CHAPTER 5
C HAPTER 5
T AKING THE STEPS three at a time, Seth was only a few seconds behind Raider, but it was enough to have him in a panic. Gods, if Raider had vanished—
He was standing in the wine-pressing pavilion.
The sky was lightening in the east, enough for Seth to see that Raider’s back was to him and his arms were crossed. His pack lay at his feet. As Seth neared, Raider turned to face him—and took a step back. Seth didn’t like that.
Fingers twitching at his sides, Seth asked, “Are you okay?”
“I just needed a second.”
“You can have that second with me.”
Seth wasn’t going to let him isolate again like he’d done after he’d found the book. Like he’d done after the sand serpent fight. Like he did every fucking time he couldn’t deal with something. Because looking back? Seth could see a lot of this. He just hadn’t seen it for what it was at the time.
Raider turned, arms still crossed, and looked down the vineyard’s slope to the river. The lessening darkness meant that Seth could see details he’d missed before: the boat pulled up on the riverbank, the workers’ huts. These things said they needed to move on. Soon.
Raider must have had a similar thought because he asked, “Is Julian coming with us?”
“I would imagine so. I unshackled him, but I took the book.”
“You should give it back to him. Let him take it to Kastari.”
“That’s not an option.”
“Rahim and Malik saw the book. They can report me to the empress without it.”
“Rahim won’t do that. What he wanted was to deliver you to Zarina himself. He wanted the credit, or maybe he thought it would give him leverage, I don’t know. But it’s not about justice for him. He made that pretty obvious.”
“Well, what about Julian? He can’t go back to Masir, not with Kahzir there. His only hope is to convince Zarina that her uncle is at the Arcanum. He needs the book for that.”
“I don’t care.”
“Yes, you do. And don’t even think about whatever shit you were starting to think about back there. I would never let you do that.”
Seth looked away. He hadn’t realized how obvious he’d been. He hated how the idea of killing Julian had flitted through his mind. It was the first time in his life he’d ever had a thought like that. But then, he’d never had to choose between his principles and his heart before.
It shocked him how easy the choice was. His heart. Raider. No contest.
Would Seth actually murder someone?
No. At least, he didn’t think so. (He honestly didn’t want to find out.) But he would absolutely abandon Julian to vanish with Raider. He would give up the Arcanum and his work. In fact, it was the only possibility in front of him. All that mattered was Raider—who was being incredibly frustrating right now because he was trying to make this about anything and everything but himself.
Seth growled, “Would you stop worrying about other people for one fucking minute?”
“And do what, Seth? What exactly should I—”
“For starters, you can come here and let me see that you’re okay.”
Raider’s crossed arms tightened. “I can’t do that.”
“Why not?”
Raider kept his gaze locked on the landscape. “Because I have to stay focused, and so do you. I need you to accept that.”
Raider had a point. Seth was losing focus, which was something he never did. Raider, clearly, was much more accustomed to packing shit away. He’d been doing it for a long time.
It frustrated Seth. He wanted to fix things. At the very least, he wanted Raider to let him help. But what Raider needed right now was to be allowed to deal with things in whatever way worked for him. There wasn’t time for anything else.
So Seth conceded, “All right. I will accept that—for now.”
Raider gave a small huff that sounded more like exasperation than amusement. His arms were still crossed, but he looked at Seth, finally. “You’re so damn dominant. You do know that, don’t you?”
“I thought you liked that about me.”
“When we’re fucking? Absolutely. Other times? It depends.”
Seth’s body was way too responsive for that kind of talk. “If you want me to stay focused, don’t talk about fucking.”
“All right, I will accept that. For now.”
At that echo of his own words, Seth chuckled. Gods. Who but this man could make him laugh right now?
Raider’s arms uncrossed at last. He stepped close to Seth and reached around him to grab his ass. Seth’s pack hit the ground as Raider hauled him in and kissed him hard and deep. But Seth’s tongue only got one sweep against Raider’s before Raider let go and stepped back.
It took everything Seth had to not grab at him. He rasped, “You’re such a damn tease.”
“I thought you liked that about me,” Raider remarked, once again tossing Seth’s words back at him. “And it was just a little kiss. Would you keep your mind on the problems at hand? I have an idea.”
It had absolutely not been just a little kiss , as Raider well knew, but there were problems at hand. Seth needed to focus on them.
“So what’s your idea?”
Raider didn’t get to tell him, however, because the problems were even closer at hand than either of them had realized.
Fortunately, Raider had turned to point down the slope to the river, so the arrow that would have hit him flew wide.
They both jumped in surprise. Then Raider shouted—because Seth tackled him to the ground and shoved him into the grape-crushing pit. Raider cursed as he tumbled into the stone cavity.
“Stay down!” Seth ordered and twisted his right wrist, activating his forearm bracer. Its arcane glove cascaded from its housing to encase his hand.
Snatching his chakram from his utility belt, Seth burst to his feet. He spun in the direction from which the arrow had come. The predawn light had bleached the darkness to gray, enabling him to identify an archer at the corner of the wine-ageing shed. Seth hurled his chakram.
The circular weapon clipped the corner of the mudbrick building, but Seth’s target had vanished. As the glove summoned the chakram’s return, Seth spun to face the charge of another combatant. The man was clearly unaware of the chakram’s function because he ran straight into its return path. He screamed as the razor-sharp weapon sliced his raised sword arm.
Seth caught the chakram in his gloved fist. Ducking around the slashing blade of another charging swordsman, Seth whipped the chakram’s edge across the man’s throat.
By that time, Raider had climbed from the crushing pit, and the archer was taking another shot. A second archer had appeared atop the wine shed’s roof.
As Raider went charging up the slope toward the first archer’s more protected position, Seth hurled his chakram at the rooftop archer. Right as the man’s bow twanged, Seth’s chakram hit him in the chest. The arrow went hobbling off course.
Seth caught the chakram on its return. Cursing, he went running after Raider, who had reached his target and was fighting both him and another assailant.
And, no surprise, more kept coming. The bulk of Rahim’s force had taken position behind the wine shed, but others began to emerge farther up the slope near the house.
Seth clipped his chakram onto his belt and yanked his sword from its scabbard at his back. As he did, a spear came flying his way. Raider swept his scimitar into the spear’s path, knocking the weapon aside.
“Get Julian!” Raider shouted over his shoulder.
Seth ignored that, racing forward to grab Raider and haul him clear of another archer’s firing path. Raider’s back hit the wall of the building.
“I can take an arrow or two—you can’t!” Raider snapped. That argument pissed Seth off at the best of times, and right now—
“I’m pretty fucking sure those aren’t just arrows,” Seth snapped back, “so you can shut the fuck up with that.”
Raider didn’t spend the kind of time with arcanists that Seth did. There was a reason the archers kept aiming at Raider instead of Seth. Chances were about ninety percent that their arrows were laced with something that would take him down hard.
At the sound of a frightened screech coming from the front of the building, Seth and Raider both charged around the corner. A guard had Julian by the back of his kaftan and was dragging him through the doorway.
Seth threw his sword. It spun end over end to its target and struck deep into the man’s chest. He was flung back, tumbling down the slope and away from Julian.
The young arcanist scrambled to his feet and shouted something that Seth couldn’t make out. Something about a boot? Pack thumping at his back, Julian went racing down the slope.
By the time Seth had reached the body housing his sword, Julian was past the wine-pressing pavilion and cutting along one of the rows of vines. Seth yanked his sword from the corpse. By then, more guards were charging toward them.
With no way of knowing the full size of Rahim’s band, their best option was to flee. Seth swiped his sword clean and sheathed it at his back. He and Raider raced to where they’d left their packs beside the crushing pit. Snatching them up, they went charging after Julian.
Grape leaves whipped against Seth’s pumping arms and legs as he and Raider raced along one of the rows. Ahead of him, Raider ducked under a whizzing arrow. Seth’s heart leaped. He hadn’t seen that one coming. He tried to locate the bowman as he ran, but the dim landscape was blurred by his speed.
At the end of the row, Raider swung a left and raced down the slope toward the river, where Julian was crouched beside the boat—ah, boat , not boot—that Seth had spotted earlier.
“The chain!” Julian cried frantically as Raider skidded to a stop beside him.
“Get in the boat!” Raider barked, shoving Julian out of the way as he used his quicksilver fist to punch at the chain locking the boat to its anchoring point.
As arrows came flying from up the slope, Julian scrambled over the side of the boat. Raider punched at the chain again then wrenched at its mangled link. It snapped. Raider tossed the end of the chain into the bow of the boat along with his pack.
Seth tossed his in as well then helped Raider shove the boat into the water. Hopefully the thing was faster than it looked. Though it had an arcane engine and sharp prow, the wide belly suggested the boat was meant to transport cargo, not serve as a getaway vessel.
More arrows whizzed. One struck the side of the boat as they pushed it off the bank. Seth splashed into the water then hauled himself onto a platform at the back. Beside him, Raider vaulted into the boat, landing with a squelch of wet sandals. Seth swung in after him, leaping over the engine housing and the tarp-covered cargo at the back.
Julian was in the driver’s seat fiddling with the controls. The arcane engine whop-whop-whopped to life … then the boat glided serenely into the slow current.
Arrows were still flying, and now several mounted men came charging down the vineyard’s slope. Raider had the sense to get down, but Seth had to leap for Julian and squash the young arcanist’s head down as an arrow flew by.
Raider shouted from the back, “We’re gonna need more speed!”
“I’m working on it!” Julian exclaimed, squirming out from under Seth’s hand.
Seth turned to study the shoreline. He yanked his chakram from his utility belt and sent it flying. It whizzed through the air, striking two combatants on its arc. Just as Seth caught the weapon on its return, the boat lurched forward, jerking under his feet. He tumbled backward, slamming into Raider. They both went crashing into the tarp-covered wine barrels.
“Sorry!” Julian yelled over his shoulder as the boat skimmed along. The pace wasn’t exactly breathless, but it was fast enough that the last arrows fell short into the water.
Seth disentangled himself from Raider. He took a quick look at his own bicep, where he’d nicked himself with his chakram in the tumble.
“Are you okay?” he asked Raider. “I didn’t cut you, did I?”
“You’re worried about cutting me? Fuck, Seth, I can’t decide if you’re kind of adorable or really damn annoying.”
“I am neither of those things.” Seth clipped the chakram onto his utility belt.
“I’ll be the judge of that,” Raider told him and leaned in to nip the side of Seth’s neck. Arousal went shooting down to his groin.
“You, however,” Seth gritted out, “are most definitely a tease.”
Raider slipped his hand between Seth’s legs and squeezed his inner thigh. He chuckled into Seth’s ear, “But you like that about me.”
This time, Raider didn’t even pretend it was a question. And, no, it really wasn’t.