4. Allie
Allie
The frozen streets were thankfully empty, everyone shielding themselves in their homes after the attack in the passage.
Still, my gaze jumped to every small window we snuck under, in case someone got curious at the wrong time.
“Are you sure the wings are safe there?” Dax hurried alongside me through the back streets of Solkar’s Reach, both of our shoulders slumped against the biting wind.
“Yes.” I wouldn’t have left the Protectorate crown there otherwise. I drew my hood closer to my stinging cheeks.
“That fellow out front was interesting,” he said. “Liked his golden cane. He has style.”
“Be thankful you weren’t the one who had to distract him.” While Dax had crept past the massive wooden door, the guardian had gone on and on about the proper candles for the Seventh Day ritual and how I needed to keep a stack of them on me at all times.
Just in case.
I didn’t know which situation would absolutely require candles, but now I knew the proper wick length to keep them burning all night.
“I still think we should have brought them with us,” Dax said between chattering teeth. “How can it be so much colder in the city than in the forest?”
“Get used to it,” I said. “And your arrival at the fortress will already cause a stir, best to do it without unexplainable contraptions.”
“Come on, it can’t be that bad. I’m just one person, not a whole battalion.”
He wasn’t getting it.
Of course he wasn’t.
Dax was used to his charming smile allowing him to stroll past enemy lines and into the most guarded strongholds in Malhaven.
“The people in Solkar’s Reach aren’t used to outsiders,” I pressed, catching his gaze. “And they won’t take kindly to you appearing out of thin air, a day after the entrance has been attacked, when the Commander isn’t here to vouch for you.”
I needed to get him to the fortress and officially presented before someone caught sight of him traipsing on the streets. Any inkling of subterfuge could snowball into whispers and rumors we did not need right now.
Also, selfishly, I wanted Ryker to meet Dax.
Yes, as the Commander, he needed to know my cousin had infiltrated the impenetrable crater, and he could ask Dax questions about details I couldn’t even begin to guess.
But a bigger, louder part of me longed to bring my two worlds together.
The old and the new, as fractured as each of them was.
Maybe, together, they’d create one full life–if I managed to blend them properly and not let them fracture each other beyond repair.
The idea of even one member of my family meeting Ryker also unleashed flutters in my stomach, both excited and cautious.
I sort of wanted to show him off, as trivial and ridiculous as that sounded.
This man who could command a battlefield with a glance and silence a room with one word.
Who had immense powers swirling in his veins and still chose restraint and the good of his own people above all else.
I had no clue how I’d present him as, though.
Lover seemed too much and not enough at the same time. We’d only shared a bed for one glorious night, the echo of which still made my cheeks burn and my power purr.
That lone word sounded like stolen, illicit moments, not a grand plan for the future.
Future husband was too formal and finite for the tentative connection we had. Fiance was even worse; it sounded too much like the naive, hopeful Allie who’d fallen in love with a charming merchant’s son.
Letting my heart open again still felt dangerous. I couldn’t fall if I wasn’t sure I would be caught and cradled.
Partner?
That word lingered. The closest explanation to the shared burden resting on both of our shoulders, though it lacked all the passion simmering through my veins.
It swayed my thoughts like waves. As if Ryker was the moon, commanding them closer to him, when I least expected it.
It was a strange sensation, and it did nothing to help that pulse at the back of my skull, dull and insistent, which only increased the closer we got to the fortress.
“You know, for a frozen city secluded from the rest of the world, these buildings look very uninviting. Grey as their sky,” Dax murmured, clearly in a mood as sour as the weather. “Those eaves look sturdy enough to hang from in an emergency, though.”
“Always looking for escape routes.” I shook my head. “You need to see them from the front, they’re much more beautiful. The civilians hang twigs and ribbons in their windows to ward off evil spirits.”
“That’s one way to keep unwanted visitors away.” Dax raised his snow-flecked brow. “Is there a chance I won’t be allowed inside the fortress?”
I hesitated for only a moment. “No. The Commander gave me full rein to do whatever I want, and–”
I froze as the sound of paws and claws thumped through the hiss of the wind.
I whirled around only to see two of those massive wolves tracking us. Noses high as they sniffed out scents. Mouths open to show off their fangs.
Just like Dax had jumped in front of me when the wings had unfurled, I positioned my body between him and the wolves.
My city, my responsibility to protect–even if I still felt like a guest myself.
The memory of these predators chasing Nadya and me down sunk into the back of my head, sliding down my shoulders and tensing every muscle in its wake.
“Two houses up ahead, we take a sharp left, then a right, and run until we reach the fortress,” I whispered, skin crawling as the wolves came closer. Their paws glided easily over the frozen cobblestone, ready to strike.
Where was the purple light to scare them off when you needed it?
“Are you serious?” Dax asked.
“Yes,” I hissed, taking a cautious, calculated step back. “These beasts hate strangers and attack–”
“You’re The Huntress. I am staring at your bow.”
“I’m not going to kill them.”
I simply didn’t want them to kill me. Their brethren from the fancy kennels beside the fortress might’ve been trained to tolerate Nadya and I, but these ones kept sniffing at the air in a way I didn’t like.
“On the count of three,” I said. “We run.”
The wind hissed through the houses, billowing our coats.
“Hold on.” Dax crouched low on the ground, trying to give me a heart attack.
“What are you doing?” I whispered, terrified and already calling on my power. From that low position, the wolves could sink their fangs into his neck without any effort.
Dax clicked his tongue and reached out his open palm. “Making friends.”
To my amazement, the two massive beasts waddled up to him, wet noses snorting as they slid along his fingers.
As my blue tendrils wound around my wrists, ready to scare, the wolves’ tails began wagging.
Before I knew it, one had put its front paws on Dax’s shoulders, almost toppling him over, while the other licked his face.
“Yes, such vicious beasts.” Dax laughed, petting their heads as if those fangs couldn’t rip his face off. “Someone save me, they might cuddle me to death.”
My hands fell to my sides.
Dax had loved dogs and they’d loved him back ever since he could walk, I knew that. The only time I’d ever seen him shed a tear was when he’d lost Patrocle, his furry, faithful companion for fifteen years.
But this display of sudden cuteness, the tail wags, the laughing–it should have been impossible.
The wolves didn’t even bother with me beyond a sniff and an uninterested side-eye.
No fear, no ravenous need to sink their teeth into my flesh.
They didn’t know I was The Huntress.
Or they didn’t care.
“They’re supposed to hunt down outsiders,” I mumbled, flustered for overreacting. “They chased me down.”
“This proves I’m more charming than you. Aren’t I?” He snuggled their furry cheeks and kissed their snouts.
Madness.
“Maybe they’re part of the fortress wolves,” I said with no real conviction. Those wolves lived like some kings wished they could and never strayed far from their kennels. They’d also seemed larger when they’d carried our sleds to the edge of the crater.
“Dogs can sense someone’s soul. They know you’re trouble,” he joked. “Don’t be jealous they like me more than you.”
“I am weirdly jealous.” He’d been here for less than an hour and he got tail wags, while I’d gotten chased down. I tilted my head to the side. “I’m also concerned.”
Dax furrowed his brows up at me while the wolves pushed each other out of the way to wiggle themselves into his lap. “Why?”
I narrowed my eyes at him, then at the darkening sky. Mean clouds gathered in the distance. A warning. “Because your presence here defies all the rules this crater should have.”