Chapter 36 #3
I turned sharply toward the trees, toward the direction the arrow had flown.
A shadow stepped from the dark. A mere stone’s throw away, just beyond the firelight, a figure emerged.
Tall. Broad-shouldered and cloaked in leathers the color of snow-dusted bark, he emerged with a longbow still raised, another arrow already knocked.
He moved like dripping honey as the moon broke through the canopy, gilding his short, messy frock of black hair with threads of midnight blue.
A wrap covered the lower half of his face, worn and wind-frayed, concealing everything below his cheekbones. But his eyes…
Goddess. Those eyes.
They were the green of pine boughs after rain… deep and wild, flecked with molten gold. Lupine. Unsettling. Beautiful.
“You’re quite the beastie, úlfhrein,” he said, voice like velvet. There was awe in it, but also amusement.
The foreign word curled around something buried deep in my bones. My pulse kicked.
Still, his arrow remained trained on me.
I straightened slowly, breath catching in my throat. My claws twitched, my body unsure whether to lunge or heel. There was something off about him, though not entirely unfamiliar. He was clearly no dissenting soldier, but there was an edge to his demeanor. A lone wolf perhaps?
“That was my kill,” I growled.
“I believe thank you is what you meant to say,” he replied, and though his mouth was hidden, I could sense the smirk behind the cloth.
I tilted my head and took in the strange runes glowing red on the black arrow tip. The air around it shimmered. “Lower your bow, archer,” I warned. The words came out as a soft threat, edged in a growl I didn’t entirely recognize as my own.
His head tilted in mirrored fashion, eyes narrowing slightly. “You’ve no idea who you are, do you?” he mused. “What you are.”
“I know that if you don’t lower that weapon, you’re going to end up a corpse soaking the dirt.”
His chuckle was low and deep, a sound that made my skin prickle. “You’re even fiercer than the rumors say. Beautiful and blazing. Like the Vargeldr.”
Vargeldr?
My fingers curled tighter, ready to strike if he moved. And yet…I didn’t. “Who are you?”
“I’ll tell you who I am when you retract those claws, beastie.”
“Unknock that arrow, and maybe I won’t rip your eyes out with them.”
There was a shift in his green gaze, a faint flex of his shoulders, a coiled readiness that wasn’t entirely human.
He was enjoying this.
So was I.
Silence pooled between us, thick and humming. My pulse thudded in my ears. My instincts whispered conflicting truths. Part of me wanted to lunge. Another wanted to… know him.
But before either of us could make another move, the sharp pounding of hooves broke through the woods like thunder.
The archer’s nose lifted as if scenting the air. His eyes darkened, jaw tightening beneath the wrap.
“Sylvi!” Jack’s voice echoed like a bell through the trees.
I spun toward it, heart clenching as I saw him tear through the underbrush, Draumskelmir galloping at full speed, his black mane trailing like smoke, a beast slashing through the night.
Jack unsheathed his sword from his saddle, the whispering shriek of tempered steel singing through the night. “Sylvi!”
But the snap of the bowstring jerked my gaze back to the archer.
“Royal fae filth,” the masked male snarled, eyes dark and feral.
“No—”
But I was too late; the arrow was already soaring through the air before I could stop the archer from releasing it.
Jack was struck in the chest with a sickening thunk, the rune-etched arrow tip glowing and searing through his tunic into his flesh. He was thrown from Draumskelmir’s back, his body hitting the earth in a crumple of limbs.
“Jack!” I bolted toward him, heart splitting. “Jack!” I dropped to my knees beside him, my breath catching when I saw the pooling blood.
Gods.
The arrow had pierced high on the left side of his chest, just below the collarbone.
The shaft had sunk deep, but the arrow tip was still embedded in his flesh—it hadn’t protruded out his back.
His ash-covered black tunic bloomed crimson.
His body twitched, mouth parted, eyes glazed with pain and shock.
His face was still covered in soot from the fires.
“Help me!” I shouted into the woods, hoping the archer might return, but he’d vanished into the shadows, melting between tree trunks like mist.
Fuck.
“Jack,” I said, brushing hair from his eyes. “Can you hear me?”
He blinked slowly, the faintest smile tugging at his lips. “You’re…alive.”
“So are you.” My voice broke as I gripped his face. “And you’re going to stay that way.”
But even as I said it, dread spread through my veins as I remembered what I’d seen. The arrowhead was not made of ordinary iron. It had been etched with red-glowing runes…like the Drekhvaen Shackle.
The same shackle that had nulled his magic.
Needing to take a closer look at his injury, I tore open his tunic and fought to hold back a horrified gasp. Dark veins had begun to spider around the wound, spreading outward across his chest like ink dropped in water.
I swore, pressing a hand to the wound, but more blood gushed out, hot and pulsing.
Gods. He should’ve been healing by now. I needed to move him, needed to get him to a healer. But not like this, not with a full arrow shaft sticking out of his chest.
I looked into his eyes. “Jack, I have to break the shaft. I can’t pull it out or you’ll bleed out faster, but I need to shorten it so I can get you on the horse.”
He nodded once, jaw tight. “Do what you must.”
I braced his body with one arm and snapped the shaft clean with the other. He let out a strangled cry but bit down hard to keep from screaming. The exposed stub of wood near the wound was still seeping blood, but at least it wouldn’t dig deeper when we moved.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered as I tore a piece of fabric from my gown. I pressed it firmly against the entry point and tied it in place with shaking hands. “That will have to hold until I can stop the bleeding.”
Jack’s eyes fluttered. “Sylvi…you’re… Gods, you’re covered in so much blood.”
I swallowed the sob caught in my throat. “I’m fine.” My voice cracked as I cupped his cheek. “You’re the one who looks like death.”
He chuckled weakly. “If I die…”
“Shut up.” I kissed his forehead. “Save your strength.”
Draumskelmir had circled back and now stood beside us, pawing the earth as if sensing the urgency. The noble beast knelt just enough for me to heave Jack upright. He cried out again, his legs buckling, but I threw his arm around my shoulders and grunted as I pulled him up.
“Blasted Hel, Jack. I think you’ve been munching on too many roasted chestnuts,” I muttered, straining under his weight.
“What are you talking about? This is all lean muscle under these clothes.”
“Then how about you give me a little hand here and use some of those muscles to get on the horse. You weigh like a mountain.”
He gave a breathless laugh that turned into a cough, but he managed to climb onto the saddle. I climbed on behind him, his body slumping against mine, his warmth fading far too fast.
I tightened one arm around his waist and guided Draumskelmir forward. The woods stretched endlessly in every direction. The tracks were scattered. The trees all looked the same.
Panic clawed up my throat.
“Draum,” I whispered to the horse, “I need you to take us back to camp. Please.”
He snorted, uncertain.
I looked down, scanning for any signs of the trail they’d come from. But the dirt was disturbed. Too many hoof and footprints.
A glimmer appeared in the darkness, floating ahead of us in the air. Just above the underbrush, a golden orb slowly drifted forward.
My breath caught.
It was just like the one I’d seen as a child in the maze, the one that had led me to Jack all those years ago.
I gripped the reins. “Follow it,” I ordered Draumskelmir.
The orb floated deeper into the forest, and I followed without question, clutching Jack against me as the trees closed in around us. I didn’t know where it would take us. I didn’t care.
But something inside me told me to trust it, and right now I would follow that wisp into the heart of Mount Bal if it meant saving Jack.