Chapter 35
Chapter
Thirty-Five
They’d found her.
An arrow whistled past Loren’s ear, punching through the boiled leather armor of the soldier in front of him. The man grunted, stumbling and giving Loren the opening he needed to drive his sword through the man’s belly.
Loren wrenched the blade free in the same motion, lunging for his next target before the human’s body had even hit the ground. His shadows lashed out at another, yanking the man off his feet and sending the arrow that would have found Brynn’s heart wide.
The camp was in chaos. Brynn’s fire flashed, painting the tree trunks in bursts of flickering orange before darkness rushed back in, a human scream of pain splitting the night.
Across the clearing, Caela was fighting too—wielding blade and magic together as Naeva rained arrows down from above, driving the Arcanum soldiers toward him and his shadows.
Not that this was anywhere close to a fair fight. This was only a scouting party, equipped for stealth and speed instead of battle. If Naeva hadn’t sounded the alarm they wouldn’t even have known they’d been found until the full might of the Arcanum’s forces came down on them.
Except Araya had known. He’d thought it was a nightmare—Goddess only knew, she’d been through enough to haunt her for the rest of her life. But then Naeva had sounded the alarm.
Now he had to make sure that none of them made it back to tell Jaxon Shaw where she was.
Loren spread his shadows wide. Men fell, their screams cutting off mid-cry as the shadows dragged them to the ground—all except for one.
“Naeva!” Loren shouted, pointing.
An arrow thudded into the trunk of a tree—coming so close that the fleeing scout ducked, nearly falling.
But the second went wide, vanishing into the darkness as the scout found his feet again, sprinting for the trees.
Loren cursed, throwing himself forward. If that scout reached the trees, Jaxon Shaw would know exactly where to find Araya by sunrise.
But the scout had already put too much distance between them, and Loren’s shadows were split in a dozen different directions, too tangled in other fights to answer his call. Loren pumped his legs harder, reaching out with magic and body alike—
The ground heaved under his feet.
Roots tore free of the earth. Vines snapped tight around the man’s legs just as he hit the tree line, slamming him to the forest floor. Loren skidded to a halt, his mouth gaping open as they thickened and spread, pinning the human to the ground.
The soldier thrashed against their grip, clawing at the dirt. “Please—” his voice broke, his wild gaze fixed on something beyond Loren and his shadows. “I’m sorry! We never agreed with what he did to you—”
“You didn’t stop him either.”
Loren whipped around.
Araya met his eyes, her chin lifted. A blade gleamed in her hand, magic crackling in the air around her.
More vines coiled around her feet—but they weren’t pinning her down or attacking her.
They only brushed her skin, twining around and through the shadow at her side like they were greeting an old friend.
She’d told him. Over and over again she’d told him that the forest was speaking to her. That it had helped her. But he had been so focused on protecting her that he had dismissed her. Told her she was dreaming. Traumatized. That it was all just a figment of her imagination—
“Please,” the human scout sobbed. “Cut them off! You have to cut them off and burn them—”
Loren turned back to the human, steeling himself for what had to be done now. Araya’s fury beat in his chest like a second heartbeat, and he knew she wouldn’t look away. He supposed she more than any of them had earned the right to witness this.
“Were you going to tell Jaxon Shaw where to find my mate?” he asked.
The human’s eyes locked onto his, wide and desperate. “I won’t tell him,” he gasped. “I swear it. I didn’t see anything. Please—”
But humans always lied.
Loren drove his sword through the man’s chest.
“Did you see it?”
“The roots—gods, they tore themselves out of the ground—”
Loren closed his eyes, doing his best not to listen to the whispers as they all crowded around the table in the main cottage. His shadows pressed close around his feet, offering no counsel for once. And Araya—
Loren’s jaw tightened as he glanced sidelong at his mate. She didn’t even look at him, her back ramrod straight and her hands folded on the table as their friends all whispered in awed voices about what they’d seen her do.
“—never seen anything like it,” Caela was saying. “I thought it was Loren’s shadows at first—”
“But it wasn’t,” Naeva interrupted. “We all saw what happened. Those vines snapped around that man’s legs like a snare. If she hadn’t been there—”
“She shouldn’t have been there,” Loren snapped, cutting the conversation short. He glared at Araya. “You could have gotten hurt—”
“But I didn’t.” Araya finally looked at him, anger flashing across her face. “And I don’t recall agreeing to let you dictate my every move. If I hadn’t come out when I did, that scout would have gotten away.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Loren said, his voice tight.
Why were they wasting time fighting about this when he’d almost lost her again?
“They’ll just send another scouting party when this one doesn’t come back.
” He glanced across the room, but Finn wouldn’t meet his eyes either. “We need to be gone before then.”
“Gone?” Araya’s silver eyes narrowed. “And where, exactly, are we going?”
“Back to Aetheris.” This wasn’t how he’d wanted to tell her.
But there was no more time to waste now.
“We’ll break camp at dawn and hopefully outrun them on the road.
From there, you will be escorted back to Eluneth—” he raised his voice just enough to be heard above the sudden whispers “—while I remain in Aetheris to help the fae there in their rebellion against the New Dominion.”
The murmur erupted into full-blown conversation.
Serafina whirled on Finn, her expression thunderous as his best friend held up his hands.
He couldn’t have told her—not without betraying Loren’s confidence.
Kai said nothing, his gaze fixed on the scarred tabletop as Caela leaned around him, trading furious whispers with Brynn and Naeva.
“You want to send me back to Eluneth?”
The conversation faltered, the fae he’d come to know so well falling silent at the naked fury in Araya’s voice.
“It’s the safest place for you,” Loren said.
Araya stared at him like she’d never seen him before. “It sounds like you’ve already made a decision,” she said slowly. “But this is the first I’m hearing of it.”
Loren gritted his teeth. “Ael’sura—”
“No.” Araya jerked away from his outstretched hand before he could touch her. “I’m not going to sit back while other people fight—while they die for me.”
“We can talk about it more on the road,” Loren said, acutely aware of everyone staring at them. “This isn’t the place—”
“Hiding on Eluneth won’t stop Jaxon,” Araya said like she hadn’t heard him. “He already found me there once. I think we should go to Tirnavel instead.”
“Because you dreamed about it?” Loren scoffed, the words slipping out before he could stop them.
Hurt flashed across her face. “They aren’t just dreams,” she said, her voice hard. “You saw what happened out there.”
Loren dragged a hand through his hair, his patience finally snapping. “It doesn’t matter,” he insisted. “We can’t just go to Tirnavel. The fae in Aetheris need our help now.”
“Then you go to Aetheris,” Araya snapped, glaring at him. “In your grand plan, I’m not even there. It won’t make any difference to you if I go to Tirnavel instead.”
Loren gaped at her, only dimly aware of the others staring. This wasn’t the time to have this conversation—but all he managed to say was, “Alone?”
“If that’s what it takes.” Araya crossed her arms, her silver eyes blazing as she glared at him. “At least that will be my choice.”
For a long moment no one spoke, a thick, uneasy silence settling over the room, broken only by the crackle of the fire in the hearth.
It didn’t really surprise Loren that Caela was the one to finally break it.
“It sounds like an adventure to me,” she said, glancing around at the others. “If Araya thinks there are answers at Tirnavel, I’ll go with her.”
“Me too,” Serafina said, shaking off Finn’s hand.
“Do you all feel that way?” Loren asked, looking around the room for someone—anyone—who hadn’t gone completely mad. “No one has been to Tirnavel in over twenty years. Even if the forest doesn’t attack you on the way, there’s no telling what you’ll be walking into.”
No one answered him. Brynn shifted in her seat and wouldn’t meet his eyes, glancing sidelong at Naeva instead. Even Finn looked conflicted, his brow furrowed as he glanced between his king and the woman he loved.
“I see.” Loren shoved away from the table, rising to his feet. “I suppose you should all get to work on your preparations, then.”
He turned, the shadows clinging tight to his legs as he stalked out the door without another word.