Chapter 43 #2
Eryn’s eyes widened, his hands coming up. “Wait—” he said as Jaxon started toward him. “You don’t have to—”
Jaxon’s sword punched through his chest.
Eryn’s eyes went wide, his words dying in a wet wheeze. Jaxon yanked the blade free, his face impassive as Eloria’s spymaster collapsed at his feet, falling face-first into a spreading pool of his own blood.
“He forced my hand,” Jaxon said. He lifted his dripping sword, pointing at each of them in turn. “You saw all saw it, didn’t you?”
No one answered. Even Eilwen had stopped crying, her violet eyes fixed on Jaxon like he was her worst nightmare come to life.
“Get them ready to go.” Jaxon leaned down, wiping his sword on Eryn’s shirt. “And find Caylin. We’re leaving without the children.”
His gaze settled on Araya, hot and possessive.
“I have everything I came for.”
Araya slumped against the cart wall, the rough wood biting into her back with every bump. Her limbs hung useless, each shallow breath scraping her throat like broken glass. The dull throb behind her eyes had sharpened into something meaner, until it felt like her skull would split open.
“Are you alright?” Kai asked.
Araya almost laughed. She’d nearly died the last time she’d been drained like this. At least she’d been unconscious for most of that.
“Of course I’m not alright,” she snapped, hissing as the cart bounced over another root, jostling her shoulder.
Kai shifted beside her, still holding Selan in his arms. “I didn’t—” He broke off, swallowing hard. “I’m sorry.”
“You’re sorry?” Araya forced her eyes open, ignoring the way her vision swam. “Why are you even here, Kai?”
“Jaxon asked me to come.”
“And why do you think he did that?” Araya laughed despite the pain, bile burning the back of her throat. “You’re not a soldier, or an inquisitor. You’re the one who always looks the other way for him. It’s easier that way, isn’t it?”
Kai looked away.
Araya shook her head, her gaze falling on the baby still cradled in his arms. Selan’s chest rose and fell in steady breaths, his small hands curled into fists by his mouth as he slept.
“Are you really going to do it?” she asked. “Are you really going to put a ly’ithra rune on a baby?”
Across the cart, Eilwen made a soft, choked sound, burying her face in her knees to muffle her sobs.
Kai stiffened. “It wouldn’t be me—”
“Standing by is just as bad.” Araya closed her eyes, dropping her head back to the rough wood behind her. “I’d know. Wouldn’t I?”
“What exactly do you expect me to do here, Araya?” Kai demanded, his voice low. “He’ll never let you go.”
Araya cracked her eyes open, turning her head just enough to meet Kai’s anguished stare.
“Not me,” she said, flicking her eyes to Eilwen “Just give her back her son when we reach the tree line.”
Kai’s eyes widened as Eilwen’s sobs abruptly choked off, her bright violet gaze whipping between them. “You’re asking me to—”
Araya cut him off. “You know exactly what they’ll do to him in those camps, Kai. Give him back to his mother. Let her run—you don’t have to do anything else. I’ll take care of the rest.”
“And how are you going to do that?” Kai hissed. A muscle in his jaw twitched. “You can’t even sit up, Araya!”
“Just be ready,” Araya said.
For a terrible moment, Araya thought he wouldn’t do it. His gaze darted toward the front of the cart, to Eilwen’s desperate face and the sleeping child in his arms. Finally, he swallowed hard, holding Selan out to her.
None of them spoke again. Araya stared up at the sky, focusing on staying conscious as the light shifted and the tree canopy opened overhead. She held her breath, counting each jolt in the road. One. Two. Three.
She let herself fall.
The world tilted, the ground rushing up to meet her. She hit shoulder first, bone crunching as she cried out. Someone shouted, the wheels of the cart squealing as it lurched to a halt.
A boot slammed into Araya’s ribs, driving the breath from her lungs and flipping her onto her back. Caylin stared down at her, her beautiful face twisted with seething rage.
“What exactly do you think you’re doing, halfblood?”
Araya gasped as Caylin’s boot connected again. She curled around the hurt, choking on a cry as the woman wrenched her upright by her injured arm.
“Caylin—” Kai grabbed her, his silhouette nothing but a blurry shadow through Araya’s watery vision. “She’s injured. She fell—”
“Don’t be stupid,” Caylin snapped. Her sharp nails dug cruelly into Araya’s bicep. “She didn’t fall. I don’t know what she gains by throwing herself out of a moving cart, but she’s nothing but a tricky little halfblood slut—”
Araya coughed, bile burning the back of her throat. The world pitched around her. She barely managed to twist her head before she vomited—spattering Caylin’s shining black boots and the hem of her pristine coat.
Caylin shrieked.
Araya sagged against her with a moan, going boneless. “Sorry,” she croaked. “Lost my balance.”
“You—” Caylin’s lip curled, her face turning an ugly, mottled red. She dragged Araya behind her as she stormed to the edge of the path, scraping her boots against the dead grass there.
“What’s going on back here?” Jaxon rounded the corner of the cart, his voice tight with annoyance. “Why is she out of the cart?”
“We hit a rut,” Kai said, turning to Jaxon. “She fell—”
“She’s faking it,” Caylin practically shrieked, still trying to scrub her coat clean with a handful of dead grass. “She jumped out of the cart and threw up all over me—”
But Araya didn’t hear the rest. A shout tore through the trees, one of the inquisitors pulling the cart racing past them.
“She slipped out the side,” he shouted over his shoulder.
“She’s running—” his voice cut off in a sharp curse as he tripped over a root that hadn’t been there a moment before.
Branches tore at his partner, bristling with wicked thorns, and vines slithered across the ground like snakes, wrapping around ankles and dragging down anyone foolish enough to enter the trees.
Jaxon swore viciously, slamming his fist into the side of the cart.
Araya sagged in Caylin’s grip, trying to keep the satisfied smile from reaching her face. She’d done it. Kai had done it. Eilwen was gone—safe. And so was Selan. They’d never catch her. Not when she could call on the forest itself to protect her.
“Did you give her back her child?” Jaxon demanded.
Kai just stared at him, his eyes wide. “She wouldn’t stop crying. And then Araya fell—”
“That fae bitch just stole from me!” Jaxon roared. “And you—you handed her the chance to run on a silver platter!”
His hand shot out, grabbing Araya by the front of her bloodstained tunic. He slammed her against the side of the cart, sending white sparks flashing across her vision.
“We’re not wasting time chasing your little friend,” he snarled.
“She can starve to death behind the blockade we’re going to set up for all I care.
Your beloved mate is never going to make it to you in time.
You’re never going to see him again, Starling.
You’re mine. And I never let go of what’s mine. ”
Araya bared her teeth, the iron tang of blood thick on her tongue. “I’m not yours. Not anymore.”
Jaxon laughed in her face.
“You really believe that, don’t you?” He stepped back, letting her slump back against the cart. “Get her on the boat,” he ordered. “No more mistakes.”