it and throw my shoulder against the wood right as a metallic click sounds.
Utter darkness now fills the room.
“What are you doing?” I scream at him through the door as I bang my fist against the wood.
“The only smart thing there is,” he replies from the other side. “I’m gonna give you back to the Shadow of Death and beg him for his mercy.”
“No!” I slam my fist against the door again. “Don’t do this! You can’t?—”
“Have to. If he found out that I hid you… That I helped you… He’d slaughter everyone I’ve ever spoken to.”
Summoning my magic, I shove desperately at the spark of sympathy in his chest. But it’s not there.
“Please,” I beg, trying to create a spark of sympathy that I can manipulate. “He’s going to kill me. He’s going to torture me. You can’t give me back to him. Please. I’m begging you.”
I push frantically at his sympathy again. But my lies have apparently not been enough to create any. I slam my hand against the door.
No sound comes from the other side.
Dread washes over me when I realize that he must have already left.
Wood groans in distress as I pound hard on the door and throw my shoulder against it over and over. But the door refuses to move.
“Coward!” I scream at the man who is no longer there. “You fucking coward!”
I try everything, put everything I have into it, but no matter what I do, I can’t get the door open.
Something between a sob and a scream rips from my throat as I sink down to the floor and brace my back against the cold stone wall.
Goddess fucking damn him.
Goddess fucking damn it all.
Why can I never catch a fucking break?