Chapter 13
Kai
The solumbra eagle streaked through the sky straight at us as if it had heard Hannah’s thoughts and decided to prove her right.
I couldn’t lose her again. I was done pushing her away.
I unsheathed my sword, ignoring the torment shooting through my shoulder and the weight that made me fear my arm wouldn’t be able to lift it much longer. I angled my body to shield Hannah as she fumbled with the crossbow. She shouted, “Flatten and keep low.”
Like hell I would. I wouldn’t abandon her when she was in danger.
Before I could yank her to the side out of the eagle’s path, the beast pulled up at the last second and shot overhead. Its screech tore through the air, echoing in my ears as the cold it carried in its wake sliced through me.
A shudder passed through my body as if it had reached inside me and yanked something loose. My pulse thundered, but I forced myself to breathe through it.
“You were just going to hit it with your sword?” Hannah swatted my arm. “And you expected me to leave you and let you get carried off? That thing is big enough to carry you, you know.”
“I noticed.” My voice stayed level despite the fire burning through my shoulder. “I wouldn’t have been entirely helpless. I have some techniques.”
Not wanting to look at her for fear she’d see the truth, I shifted my focus back toward the path leading down from the Blood Basin.
My brow rose when figures moved below. A few soldiers had been caught in the snow’s aftermath, but not the full force of the avalanche. They stumbled through it now, dragging themselves forward. Dark shapes against the white, moving slower than they should be, but alive.
I looked back in the eagle’s direction. It was now a small fleck—it was still flying away.
“What kind of techniques? Glaring at it?” Hannah tightened the cloth around my arm.
Pain shot through me hard enough to make my jaw lock. The frustrating woman had done that deliberately.
I glared, wanting her to feel my anger, but then I remembered the visor blocked it, which only made my irritation settle deeper. She was a pain in my side.
A low growl vibrated in my chest, and I rolled my shoulder while she retied the fabric. “We need answers. What’s happening here is larger than we anticipated. We need to know what they’re doing.” My breath caught. I shouldn’t be explaining anything. She just needed to listen.
Still, her lack of a visor made me acknowledge that Hannah had somehow looked at the sun and not been blinded.
That and her informing me that the sun had a hole in it made my chest tighten.
Something in the air felt off, and the uncomfortable sensation I’d experienced earlier when tracking her hadn’t just been because she’d been missing. It was still lodged in my chest.
“Sir.” Gavriel’s voice edged with uncertainty. “You require medical attention.”
I grunted and shifted in the saddle, trying to ignore the way Hannah was pressed against me and how her heat seeped through the layers between us in a way I shouldn’t be aware of. Her curls framed her face like spun gold, catching the strange light.
I could claim I wouldn’t be swayed by her, but I’d be lying. “Hannah of Tennessee, are you well enough to continue?”
“You wanna go mess the bastards up? I’m good with that.
” She nodded in their direction. “But that arm of yours is going to kill you. You had a wolf gnawing on you like a chew toy. Which is really weird, by the way, since you were holding a literal dragon down in the middle of the street just weeks ago. Are you all right?”
Her gaze changed for a moment, the usual bite softened, and gold ringing her irises.
I blinked, and the gold was gone.
Only her ferocious attitude remained. Despite her ire being turned on me, something warm and foreign expanded through my chest when it shouldn’t have been possible with the lorn leaf I’d taken earlier.
Even after nearly dying, she was still ready to fight. Still defiant. Still—
Mine.
Then her words registered, and I scowled. It was a fair question. Discussing it now was not. “We get answers, and we make them pay. Things are accelerating, and we don’t have time to waste.”
I lifted my arm and closed my fist. Extending two fingers, I swept to the right. My men were looking my way and turned their caribous around to head back to the basin.
My caribou stamped beneath me, eager to move, but I held it steady as I counted the dark shapes scattered across the higher ground and then my own guards to ensure they had survived. The visor made it more difficult, but not impossible.
Gavriel. Corvan. Seleth. Varn with the spare mounts and four others. Their caribou pawed at the stone as they waited for orders.
There were eight riders, which meant two were missing. I gritted my teeth.
Either the wolves had taken them, or the Night Court arrows had finished what the mountain started. Either way, they were gone.
But Hannah had known that the avalanche wouldn’t kill my men. She’d checked before she pulled that trigger and brought half the mountain down on our enemies.
As I considered how I would have handled it, realization settled in my chest, unexpected and unwelcome.
I stared at the back of her head, taking in her loose, wild golden curls around her shoulders.
Something warm coiled in my gut, and the yank in my chest returned.
If our positions had been reversed and I’d been the one holding the crossbow, I wouldn’t have hesitated to protect her, even at the expense of my own men’s lives.
I wouldn’t have counted my men and would have cared only about getting her to safety, consequences be damned.
Her life was the most important thing in this realm, even over my own.
If I had made the call, all I would have considered was whether it would save her.
A bitter taste filled my mouth. I was a fucking hypocrite.
I’d always viewed myself as a survivor, which is why I had killed my uncle, to keep him from destroying us all with his soft ideals and futile hopes for a doomed friendship that had shown its true rot and threatened to annihilate us all.
But this moment right here made me realize that that had been a lie…
which meant I had killed my loved uncle in vain. A wave of grief overwhelmed me.
There was no time for it.
I drove my heels into the caribou’s flanks, and the beast surged forward, carrying us down from the outcropping and onto the fresh expanse of avalanche debris.
The snow was packed hard and dense from the force of its descent, and the surface seemed solid beneath the caribou’s hooves.
Each stride landed with a muted thud instead of the soft crunch of powder.
“You sure this is safe?” Hannah rolled her shoulders, still clutching the crossbow as though it grounded her. “Aren’t we going to fall through? It would be a shame if we survived all that just to go splat in the snow and get crushed.”
“Avalanche debris compacts on impact.” I guided the caribou around a jagged boulder that had been swept down in the slide. “It’ll hold our weight better than powder.”
She muttered something under her breath and slid another bolt into place with more confidence than she should’ve had.
“Don’t bring down another avalanche.” I pulled her back against me to steady her. Her warmth bled through my layers, distracting me in a way that wasn’t appropriate at this time. The thought alone had my bulge hardening more, and I shifted, trying to hide my predicament from her.
Damn her and the way I couldn’t control myself around her.
I focused on what she’d done. Part of me still couldn’t believe that she had looked at a mountain and decided to shoot it. The other part knew I needed to address it. Because not giving in to the bond was over for me. Her place was at my side.
She tilted her head and glanced back at me. “Or what? You’ll leave me behind again while you go to your meetings because I’m a nuisance?" The words were light, but there was an edge beneath them that hadn’t dulled.
Gavriel glanced at us, then focused on his reins as if they had suddenly become the most interesting thing in the realm.
It seemed she was as irritated about me leaving her behind as I was. It was undeniable that, if she had been with me, she wouldn’t have been taken, which meant her kidnapping was my fault.
My heart twisted, but I gave no response beyond a low grunt.
Of course, she huffed in return.
The return to the basin passed faster than the ride away.
The avalanche had cleared the mountain of most wildlife, and no additional Night Court forces appeared along the path.
My men fell into formation ahead of us, driving their mounts toward the figures struggling in the snow.
They moved without needing further instruction, spreading out and encircling the survivors, two with raised crossbows and aimed at the pass in case reinforcements followed.
Another seized the reins of a Night Court caribou and dragged it out of the snow.
I brought my mount to a halt. The survivors looked rough.
Their dark armor was caked with white, and their movements were sluggish and uncoordinated.
One had lost his mask, and his exposed skin had been burned raw by the light reflecting off the snow, while his eyes remained clenched shut.
Seleth tore the mask from another while Corvan stripped the third.
Better blind and contained than loose and desperate.
“Secure them!” My voice carried across the snow. “All three. I want answers. They come back with us.”
None of them wore the Night General’s markings, which was a disappointment.
“We won’t fight!” one of them shouted while raising his hands. “We surrender! Don’t hurt us!”
Another reached into his cloak and removed a hidden blade. Corvan kicked the moron in the chest and drove him flat into the snow before the weapon could clear its sheath.
“You will pay for this! All of you!” another bellowed with his eyes squeezed shut. “The Night King will see your blood spilled like water before the unending darkness.”
“Fine,” Hannah snapped. “We’ll spill yours first, you bastard. You had plenty to say when you were the one punching. Now it’s time to get what’s comin’.”
My gaze shifted to the man she’d answered. “Who is he?” I swung down from the caribou, the impact jarring my wounded shoulder hard enough to make my vision blur. Anger followed, cutting through the agony. If he had been part of her capture, his life would be taken by my own hands.
I reached up, catching her before she could attempt to dismount on her own. "Do you know him?"
“Yes,” she growled. “I know him. He’s called Keldren.”
My hands closed around her waist, and the contact sent a jolt through me that had nothing to do with pain.
Even through the borrowed clothes hanging loosely on her frame, the curve of her body and the heat of her skin caused my blood to go elsewhere.
The scent of magnolia, apricot, and something uniquely her cut through the blood, sweat, and cold air, and my grip tightened before I could stop it.
Her hazel eyes met mine. The gold flecks within them caught the warped light in a way that made me stop breathing. She was filthy, exhausted, and covered in blood—some hers, some the barbelo’s, some mine—and still remained the most striking thing I’d ever seen.
Her breath hitched, and her lips pressed into a tight line. Then she tore free.
She crossed the distance in seconds and drove her foot into the kneeling man’s groin, then grabbed his hair before he could collapse. The second strike landed harder.
Every soldier nearby flinched, and even I felt a flicker of sympathetic pain, but I made no move to stop her.
My brow lifted. “How do you know him?”
“He was one of the men who wanted to rape me.” She scowled, her normally warm eyes cold. “And he would’ve done worse in the camp if it hadn’t been for the Night General.” Her lip curled. “I want to cut his dick off, but I’m not letting his blood touch me.”
The prisoner groaned, his head dropping. “You may have gotten a reprieve, you Aurora Fae bitch, but you’re still going to die like every other Aurora Fae.”
Ice flooded my veins.
“He wanted to rape you?” The words came low and controlled, but something in me snapped.