Chapter 10
I stumbled on a large tree root and almost careened into Grog’s broad back. The big man grunted. I could trip him and slide his dagger free from the sheath before I took my next breath. It would be so easy.
But now wasn’t the time.
Straightening, I brushed off my arms and scowled.
Ace walked beside me. His lips twitched as if he heard my internal thoughts, but he otherwise kept his gaze forward, scanning the forest.
“Have you ever been here?” I asked.
He shook his head. “I'm not familiar with this area.”
Neither was l. We’d crossed back to the mortal realm from Phaantasia a day ago.
If my sense of direction remained true, based on the path of the sun and the placement of moss on the tree trunks, we’d headed Northeast steadily, crossing through the northern section of the forbidden forest. Nala padded along the forest floor.
She’d managed to keep up with us but still moved sluggishly.
If only these hunters arrived a little later.
Then Hecate would’ve had time to heal my familiar.
Nala whined and bumped into my leg. I reached down and scratched her head.
“Where do you think they’re taking us?” I asked Ace.
“Why don’t you flirt with their leader some more and find out?” He hissed back. “I hear he has a whip kink.”
I jerked back as if he’d slapped me. Flirt? Who the phaan did Ace think he was throwing accusations like that around? He did plenty of flirting when he returned to town. “You sound jealous.”
“And what if I am?”
“Then you’re also ridiculous. Would you prefer I growl and snarl, like you? Would that make our situation any better or easier?”
“Catching more flies with honey, Mouse?”
“Maybe I just don’t want to be shot with an arrow.”
He grunted. “So you’d rather play nice in chains?”
“As enjoyable as it is to listen to this conversation,” Darius called out from the front of the entourage. “We’re almost at the first checkpoint.”
“So?” Ace’s lip curled up as if he’d tasted something foul.
Darius stopped and everyone followed suit. He turned to me, a glint in his eye. “So, we’ll need to make things more official.”
I didn’t like the sound of that. Darius pulled a rope from his rucksack and stepped closer. I locked my knees and lifted my chin.
“Come on, love, lets see those wrists.” He waved his hand to motion for me to hurry up.
I sighed and held out my hands.
Ace growled. Again. Maybe he was part wolf.
Darius gently wrapped the rope around my wrists and secured it with a knot. He leaned in to whisper in my ear, “Have to make this look real.”
“Careful,” I whispered back. “Or I might actually think you’re on my side.”
“I’m not, but I don’t have to be a dick about it,” he said, straightening. “Feel free to flirt with me more, though, and maybe I can show off some of my other rope tying skills.” Darius jerked his chin at the path. “Let’s go.”
I glanced at Ace to find Teo tying the final knot around Ace's wrists.
“We match.” I lifted my wrists.
Ace glared in response. Fair enough. We weren’t any closer to escaping.
Part of me wanted to kick and scream and defy these hunters, but the other part of me knew that path could lead to Nala or Ace dying.
I’d most likely suffer some painful injuries, too, but I’d live. Above all else, I was a survivor.
The youth who lived on the streets of Wast never truly left. I was still that girl on the inside.
Darius paused and studied Ace. The other men slowly turned to follow his gaze.
“What?” Ace snarled.
“I could swear your ears were pointed earlier.” Darius leaned forward and squinted. When Ace’s ears didn’t morph in front of him, he poked the air between them with a finger before turning to his companions. “Didn’t you guys see pointed ears?”
The other men shrugged, and Darius turned to me, a question in his gaze.
Like I’d tell him anything. “His ears haven’t changed.”
Darius scowled and jerked his chin out at the path. “Phaaning phaantasia playing head games with me, no doubt. The sooner we get back to base and hand you two off, the better.”
I bit back the urge to let out a big sigh of relief. It would be premature, anyway. We might’ve avoided them realizing Ace’s true nature, but we still had to face whatever waited for us at the end of this path.
We kept walking and if we passed any checkpoints, I didn’t see them. There must’ve been sentries in the trees and if that was true, they were very good. Too good.
Unease clawed up my spine.
We finally approached a tall wood fence with two hunters standing outside the closed gate.
How many hunters were there? How did they find each other to form this group?
I had yet to recognize anyone, and although Wast was big and I grew up on the streets, I refused to believe I’d somehow missed seeing a small army of hunters until now.
Darius and the two hunters guarding the large, gated entrance spoke in hushed tones.
“Can you make out what they’re saying?” I asked.
“Yes, I miraculously developed super-powered hearing,” Ace said, tone flat.
Seriously? “A no would’ve sufficed.”
Ace was really in a bad mood. Of course, I understood why, and I even appreciated how my act of complacency added to it, but he needed to snap out of it soon. We both needed level heads to figure a way out of this.
Metal and wood groaned as the gate swung open to reveal a small town of wood cabins.
“What the phaan...” Ace’s head snapped back.
At least I wasn’t the only one surprised to find another complete village I had no idea existed.
We walked through the gates. More metal groaned and wood creaked as the gate closed behind us.
Okay, maybe using words like town or village was a little ambitious.
But there were six small cabins, three on each side of the hard-packed dirt trail that ran down the centre to end at another, larger cabin.
Someone had built ladders along the interior side of the high wood fence surrounding the buildings—easy to get out, hard to get in.
“I guess that’s where we’re heading?” Although I said the words out loud, I wasn’t really speaking to anyone, nor did I expect an answer. We walked down the path, and no one came out to gawk at us. No children ran across our path or screeched in the distance. This place felt nothing like Perga.
“This isn’t a town,” I muttered.
Ace looked over at me and nodded. “It’s a military base.”
“Where are all the fighters?”
“I can answer that, love,” Darius piped up, dropped back to walk beside me. “I believe we have you to thank for taking out a number of our hunting numbers.”
I’d been attacked by mysterious groups of rogue hunters so often I’d begun to lose count.
The first time Nala took a poisoned arrow for me, a wound she still hadn’t fully recovered from.
The second time was when I tracked the group to try to find them and I was shot with a poisoned arrow.
It made me sick and messed with my immortal healing long enough for me to fear I faced my own mortality.
Another group of hunters had almost caught up to us near the magical section of the Danu River. Whether those men belonged to the King or this rogue group would remain unanswered. We hadn’t stuck around to ask who they worked for.
“Did I kill some friends of yours?” I asked. I really hoped not. Hunters usually formed tight bonds.
“Not particularly.” he said. “We come from all over, so we’re thrown in rather random groups. Some get along better than others.”
“Let me guess, your team is one of the best?” Ace asked, tone dry.
“We’re the best.” He lifted his chin. “That’s why we ended up getting tasked with bringing you in. And you definitely led us on a merry chase.”
“The trip to Phaantasia was unexpected,” Grog said.
Darius grunted “Definitely unexpected. What were you hoping to find with those people, any way?”
Those people?
I glanced over at Ace. He wore a severe frown, and his gaze shifted side to side. Had he caught the same tidbit of information or was he dissecting something else?
“You’re awfully unsurprised about discovering the existence of Phaantasia and the survival of phaanons,” I said, instead of answering his question.
Darius shrugged. “I’m from Vitor. We haven’t destroyed everything about the phaanons like Wast.”
What? “Really?”
Darius’ gaze sparked as if I’d given him something. He leaned forward. “Careful, love. You sound interested.”
I was, but not in him. I wanted to discover more about phaanons. When I escaped this place, I needed to get a hold of a Vitorian textbook somehow.
“You were about to tell me why you were in Phaantasia,” Darius prompted.
I wasn’t, but telling the truth wasn’t going to make our situation any worse than it already was. There was no point in keeping this information secret. “My familiar is sick. We’d hoped to find a cure.”
Darius’ gaze softened. “I’m sorry.”
I shrugged. “It is what it is. If I’m walking toward my execution, a cure won’t matter anyway.”
“You’re not going to die here,” Darius said.
I raised my eyebrows.
He sighed and rolled his shoulders back. “Unless you do something stupid, that is.”
“Why?” I asked.
He frowned, but the deep angle of his eyebrows was no match for the severity of Ace’s-grumpy expressions.
“I’m not complaining, but I still don’t understand why we’re being spared,” I said. “A number of your brethren tried to kill me.”
“Mouse,” Ace growled in warning.
“No, I’m serious. I’ve taken out hunting parties and caused enough of an inconvenience that your leader sent his best hunting team after me. Why spare my life? Why not take care of this nuisance?”
Teo pinched the bridge of his nose. “She talks a lot.”
Darius grinned. “You’ll get your answers.”
“When?”
“Soon enough.” He nodded toward the main building as we approached the front steps. “The heir will explain everything.”
“The heir?” What heir? The king and queen of Wast had no children.
“I’ve said too much already.”