by Jen McIntosh
‘Where are you taking me?’ she asked.
‘South,’ he murmured. ‘Towards the Barren Lands. It’s all we can do. Gaelan was headed north-west with the twins, and the mortals from the castle were headed east. We can’t risk the Hunt coming anywhere near either of them.’
She almost didn’t want to know the answer, but couldn’t stop herself from asking, ‘And what about Erion?’
‘The Shade didn’t kill him, and I doubt very much that he will – not until he’s figured out what he is, and that will take him a while. Even then, he’ll keep him alive. Erion’s too valuable to kill.’
‘We have to rescue him.’
‘We will. I promise. Wherever they’ve taken him, whatever dark hole they try to hide him in, I swear, Renila, I will find him and bring him back to you,’ he said.
She wanted to believe him. She did. Her instincts begged her to trust him. But she didn’t have it in her to trust anyone anymore. Her heart was broken for Farran, for the home she had lost, for all hope of ever getting answers out of the Lady Gaelan.
But most of all, her heart ached for her son – for her beautiful Erion, snatched away by some nightmare to face unimaginable torment.
Alvar had claimed that once they had worked out what her son was, they would consider him too valuable to kill. But she could not fathom what his words meant. Erion was a special boy – special in the way all mothers considered their sons.
Part of her wanted to question Alvar further, to tear the information out of him with her bare hands if she had to. But she could not deny that she was afraid of him. And he had promised to help her find Erion … she was not sure she could risk alienating him with an interrogation.
So she held her tongue and allowed the mysterious Lord to take her deep into the forest.
Alvar kept a steady pace as they wove their way through the forest, keeping only one step ahead of their pursuers, although Starfyre could handle a harder ride. When Renila quizzed him about it, he would only say that he felt safest when his enemies were where he could see them. Renila had no idea how. She couldn’t tell where the Hunt was, but he was aware of their location and prepared for every attack that came their way.
Alvar handled them all as he had the first. Slowed enough to let them get close before dispatching them and leaving their bodies as a warning for the rest of the Hunt. Once, Renila thought she heard the frustrated scream of the Huntress behind them – no doubt having found one of her fallen soldiers. Perhaps he had been a favourite.
They rode for the rest of the day and through the night. It was long after dawn the following day before he considered stopping for a rest. Renila winced as he helped her down – for all she was a decent rider, it’d been a while since she’d spent so long in the saddle.
‘We can’t stop for long,’ he murmured, setting her on her feet, ‘and we can’t light a fire.’
She nodded in understanding and sank down into the soft heather coating the ground beneath the pines. She breathed deep the scent of the forest and felt the tension shift from her shoulders as she lay back, groaning as her aching muscles protested. Alvar handed her water and food, a mysterious smile playing on his lips and a dark glint in his eye.
‘What?’ she asked, taking the food. He shook his head but kept smirking.
‘Nothing. Just some fond memories.’
Renila huffed, chewing on an oatcake. ‘Lucky you,’ she muttered, more to herself than anything else.
Alvar grimaced. ‘Sorry,’ he mumbled. ‘It can’t be easy for you.’
She frowned. She’d never told him about her past, or rather, her lack of one.
‘How do you know about that?’ she asked.
It was Alvar’s turn to frown, but it appeared to be anger that creased his brows rather than confusion or mistrust. ‘Gaelan told me.’
Renila fell silent, finishing her oatcakes and cheese while she considered his words.
‘She knows,’ she said. ‘She knows who I am, where I come from … why I was hiding in that castle … but she would never tell me.’
‘That wasn’t her fault,’ said Alvar.
Renila’s eyes flashed. ‘Whose then? Yours? You seem to know an awful lot about me.’
‘Yes,’ he admitted. ‘The fault is as much mine as it is Gaelan’s. And yes, I knew you … before. But your hands are not clean in this mess, Renila. You chose your own fate, for reasons that are now lost to us all.’
‘How can you know that for sure? Because Gaelan told you? Can you trust her word?’
Alvar folded his arms across his chest and stared her down impassively. ‘Gaelan is my wife. I know damn well what she is. She has her faults – many of them – and lies come as easy to her as breathing. But she wouldn’t lie about that. Not to me.’
Something inside Renila crumpled to hear him defend the woman who had caused her so much pain. Perhaps part of her had hoped that their marriage had been a ruse, that Alvar was free to choose for himself. To choose her.
She registered the thoughts a moment too late, and her stomach heaved with self-loathing. She looked at the ground rather than let Alvar see the disgust in her eyes. Farran – sweet, loving Farran – was gone, his body ripped apart by nightmares and monsters. No matter what physical feelings Alvar roused in her, she could not think about him like that. Not when Farran’s corpse was barely cold.
‘We didn’t bury them,’ she whispered, realising that they had left the dead to rot.
‘There was nothing left to bury, Renila. Their ashes will be carried home on the wind, forever free and forever at peace.’
She dared to glance up at him, her eyes glistening with tears for all she had lost. For all she had done. The kindness and steadiness of Alvar’s gaze only caused the tears to flow faster, staining her cheeks as they fell. He tugged her to him, wrapping his arms around her, cradling her against his chest while she wept.
Starfyre whinnied in warning. Alvar spun, pushing Renila behind him and drawing his sword in a single fluid motion.
‘How very sweet,’ hissed a deadly voice from the shadows of the trees. ‘You should envy the dead, for neither of you will know freedom or peace ever again.’
The Huntress stepped out into the dappled sunlight, stretching languidly while she eyed her prey. Her hair was pulled back tight off her face, and she had strange, pointed ears. Pale, eerie light danced around her, bathing them all in its unnatural glow.
All around them, the rest of her Hunt prowled from the darkness, faces cracked in identical grins of diabolical glee.
Alvar faced the Huntress while Starfyre screamed and reared behind him, keeping Renila between them. Renila was shaking with fear, and the Hunt cackled as they scented her terror.
She shivered, an icy wind sweeping over her, and glanced up to see the sun slip behind dark clouds, shrouding the forest in shadow. The Darklings did not seem to notice the changing light – too interested in taunting their prey.
‘We’re going to have fun with this one!’ crowed one of them.
‘She’s a pretty little thing,’ another screeched. ‘I’m having her first!’
Renila forced herself not to whimper at the cacophony of jeering and threats ringing round the forest while the Darklings imagined the torments they had in store. The darkness grew deeper as the clouds gathered overhead.
‘Enough,’ snapped the bitter voice of the Huntress, stalking forward. ‘They’re both mine. I’ll take my time with her – make her suffer for the lives she’s claimed. I might even be willing to share. He’s a beautiful one though … I think I might keep him to myself. At least for a little while,’ she crooned, cocking her head as she looked him over, eyes glazed with lust.
Alvar only snorted, an arrogant smirk on his breathtaking face. ‘You couldn’t handle it.’
She smiled wickedly at his taunt, licking her lips in anticipation. The wind was rising, stirring Renila’s hair about her neck, caressing her cheek like a lover’s hand. The Darklings shifted with agitation, sensing the ch
anging weather. Alvar stilled, staring down the Huntress, holding her attention away from her Hunt. She stepped closer, inhaling deeply, her brow creasing.
‘You smell … different. Magical, yes, but not Graced,’ she mused. Her eyes flickered over Renila. ‘That one will taste of fire and ash. But you, you look like you should taste of cold water and moonlight, but you reek of thunder and lightning and the rising wind howling through the trees. Similar to a Shade, yes, and yet … not. Something purer. Something more. What are you, beautiful one?’
Renila looked to Alvar’s hands. Thunder roiled beneath his skin and lightning sparked from his fingertips. ‘I am the gathering storm,’ he said with a bleak smile. The Huntress glanced up, just as lightning split the sky and thunder crashed overhead. She snarled, throwing herself clear in the heartbeat before the ground exploded before her. ‘Run!’ Alvar yelled, pushing Renila up into the saddle. He smacked Starfyre’s rump, urging the stallion to flee as more lightning struck the ground, clearing a path for them. Starfyre didn’t wait for his master to mount, charging forward without hesitation. Renila looked back over her shoulder, screaming for Alvar as the stallion plunged into the forest without him.
Darkness swallowed them. The thunderclouds high above her were so thick now they blotted out the sun, leaving the forest in deepest night. Lightning sparked, offering Renila momentary flashes of the monstrous faces chasing her, and between the mighty claps of thunder, she could hear their snarling curses close by. Starfyre whinnied in outrage as something snapped near her heel, the Darkling’s hot breath on her ankle blown away by the howling wind. Then she felt it – the kiss of rain on her face as the clouds burst.
‘Get down and cover your head!’ Alvar’s voice cried somewhere deep within the vaults of her mind. She didn’t question it. Ducking her face into Starfyre’s neck, she pulled her cloak over her head as the raindrops turned to chips of solid ice. She screamed when one struck her shoulder, drawing blood, then again as the Darklings howled in triumph, catching her scent. Like hounds after a fox, they bayed, desperate for their mistress to unleash them so they might rip their prey apart. Thunder roared in answer.
The ground trembled from the force of the storm, but the Darklings were too many. A muscled chest slammed into Renila, arms of steel banding around her as the monster tackled her out of the saddle. Starfyre screamed, his mighty hooves flashing through the gloom as he reared up to strike the beast. The stallion was fast. The Darkling was faster. He hauled her up, bowing his head and pressing his teeth to her throat. Starfyre understood the threat, dropping to his feet and snorting with frustration.
‘I know what you are!’ the Huntress crowed from somewhere behind them. ‘Stand down, or he’ll gut her right now.’ Renila whimpered as she felt the Darkling’s tongue against her throat, his teeth scraping the delicate skin there.
The thunder fell silent. The sky above cleared. Alvar stepped out of the shadows, fury written in every beautiful line of his mighty body. The storm still churned beneath his skin, the energy of it lifting his hair in a non-existent breeze while his eyes flashed and sparked with raw power. He trembled with the effort of restraining himself, but his sword point was steady as he took in the sight before him.
Renila struggled. She could see defeat in the slump of his shoulders, in the tension of his jaw. He was little more than a stranger, but she knew him better than her own heart – knew that he would drop the sword, would sacrifice himself to save her.
‘Don’t do it,’ she breathed. The Darkling at her neck growled in warning, but she paid him no heed. ‘Run,’ she begged him.
‘Most people think it’s the screaming that is unbearable to hear,’ the Huntress mused, caressing Renila’s cheek, ‘but it’s the subtler sounds of someone dying in agony that haunt you. The pathetic noises, the ones we don’t think about. They’re the ones that stick with you; they’re the ones you can’t escape, that wake you in the night. We put the people we love on pedestals, adore them, worship them above all others, but death makes equals of us all. It’s the moment that you realise the one you loved was worthless, and you wasted your devotion. What noises do you think she’ll make, Immortal? What sounds will haunt you for eternity?’
Alvar lowered his sword. The Huntress smirked and opened her mouth to speak.
And an arrow slammed straight between her lips, piercing through the back of her throat and straight into her brain. She crumpled to the forest floor. Dead.
The Hunt stood in stunned silence for a moment, staring at the body of their Huntress. From the trees above, a slim, lithe figure dropped. Most of the body was covered and the hood was drawn down low, but Renila glimpsed enough of the face to know it was a woman.
‘Run,’ the stranger said. Then she nocked another arrow, and the Darkling holding Renila fell.
A mighty roar shattered the silence, and the spell was broken.
The Hunt screamed in outrage, swarming forward, desperate for blood. The sound of something enormous crashing through the forest echoed through the clearing, and they flinched back. Alvar took the opportunity and surged free, grabbing Renila as Starfyre pulled to a halt beside them. He swung up into the saddle, dragging Renila behind him while the stallion charged through the rushing Darklings. Without their leader, they were disorganised and chaotic. The hooded archer killed two more before she melted into the shadows.
Starfyre was thundering through the forest at breakneck speed. Alvar crouched low over the stallion’s neck, while Renila tried to stay in the saddle.
‘Hold on to me,’ Alvar’s voice drifted back over his shoulder. She wrapped her arms around his waist and held on for dear life.
‘What about her?’ she called as they tore away from the Darklings. Renila felt the rumble of his chest when he laughed.
‘She’ll be fine! I’d worry more about us right now!’ he yelled over the pounding of Starfyre’s hooves on the forest floor.
Thunder cracked overhead once more, but the Darklings did not heed the warning. Lightning sparked around them, striking anything that came near.
Behind them, ruby flame licked through the forest, leaving only charred remains in its wake.
That beast roared again, followed by the sound of tearing flesh, and Darklings screaming in agony as they died. And then the forest fell quiet once more.
Starfyre slowed to a walk, his sides heaving from exertion, but his footfalls were quiet as he picked his way through the dense undergrowth. Although the sun was still high in the sky – or perhaps because of it – the darkness beneath the trees was near complete. Though Renila could make out her immediate surroundings, anything further than a few feet was swallowed up by gloom. It was more than a little disconcerting, but Alvar seemed unperturbed. She trembled from the adrenaline coursing through her blood, quivering in both fear and fury. Alvar’s steady hand touched her wrist in reassurance, and though she tried to lean back, she found her arms were locked tight about his waist. He glanced over his shoulder, his thundercloud eyes heavy with worry at what he saw there.
Gently, ever so gently, he prised her arms off him and slid from the saddle. His hands went to her waist and lifted her down beside him. The moment her feet touched the forest floor, her knees buckled, and any semblance of emotional control slipped from her grasp. Her breath came in panicked gasps, wracking her lungs as she tried to inhale and found she couldn’t. He held her tight while she wept violent, tearless sobs into his chest. He murmured in her ear, the deep rumble of his voice soothing away her fear with its promise of violence. It was not the words he spoke that reassured her, for they were gentle nothings – the kind one might use to calm a startled animal or quieten a frightened child. No, it was the savage hatred and fury heaving against his restraint that gave her strength.
Renila wasn’t sure how much time passed before she calmed herself and pulled away. Alvar’s eyes were reluctant as he released her, though he smiled when she allowed him to wrap her in a blanket and seat her in the heather once more. The sun was lower in the
sky now, though it was likely still a few hours until dusk.
‘We shouldn’t have much trouble from that Hunt anymore,’ he said, busying himself with starting a small fire, ‘though they won’t be the only danger in the area. We can rest for a few hours and have a hot meal, but come nightfall, we must keep moving.’
Renila nodded in understanding. ‘What about the woman? The one who saved us? Who was she? Where did she go?’ Alvar smiled at the rush of questions and opened his mouth to answer.
But a grim voice from behind them cut him off.
‘I’m right here,’ it said, ‘and if the pretty Immortal Prince doesn’t start talking pretty damn fast, I’m going to shoot his pretty little companion in her pretty little face.’
Renila turned, her eyes widening with shock. There, perched on Starfyre’s saddle with her bow nocked, arrow pointed at Renila, was their hooded saviour.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
The woman was petite – even shorter than Renila and far more slender. She had a bird-like fragility that seemed quite at odds with the speed and ferocity of her earlier actions. Her face was pretty, though her features perhaps too sharp to consider her beautiful. Under the hood, her hair was wrapped in a headscarf, but the brows above her deep, golden eyes were dark.
Eyes smouldered with anger. Anger directed towards Alvar. But then her gaze landed on Renila, and she staggered backwards, as though the sight of her was a solid blow to the gut. She lowered the bow. Dropped it on the forest floor. Stared, her lips parted in astonishment. Took a hesitant step forward, fingers trembling as she reached for Renila. But then Alvar was between them, sidestepping into her path, his hands held up in warning.
‘How?’ she breathed, not taking her gaze from Renila. Alvar opened his mouth to respond but closed it again, unable to find the words to answer her. The woman glanced at him and then back at Renila, desperation glinting in her glorious eyes. Desperation that hardened into something else as she stared over Alvar’s broad shoulder. ‘How did you escape Elucion?’ she demanded.
