“You’re worried about being late?” Burn asked, still by the same body.
“Yes, I am. They’ll never get to the right place without me.”
I stood, trying to figure out which bodies I hadn’t checked yet, when I felt Ryker nearing. He broke through the line of trees looking ready for war and scouring the area for an enemy to kill. His eyes scanned me and then took in the carnage around us.
He stopped beside the first dead body he came to and then looked at us. “What the fuck happened?”
“We got ambushed,” I said, stating the obvious.
Burn took the opportunity to stop searching. “Thought we were fucked for sure when this demon-looking thing dropped down out of nowhere and killed most of them. Then we blasted it and it took off.”
“Uh huh,” Ryker said, as if he’d expected nothing less. “A demon saved you.”
“Burn thinks my monster is a demon,” I said, waiting for the shock, because there should be some. That was big news. That wasn’t an uh huh moment, that was a holy magic moment.
Ryker was too busy taking in the details around us to notice my lack of enthusiasm over his lack of shock. We were lacking all around.
Ryker pointed to bodies. “Did you find anything on them?”
“I didn’t find anything. Whoever sent them clearly has no connection to the demon.” For all the demon’s faults, it wants to keep me alive,” I added, waiting to see if that would garner more than an uh huh.
It didn’t. He finally stopped looking around, but his attention wasn’t fully here.
As the adrenaline continued to seep from my body, my brain began piecing together ideas that I preferred not to have. I shook out my hands, as if that would unload the thought hammering inside my head. The chain of events that might’ve led to this moment. First it had only been a smell. Then I’d been able to feel it, hear it. Things were progressing in a bad direction, and I was afraid I knew why.
“It’s never materialized before.” I chewed on my lower lip as Ryker’s attention settled back on me.
As our eyes held, I realized where his mind had been, because I’d met him in the same dark place. Had my demon been behind the theft of stones from his place? Was that why it had been able to talk to me? Did my demon get to the stones I’d left behind, and that was why it had materialized today? Instead of collecting them to build our strength, were we collecting them to build its strength?
Burn stepped closer to the two of us. “I don’t know what you guys are thinking, but if the looks on your faces mean anything, I’m not sure I want to know.”
I ran a hand through my hair, looking off the other way. The last thing I wanted to do was share my deepest fear: the demon had more of our stones.
“Where’s Sneak?” I asked.
Ryker hooked a thumb back toward the direction he’d appeared from. “I left him behind about halfway here. Sneak moves slower, and once I was drained, I figured there was trouble.”
“Drained? As in empty?” Did he just say I’d pulled all of his magic out of him?
He tilted his chin down to give me a stare. “Yes. I feel like I’ve been turned inside out and wrung dry.”
“Oh.” I got it. I knew what it felt like when he’d taken mine. I’d been left with nothing.
Don’t smile. Don’t laugh. It was horrible. It was bad on an epic scale. Dammit, that made me want to smile even more. It wasn’t like he didn’t deserve to know how it felt. Hopefully he’d be a little more careful in the future.
Ryker didn’t say anything, but I knew he sensed my satisfaction. Did that make me a heel? Possibly, but I couldn’t quite stop the feeling anyway.
“Do you want to take a little time to…recoup?” I bit my lip so that I didn’t smile.
He cleared his throat. “No. I’ll be fine,” he said.
Ha! No way he’d be fine, but if he wanted to play it off like all was good, let him.
“Let’s get going,” Ryker said.
“What about the bodies?” Burn asked. “Maybe we should torch them?”
“No time. We need to get into Crisp before curfew, when we can blend. It’ll be harder to move around afterward,” Ryker said.
I shook my head. “If their buddies don’t come back, the wolves can have them.”
Twenty
I could see the dead pile from where we hid in the trees outside Crisp. The dirt mountain was one place forever scarred into my memory. There wasn’t a patch of grass in sight on the hill they used to layer and bury the dead.
The shovels and digging machinery were scattered about, waiting until morning, when work would commence. I couldn’t see the top of the hill, but vultures flew above, dipping down repeatedly, lightening the load for tomorrow’s workers.
I pulled my gaze from the hill to the watch guard as they walked the wall of Crisp. A wall that looked like it extended forever.
“That’s where we go in,” Ryker said, pointing to the northern corner.
“Sneak can get in, but how are we going to get past the watch?” That was another thing I remembered clearly from my childhood. Don’t get too close to the wall, my mother would warn me. Bad things happened to those who looked like they wanted to leave. It had been drilled into my head.
“We already bribed the two that watch this area,” Ryker said.
The watch was one thing. They didn’t realize that the place was crawling with spies inside. If you saw something and didn’t report it, you’d lose an eye. You saw someone steal and they thought you knew, you’d lose a hand. There were some things that never left you, and the punishment ceremonies on Sunday were one of them. Attendance was mandatory, so everyone in the city knew exactly what happened if you didn’t toe the line.
“How’s your magic?” I asked Ryker.
He looked at me and said with no hesitation, “Not good.”
I didn’t say anything else. He knew mine was scraping the bottom, or I wouldn’t have had to use his. Waiting until tomorrow for another ambush would be even worse. At least Sneak could still do his thing.
I looked back at the wall. It was now or never. “If we’re going in while it’s light, this is how we do it. When we get in, you come with me,” I said to Ryker. “A couple might look less menacing. We’ll go ahead.” I turned to Burn and Sneak. “You two should follow a good distance behind. They’ll only see Burn, and you’ll draw less attention than a couple of strange men. When we get close, we’ll give you a signal. There’s wards and traps everywhere, so we need to get in and out. Consider everyone that looks your way as an extension of the watch.”
They nodded. I’d been secretly hoping they’d disagree and we’d end up in a fight. Maybe a drag-out brawl where someone refused to do as I said and decided to call it off and turn around.
Ryker took a step forward and then waited for me. Damn, that man was a constant thorn in my side.
We stepped out from the trees together, and I looked up. Both men on watch seemed to notice us at the same time, probably because we were walking into a large field with nothing but grass and they weren’t blind. My lungs seized up like they were made of steel, not tissue. They both paused. Then one continued walking as if we weren’t there. The other quickly followed suit, walking in the other direction.
Ryker wrapped his hand around mine, tugging me forward. I hadn’t realized my legs had stopped moving. He led us over to a large shrub and then behind it. There was a crack in the wall and the dirt was packed down in front of it, as if it were a common doorway.
“How’d you know about this opening?” I asked.
“I know smugglers that get in and out this way. There’s always an opening somewhere.”
He bent low and then squeezed through it, his clothes snagging as he did. He waited on the other side, a building right behind him, offering cover.
“Come on,” he said, holding out his hand.
I took it, hoping my gut wouldn’t be whispering, I told you so, again.
A chill hit my core as I stepped back i
nside Crisp. I never thought I’d come back here. Definitely never wanted to, that was for sure. It looked the same as I remembered, but different. Like a dream that was painted in bold strokes, and the finer details didn’t hold up when you opened your eyes. The streets I’d romanticized looked dirtier. The houses lining them were smaller. The few people walking them appeared gaunt and dingy. The only thing that was as grand as I remembered was the castle that loomed high above the rest of the buildings.
Ryker glanced behind us as we moved down the street.
“Are Burn and Sneak there?”
He nodded. “Yes. Anything look familiar?”
“Sort of. Let’s head this way. If my memory is correct, that’s where all the important places are.”
He tightened his fingers around my hand. He hadn’t let go of it since we’d made our way in. I had a feeling even if he was drained, he might know how to milk blood from a stone. Or I’d suddenly become an optimist.
I paused as we passed a small street with only a few houses on it. It had a weird bend to the left.
“What’s down there?” Ryker asked.
“I think I lived down there.” A hazy picture of a woman holding my hand and walking down the road on a weekend morning creeped over me. That life had been as fragile as the images in my mind.
“Do you want to go look?”
“No. Let’s keep moving.” The only thing I’d find down that road now were strangers and painful memories.
We continued to walk, and I sensed Burn and Sneak behind us. The roads opened up, and there was a chipped cement pool in the center. When I was a child, there had been water spouting up in the center, and on hot summer days, we’d splash around in it until someone complained. The watch would come chase us out, but we’d laugh as we ran. If the watch chased us tonight, I didn’t think there’d be any laughter involved.
The buildings around it were clustered and formed a square, the pool in the center. Some were stores; some had foodstuffs. A couple didn’t display anything in the windows. This was the place. The building that had the records were here. My mother would have to come and collect copies once a week to bring to the King and Queen of Crisp.
“They’re in one of these.”
I saw Burn’s figure across the way. Sneak was probably with him, but I wasn’t sure where.
Ryker moved his finger in a circular motion as we backed into the shadows of one of the buildings. I couldn’t see Sneak, but I knew he was peeking inside all the buildings right about now.
“He’s got it,” Ryker said, and then pointed to where Sneak had appeared and was signaling us over.
We made our way to the other building, following the same path Sneak had taken around to the backside. He was waiting by a door.
Burn pointed to a corner farther down with a better vantage point. “I’m going in with Sneak.”
“Hurry,” Ryker said.
Sneak lifted his foot and, with a single kick, the door swung open. The clock started ticking with the sound of the bang.
It was an easy find. The place was a single room with walls lined with books lettered with the alphabet. I made quick work of grabbing the one with “RO,” and then we were out of there.
There were footsteps approaching as soon as we stepped out of the building. Someone shouted, “I heard it over here.”
Sneak disappeared, and Ryker grabbed my hand, pulling me forward before I had a chance to think which way to run. Burn fell in beside us. I heard someone scream, “Stop,” behind us.
Windows were being thrown open as we passed. People screamed to the guards chasing behind us, letting them know which direction we ran.
A guard shot out in front of us from a road up ahead. Burn didn’t slow as he knocked him off his feet, sending him reeling and clearing the way. I didn’t know where Sneak was until I heard people falling and curses behind us.
We made it to the crack in the wall. Burn went first, and then I was half dragged and half shoved through, with Ryker following behind me. Sneak must’ve followed after, but I couldn’t be sure.
We stepped around the bushes and stopped short because twenty guards had circled in front of us.
I was near empty, and so was Ryker. Burn didn’t have the chops for this kind of fight on his own, and Sneak’s magic would only save him.
They edged closer, swords out, and my gut started chanting, I told you so. I would’ve disemboweled myself at that moment if I could’ve.
“Who are you?” the guard in charge asked, staring at our group.
So the ambush hadn’t come from Crisp either. Useful, but the least of my concerns at the moment.
I squeezed Ryker’s hand before I said, “Take it all.”
“You’ve got nothing.”
The lead guard moved forward, sword extended. “Who are you?” he yelled.
“Almost nothing,” I said. “Make it count.”
Burn grabbed Ryker without another word said. Sneak was either smart enough to get out of range and or do the same.
They wanted to know who we were? I’d oblige them with one name. I inched closer to the guard’s outstretched sword. “You want names? How about the Cursed King? Now move out of our way before we walk over your corpses.”
The guard looked at me, then at Ryker. He was shaking as he said, “Bullshit.”
I braced myself for what was going to happen next. It felt as if someone was taking a rusty-edged knife and scraping out my insides.
The lead guard went down, and I nearly followed him. That was all it took for the rest of the guards. They parted like dried leaves in a strong wind. We walked through them, hand in hand.
“Burn, grab the book,” I said as soon as we were out of earshot.
He took the ledger that I’d been about to drop. Ryker edged closer, pulling me to his side.
“They’re watching. Do not pick me up and make us look weak,” I said, annoyed I had to squander the last of my energy fighting with him.
“Then don’t fucking fall.” He shifted his hand up until it was under my arm, taking some of my weight.
I was hefted over a shoulder as soon as we hit the trees, and all I felt was relief.
Sometime later, I was deposited onto the ground. Sneak was kind enough to build the fire right in front of me as Burn started riffling through the book.
“Burn, don’t singe that page,” Ryker said from somewhere close by. I didn’t care enough to see how close Burn was to burning it. That would involve opening my eyes.
“I won’t, but I can’t see without it.”
“Well?” Sneak asked, eager to hear what Burn was reading.
“Rokke, right?” Burn asked.
His surprised tone made me want to laugh.
“Yes,” I called.
I heard pages flip. Then flip again.
“Well?” Sneak asked. Feet shuffled around.
Pages flipped back and forth again, and laughter bubbled up in my chest because I knew what they were finding.
“Burn, what do you see?” Sneak said.
“Nothing. Like, really nothing.” Burn sounded shocked. “Farmers, maids, some masons.”
I couldn’t stop laughing. I didn’t know what was funnier: that they’d imagined some mysterious past or that I’d almost believed them.
Twenty-One
Switch leaned down close to where I was lying in the dirt by the fire. I hadn’t moved in the last four hours. “How much longer do you think it’ll take before you’ve got some juice?”
Switch had been asking me how much longer every ten minutes or so.
“I think I’ve had enough rest.” I stretched my hand toward him, looking for a little help getting up. My insides were only beginning to lose that raw feeling. I knew if I juiced him now, I’d pay for the overexertion later. I still stood. It was better than listening to that question another fifty times.
Ryker didn’t argue. Burn and Sneak jumped to their feet and were forming a circle a few seconds later.
We landed in fr
ont of Ryker’s place, and I swayed on my feet. My eyes were burning and my stomach was doing somersaults. I planted my hands on my knees and managed to stay upright.
A hand landed on my back, the tingle of Ryker’s magic accompanying it.
“You did good,” he said softly, his fingers moving in a caress of sorts.
I might’ve done good, but this was definitely not. This was the shit that made me think we were something other than what we were. This was what lured me into emotional heartache.
“Thanks,” I said, straightening as soon as I could and moving a step away, dislodging his hand with the effort.
There was a flash of sadness in his eyes that chafed my soul, as if I’d wounded him. I didn’t know if I should scream and demand to know what weirdo mind games he was playing, ignore him completely, or apologize for no logical reason.
“Switch, where the fuck were you?” Knife asked, walking over and saving me from having to decide what to do with Ryker.
Switch and I looked at each other. I gave him a nod. I’d make this right for him and Ruck somehow, but not this very second. I was still running on empty and didn’t have a lick of an idea how to fix things.
“I thought you’d be back hours ago,” Knife continued.
Switch’s right eye twitched. “Sorry.”
“We ran into some trouble,” Ryker said, steering Knife’s annoyance toward him.
Knife took a look at our group. I might’ve looked the worst, but Sneak had bags under his eyes, Burn’s clothes were ripped, and Ryker looked like he might really kill someone today, as opposed to his normal threaten to kill look.
The fight seeped out of Knife’s stare. “Okay, well, I’ve got some people who need to get over to Dorley, so go get them.”
Blood Binds: Wyrd Blood Book Three Page 12
