Chapter Twenty-Five
Twenty-Five
“Giles?” I call out.
“Shh,” Shaye hisses. “Don’t make any noise.”
“But—”
“Ride next to Davien,” she commands, leaving no room for questioning. I do as I’m told.
“Shouldn’t we look for him?” I whisper.
“No. He knows what he needs to do. Just like we have to press on. We came here on a mission, one we can’t deviate from.”
I look over my shoulder. My stomach knots at the idea of leaving him behind.
Shouldn’t Shaye want to charge after him?
Doesn’t she care about him? Her love for him is just like all the love I’ve ever known—it’s dependent entirely on his use to her.
When he is no longer useful or becomes a detriment to her, he’s cast aside.
“We should pick up the pace,” Davien says. He turns to face me. “Stay close to me, all right?”
I nod. “You don’t have to worry about me, I can keep up.”
“Good.”
Whatever pleasure I might’ve gained from his confidence in my skill on a horse is quickly gobbled up by the worry that’s consuming me.
It’s as if Giles were never there. I look behind us, and the wet earth has completely filled in the hoof prints.
We’re not even leaving a trail he could follow.
I hold my compass tighter; it might be the only thing that keeps me from wandering these woods until I die.
Shaye charges ahead, and Davien and I stay close behind. The skeletal trees that whiz past us have me jumping in my saddle. They come out of nowhere, a shadowy blur, and then they’re gone.
My stomach knots. I hold on to the reins and the compass for dear life. I scan the mist for a sign of anyone or anything.
In the blur of shadowed trees, I see a humanlike form.
“Did you see that?” I ask them both.
“See what?” Davien contorts himself to look where I’m pointing.
“There was a person there.”
“It was probably a tree.”
“I swear there was someone,” I insist.
“Keep riding,” Shaye snaps at us. “Focus only on that.”
I check my compass. We’re still headed due north. “How much longer do we think this will be?”
“At least another hour of riding,” Davien answers grimly.
Another hour in the soupy fog. Another hour to give whatever took Giles a chance to get us too. Maybe Giles merely got separated. Maybe. But even as I try to think that, I know that’s not the case. There’s no way he could’ve gotten separated from us by accident.
There’s something out there, stealthy, silent, hunting us. Somehow managing to track us even through all the fog.
I shudder. If only I could use the magic that was within me. If only I were able to learn how to hone it, focus it, fight with it. Instead, all I can do is try to put that magic in Davien’s hands as fast as possible so we can save this land.
A blur of motion startles me. I pull hard on the reins and tilt, causing my horse to protest loudly, rearing and stomping. We slam into Davien and his mount, but luckily, his feet stay in the stirrups.
“What the—”
Before he can be mad at me, a breeze follows the slash of a weapon as it cuts through the air in the space Davien and I just occupied. Someone with black hair, like the shadows that radiate off the Butcher’s cowl, streaked with white that almost matches the pallor of her skin. My eyes meet Allor’s.
I hate that I was right.
Allor plunges into the mist at our left, completely obscured in an instant.
“We’re under attack!” Davien gets Shaye’s attention. No sooner does he say it than Allor plunges from the mist once more.
I thrust my palm into Davien, pushing him from his saddle. It’s sheer luck that the blade of shadow Allor is wielding only nicks my side. The sharp pain startles me; I lose my balance and tumble down between the horses. Allor vaults over me.
The stomping feet of the startled mounts rumble the earth.
I roll, covering my head with both my hands, trying to make myself as small a target as possible.
One of the horses lets out a scream as Allor plunges her blade into its haunch.
I scramble away before the mount comes crashing down.
As I find my feet, I grab the other horse’s reins.
She’s not going to take our only way to escape if I have anything to say about it.
“No, you don’t,” Allor snarls. I hold out my hand, willing magic to come to my aid.
But nothing happens as the woman lunges.
Davien moves in my periphery, but Shaye is faster.
She leaps off her saddle, twists in the air, and tackles Allor to the ground.
The women roll as the remaining two horses stomp around them.
“You traitor,” Shaye snarls. Allor is trying to fight against the pin Shaye has her in.
“Shaye—” Davien sprints over to Shaye
She stops him in his tracks with a sharp look. “You two go! Leave her to me.”
Allor breaks free and thrusts upward with a dagger made of shadow. Shaye ducks and knocks Allor’s arm away, forearm to forearm. Allor reaches across and grabs Shaye’s shoulder, and her leg frees and wraps around Shaye’s body. They grapple.
“Go!” Shaye locks eyes with me. The command isn’t to Davien. It’s instantly clear she’s charging me with the care of her king while she stays behind. I’m stuck in place, too stunned to move. “Go!”
I move, swinging up onto the stallion that was Davien’s. He is moving toward Shaye as she grapples with Allor. I pull my foot from the stirrup closest to him and hold out my hand.
“Davien!”
“You’re not escaping!” Allor shouts, pushing Shaye off her. The Butcher regains her footing in a blur, using the momentum to hurl a projectile toward us. I kick the horse and maneuver it deftly out of the way as Davien dodges.
Shaye lunges from the fog, clawed gloves made of shadow covering her hands. She goes for Allor’s throat, misses, and connects with her shoulder. My stomach churns at the gore.
“Davien,” I repeat loudly, getting his attention. His gaze darts from Shaye to me and back.
“Damn. You. Go!” Shaye snarls, barely managing words between Allor’s relentless attacks.
Davien is finally moved to action. But he doesn’t move for Shaye; he sprints to me as I round the horse to meet him, the fog continuing to part as I turn.
“Move,” he says.
“I’m the better rider, get behind me,” I snap back.
I can’t believe he’d even think otherwise.
Luckily, Davien is startled for only a moment, and then he obliges.
He throws his foot in the stirrup I moved my foot from and swings into the saddle behind me.
We shift, finding our places. “Hold on tight.”
With a shout and a kick, I push the horse into the fog. The skirmish turned me around, but my compass is in my pocket. We’ll figure it out later. All that matters right now is that we get away.
Get away, and leave Shaye behind. My stomach churns.
She can take care of herself, part of me says.
Yet I’m already sick with worry. She’s just a fae.
But she’s not. In the time we’ve spent together, she’s become more than that to me.
She’s Shaye, the woman with a darker past than my own.
The woman whom I wanted to see aid in the killing of Boltov and the liberation of the fae wilds.
She’s…Giles was right—she’s a friend.
Davien shifts behind me. He’s looking back. But all I’m focused on is forward—dodging the skeletal trees that emerge like new enemies from the mist.
“Shaye,” he murmurs.
I slow the horse at the sound of conflict and longing that’s so present in her name. “We could go back.”
“No…you did the right thing. We must keep on. She’s fulfilling her duty and her oaths to me by giving us a chance to escape.
” He speaks like a king, but the words are clearly forced, each more difficult than the last. “Moreover, there’s no way we’ll find them again.
And hopefully no way Allor can find us.”
I twist the reins in my fingers, and we continue at a trot. It’s quieter than a gallop. I think we might’ve lost Allor for good. She must have tracked us all the way into the fog. I curse inwardly; I hope she’s dead.
“You did the right thing,” he says again, softly, his breath moving the small hairs on the back of my neck.
There’s no space in the saddle for two. It’s uncomfortable and leaves nothing to the imagination as his body is pressed against mine.
His hands are on my hips; there’s nowhere else for them to be.
“Leaving Shaye and Giles behind doesn’t feel like it.”
“Everything is riding on you and me. The sacrifices of Shaye and Giles, Vena, all of Dreamsong are riding with us. As long as we get to the lake and transfer the magic from you to me, all their sacrifices are worth it. No matter the cost.”
I have no response to that. What can I say?
That I disagree? It’s not my place to say that, even if I did…
I don’t know if I do. I don’t envy the choices that he has to make, the position he’s put himself in, the responsibility he bears solely because his mother unknowingly remarried into a bloodline neither of them were a part of.
My hand leaves the reins and rests lightly over his.
I want him to hold me and tell me everything will be all right.
I want to hold him and assure him he’s making the best decisions he can.
Even though we’re running for our lives, even in a situation like this, I want to comfort and be comforted by him.
These sentiments might well get me killed. This is why you don’t dare let yourself love. Look at Giles. He was left behind by the woman he loved. Shaye had no problem pressing on without him. And if it weren’t for the magic in me, I doubt Davien would have a hard time leaving me behind either.
I try to shake away the thoughts by looking at my compass. “Oh, no,” I breathe.
“What is it?” Davien asks. Though I know he can see over my shoulder what the problem is.
“Do you—” As I’m about to ask, I feel him move. I glance back and he’s already pulled out his own compass. Sure enough, it’s doing the same thing as mine.