Chapter 1
“Shit,” Jai exclaimed, taken aback. “I am sorry. I didn’t know it was you. They said Soren had blue hair.”
“Yeah, well, the facilities didn’t provide hair dye. This is my natural color. Wait—who are they?”
“Baz and Enara.”
Soren cried out, her heart bursting with happiness. “They’re alive? Where are they? Why did they send you? Who are you? Are they okay?” Everything came out in a rush of words so quickly she forgot to take a breath. So, she guzzled in air, waiting for an answer.
“Yes, they are alive. They aren’t far from here. I am a tracker. The name’s Jai. They hired me to find you.”
“Take me to them,” she demanded, not giving a flying fuck who he was.
He laughed at her demanding tone. “They said you were a fiery one. Follow me.”
Soren had to resist screaming with joy when she embraced her friends. They fell to the ground in a riotous heap, laughing and crying, and laughing some more.
“Maker, I am so glad that you guys are okay,” she said, blinking away the moisture that had collected at the corners of her eyes.
“Us?” Baz breathed. “What about you?”
“Woman, I thought I would never see you again,” Enara said, cupping Soren’s face.
“It’s been a hell of a time,” Soren said, sitting back on her haunches to catch her breath.
“Have you been here this whole time?” Enara asked.
“Yeah, I have been his …” She hesitated at the word prisoner because it wasn’t quite accurate. “Well, I couldn’t leave voluntarily, but I had free rein of the house.”
“Why were you taken? How did you get out?” Enara continued peppering her with questions.
“It’s a long story.”
Soren recounted the events of the last few weeks, pausing to let her friends and their strange companion take it all in. She left certain parts out, not knowing how much this guy, Jai, knew, but Baz assured her that he was all good, and she trusted his opinion. So, she shared everything she had learned while in the manor, including how the relationship between her and Rook had grown and ended with the devastating discovery that Rook had murdered her father.
“Oh, Soren …” Enara shook her head in disbelief. “Hon, I am so sorry.”
“I feel so lost,” she said solemnly. “Can we not talk about it anymore? I want to know what happened to you guys. Tell me everything.”
“What do you want to know?” Baz asked.
“Well, for starters,” Soren replied, eyeing their interlaced fingers, “you two seem more … comfortable with each other.”
Enara blushed. “Yeah, you missed a lot, too.” Her friend shared the stories of their travels and how she had saved Baz’s life.
“Maker, I am so glad you’re okay, Baz,” Soren said, her stomach twisting at the thought of anything happening to him.
“And after a few well-played hands of joker’s gambit,” Enara finished, “we bumped into Jai and hired him to track you down.” She purposely omitted the spicier details of her and Baz’s newfound relationship. She would reserve those for a later time … when they had a moment away from the guys.
They embraced again as relief filled them. The trio was finally together again.
They settled on a plan for getting home, falling into old routines, finding comfort in each other after all the craziness of the last few weeks.
Soren was doubled over, laughing at a joke Baz had said, when her chuckling was cut short.
The four of them jumped to their feet as General Corvus walked into their camp, causing them all to reach for their weapons of choice.
“Well, isn’t this cozy?” he mocked. “The master won’t be pleased to see you tried to escape. He already killed my brother for nearly letting you drown. We can’t have that now, can we?”
“You have two choices,” Soren threatened, raising one of her blades. Evelyn had given her a set of throwing knives as a parting gift, but they felt strange in her hands. They didn’t quite fit, almost as if her body was rejecting them. “Leave now,” she warned, “or we will string you up, pluck out your feathers one by one, and leave you here to rot.”
He smiled wickedly, and she resisted the urge to loose her daggers. Even unbalanced, she was confident she could have one through his skull before he flapped his wings.
“I was hoping we could do this again,” he said, smiling.
The false grin made her feel sick to her stomach as his features contorted to bare his too-white teeth.
“I’m going to enjoy this,” Enara said, standing firm beside Soren.
“Don’t be a fool, girl,” Corvus mocked. “My flock has been training; you won’t stand a chance.”
“Try me,” Enara replied, her threat laced with venom.
As if it were the response he had been waiting for, General Corvus let out a loud whistle that resembled a broken bird call. A moment later, several kestrels dropped to the ground, shaking loose snow from the evergreen branches.
“Shit,” Baz said, tightening his grip on his sword, trying to gauge which beast to attack first.
“They must have been resting in the treetops,” Jai growled in frustration. He was angry at himself for being so distracted. He had one job, and he had failed to alert them of the danger. His heart beat painfully against his ribcage. Because of him, they were all going to die.
General Corvus looked all too pleased at their surprise and directed his gaze to Soren. “Sure you don’t want to change your mind?”
“Oh, I’m sure,” Soren replied through clenched teeth.
Corvus smirked, taking a step forward. He then fanned out his wings and simply said, “Goodbye, Miss Nightsong.”
Then, his birds descended upon them.
* * *
Jai whipped around,releasing his Bowie knife in an arc toward the kestrel at his left. The blade sunk halfway through its disfigured head, and it screeched as the snow was dyed black. He ran at the creature, grabbed the hilt, and tore the knife out of its face, leaving it to bleed out on the ground, wings thrashing violently.
Corvus advanced on him, infuriated that one of his own had been bested by this insignificant fool. He lifted off the ground, flapping furiously so the snow and dirt lifted, blinding the tracker. Jai found shelter behind a tree and cleared his vision, swinging back around its trunk to join the battle.
Enara was struggling to release her staff from the talons of one of the beasts, her arms straining with the effort. She leaned in and kicked it in the gut, wrenching her weapon free and swinging the staff down like an axe, burying it in the creature’s shoulder. It howled angrily and pulled the weapon out, tossing it to the side as the magic burned its skin, then slashed out with its claws. Enara ducked, running under its wing, and kicked it again in the back, causing it to fall face-first on the ground. It recovered quickly, pushing up and swinging its onyx wing into her chest, throwing her back into the base of the evergreen with a sickening thud. The wind was knocked out of her, and she struggled to stand, begging her lungs to take in air.
The kestrel loomed over her, ready to deal a killing blow, when one of Soren’s knives sunk into its claw, and it doubled over. Enara gave her friend a nod of thanks and grabbed the knife out of its hand, thrusting it upward into the bottom of its jaw.
Soren was caught in a deadly dance with two more of the beasts. She twirled her arms, slashing this way and that, parrying and blocking blows while dealing her own in return. Her daggers glinted dangerously as blood splattered the trees. Her cape had been torn to shreds, and her arms were covered in thin ribbons of crimson.
Jai and Baz were fighting Corvus, side by side, while three kestrels watched, waiting hungrily. The general’s fighting skills were impeccable. It was obvious why Adriel had chosen him to lead his ranks in Entheas.
Baz swung his sword, aiming to behead the creature, but the general spun out of the way and the blade embedded itself in a tree. Baz struggled to pull it out when Jai ran in to protect his back, catching the creature’s forearm with his blade, only infuriating the enemy more.
Corvus slashed toward his chest, and Jai jumped back, but the claws still marred his skin. He hissed as the hot liquid seeped from the wound but swung again, catching a piece of Corvus’s thigh.
The three onlookers jumped in as their general stumbled back, hissing profanities.
“Filthy human.”
“Weakling.”
Baz had heard enough. He swung his sword, slicing its beak off, the bird effectively silenced. He finished it off by cutting open its chest as it tried to lift itself off the ground.
The other two had Jai by the arms and were trying to carry him toward the canopy while he slashed at their ankles. They shrieked like banshees and dropped him toward the forest floor, their feet nearly removed from their feathered bodies.
He fell through the evergreens, reaching desperately for something to hold on to. The bristles scraped his face and arms, and he was knocked out by one of protruding branches. His body landed with a hard thump at the base of a tree.
On the other side of the clearing, Enara had jumped in to help Soren and received a few gashes herself. They worked together to knock one of the winged creatures onto its stomach, and then Enara brought her staff down, removing its wings. She smirked triumphantly as they fell, twitching to the ground.
The creature cried out as it crawled on its hands and knees, and Soren finished it off with her dagger. Its brother flew forward, knocking her to the side then grabbing Enara, whipping her body sideways at a boulder. She was out cold, blood trickling down her face.
“Enara!” Soren cried, running toward her friend. The kestrel blocking her path was down in seconds, a knife between its beady eyes.
Baz ran to Soren’s side, and they looked around. The ground was soaked in blood, the snowy landscape transformed into a macabre painting of red and black.
Soren was down to one knife, and her body was rejecting any form of movement. Baz held steady to her side, his vision clouded by blood seeping from a cut above his eye. Their enemies had regrouped.
Corvus landed in front of them, his two best and brightest flanking either side. He assessed them, looking around and clucking his tongue. “Seems such a waste,” he said. His voice was unsettling, making Soren cringe. He flicked his black eyes to Baztien. “If you leave now, I will spare you. We only need the girl.”
Before Baz could tell him where to put that remark, another voice rang out from the trees.
“Touch her, and I will slit your throat where you stand.”