Fallon scowled. I wasn’t sure if it was at the mention of Glinda or that Nox was talking to him. Or even that he’d finished my sentence for me. I wasn’t certain what had caused his reaction, but I was more concerned with calming Fallon than picking another fight with Nox.
“I’m sorry,” I murmured quietly, kissing his cheek.
He kissed me back, then turned and walked into the forest.
I looked at Nox, annoyed with his interference, and mouthed, “What the hell was that?”
Missing my point, he shrugged and followed, leaving me to trail behind.
Chapter 7
We returned to our little camp and managed to grab a few hours of sleep.
The mist was clearing when I woke up, and Fallon was still in a deep sleep. With little idea what time it was, since I couldn’t see the sun for trees, I lay still for a few moments.
Fallon had his arm wrapped tightly around my waist, I assumed to keep me from disappearing into the forest without him again, so I remained where I was and closed my eyes.
Then I remembered Nox.
I sat bolt upright, making Fallon follow and reach for the nearest weapon.
“Where’s Nox?” I inquired, looking around. “He was by the fire when I went to sleep.”
The fire was still burning, suggesting it had been topped up with wood recently, but there was no sign of him in either of his forms.
I turned to Fallon, who gave me a look that said what did you expect?
Honestly, I hadn’t expected anything—I was still just grateful he hadn’t killed me—but after the previous night, I thought he’d stick around to at least say goodbye.
Not sharing my concern, Fallon began to unpack breakfast.
“Let me,” I volunteered, reaching for the bag.
He gave a stern shake of his head and continued, handing me a flask of water and small bread roll. He didn’t look directly at me, making his mood clear.
“You’re still angry with me.”
He glanced up.
“I had to trust him, Fallon. Okay, I should have woken you but—”
I stopped talking as he looked up, his eyes blazing with fury clear in their depths.
“I said I was sorry.”
He cocked his head and raised his brows.
“It should make it okay. Yeah.”
He looked away.
“Really. You have to trust me sometime. You can’t always be there to save me. Maybe I shouldn’t have trusted him, but he did give me the opportunity to tell my side of this crappy story to some of the people most horribly affected by my family’s involvement here. This is probably going to get a hell of a lot worse before it gets better, and if I can avoid being held entirely responsible for it, maybe even gather some allies, I’m going to do it.”
He closed his eyes and sighed, his shoulders sagging. I hated seeing him battling with his emotions with no way to talk them through.
“Fallon… I don’t want to fight. I understand you’re angry but—”
He held up a hand.
“Not angry?”
He shook his head and gave me a small, rueful smile.
“Just disappointed,” I corrected.
He nodded.
“You know that’s worse, right?”
He shrugged, pointed at me, then made a fist, before opening his hand quickly and splaying his fingers.
“I know. But I hadn’t gone far.”
He threw up his hands in exasperation.
“Okay, no, you didn’t know that, and I’ve said I’m sorry, can’t we just…” My voice shook. I’d never seen him so passionate in an exchange. I felt bad I’d made him so angry, but he had to understand I was able to make my own decisions.
He stopped what he was doing and walked my way. When he reached me, he pulled me to my feet and held me close, cradling my head against his chest, and I could hear his heart beating, the fear that something had happened to me etched in each rapid thump.
“I didn’t know it was going to take so long,” I admitted, as he kissed my head and stroked my hair. We stood there are a few minutes, him holding me, and me trying to find the words I needed to properly apologize without sounding like I was just making excuses. Eventually, I suggested, “We should get going.”
He stepped back and nodded, then resumed packing the bag. I rolled our blankets and kicked loose earth over the fire before looking around the spot where we’d stayed.
“I think that’s everything,” I muttered, as he shouldered the pack. “Are you ready?”
He nodded and ran his hand over my back, allowing me to go first.
“You know, sitting here last night, Nox mentioned Sayer. Well, I mentioned Sayer, but Nox said he was a traitor. Does everyone believe that?”
I glanced back and watched as he nodded.
“Is he?” I asked. “I mean, I know I should trust him. I’ve no reason to doubt him, and I also know he’s been walking the line, but could he have… could he be a threat?”
He caught me by the hand and turned me to face him, pressing his lips together into a grim line.
“I know… it’s just we haven’t heard a thing for, how long has it been? I can’t keep track. What if she does get to him?”
He stroked my cheek and shook his head slowly.
“You’re certain?”
He nodded once.
“Can we trust Nox?” I inquired, locking eyes with him. I wanted his raw opinion.
He held out a hand and tilted it left then right.
“So-so? But last night was a good sign, right? I mean, he introduced me to people who’ve been hiding for years. Then he brought me back to you. I know he took off this morning, but that doesn’t have to mean he’s up to something sinister, does it?”
He took a deep breath and I could tell the shake of his head was reluctant.
“So, we trust him?”
He sighed and nodded, and I turned around and started walking again. “Okay, I feel a bit better now… when do you think we’ll see Sayer next? Is Glinda going to send him when we reach the tower? Will she come herself? Do you really think she’ll attack me, or do you think she’ll try to find a way around it?”
He tapped me on the shoulder, and I stopped my nervous rambling.
He stepped around me and pointed at my chest. I looked down at his hand, and he splayed his fingers then used his thumb to signal over his shoulder.
I smiled. “Okay, let’s get there first.”
His smile was reassuring as he reached for me and pulled me into his chest. We stayed there for a few moments together. Just us. He kissed the top of my head and ran his hand softly up and down my back, comforting me and teasing the nervous tension away.
When he pulled back and looked down at me, he seemed pleased I’d finally shut up.
“Thank you,” I murmured as he placed a gentle kiss on my lips.
He nodded once, smiled, and turned around, taking the lead.
I followed without question. I was happy to follow Fallon.
We stopped for lunch the same as the day before. The trees in this part of the forest were heavily grown over with moss, which made finding somewhere to sit a challenge. Every time I chose a place to sit and got comfortable, moisture seeped through, making me yelp in discomfort. With aching feet I really needed to rest up, if only for a few minutes. I was tired. I was uncomfortable. I was furious with Glinda for oh so many things, and annoyed with Sayer for not finding a way to tell me everything I needed to know. Nox had really ground my gears, causing so much tension with Fallon before taking off and leaving us to it. Asshole.
In the end, I gave up and just changed my pants. The shoes were amazingly helpful for that.
We were about to continue on when I heard twigs snapping.
“Decided to come back, did you?” I teased as a tuft of black fur came into view. I looked for his eyes, but I didn’t find a pair of warm amber orbs—it wasn’t a lion.
Fallon moved with lightning speed, positioning himse
lf between me and the oversized wolf.
I didn’t tell him not to hurt it. Not this time. There was something about its body language that told me it wasn’t going to negotiate.
Fallon swung his sword and the wolf backed up, snarling. The sound echoed behind me, and I spun to see three more equally vicious wolves closing in.
When Nox had approached, there had been something about him, I didn’t quite know what, that told me not to harm him. That he wasn’t a threat. Perhaps I could sense the humanity in him, maybe the difference was in his eyes, since his were a warm amber and these beasts had eyes of piercing light blue. Whatever it was, I had no such feeling now.
“Fallon, I know I said don’t kill stuff, but…” I trailed off, leaving the rest unsaid as the one facing Fallon snarled again and I turned sharply, raising a hand.
On command, a blast of icy wind swept through the trees, causing the boughs to creak and crack. The wolf in front of us crouched, baring its teeth, and I turned to check the other three.
They’d done the same and were creeping forward. It was almost as though they knew how to counter the wind.
Fallon broke away from me, leaving me behind with the three wolves. I didn’t know if he was aware of them or not, but he was busy dealing with the leader of their small pack.
“Shit…” I groaned, realizing I had nothing to defend myself with but Fallon’s small dagger. We were stuck, there was nowhere to run, and no time to try and climb to safety.
Thinking through whatever options we had, I remembered how easily I’d hovered over the battlefield the day Tatiana’s Lioneag fought with the monkeys.
“Fallon,” I called, reaching for him. He didn’t hear me, too focused on the wolf stalking toward him, so I grasped the collar of his shirt and sprang upward.
The wind took us, sweeping us up into the boughs of the closest tree. The wolves leapt forward, snarling and snapping their jaws as they jumped up at the fat trunk. I found my footing on a branch and released Fallon’s collar, turning and grabbing the tree trunk. My hands slipped several times on the wet moss coating the bark, and I was beginning to panic. If I fell, I wasn’t sure I could defend myself. If Fallon fell, I wasn’t sure I could defend him.
Fallon gained his balance almost immediately and pushed me into the trunk while I gained my footing, then he reached instinctively for his most trusted weapon, but his bow was gone. He turned to me with a look of confusion on his face, when a sudden roar drew the wolves’ attention.
I couldn’t make out the direction it had come from, but the wolves seemed to know, as they all turned away from our refuge and formed a semicircle facing north.
Another roar.
This was quieter but came from the south, and the wolves repositioned. I reached for Fallon and tapped his shoulder.
“Where’s your bow?”
He scanned the ground and pointed.
“Shit.” There was no way he could get down there without the wolves spotting him. “Is that Nox?”
He looked back at me with an expression I took to mean, ‘I hope so.’
“What do we do? Wait here and see, or make a run for it?”
He held up his hand and scanned the ground again. I looked down to see the wolves had closed ranks, still facing south. There was no more sound from the forest.
“Is there more than one?” I questioned quietly, watching the wolves’ ears twitch. One of them turned and faced north, the other three crouching and snarling at something to the south. Their hackles were raised, tails hung low, as they waited and we watched.
Twigs snapped below a few meters to my right and I turned my head, hoping to catch a glimpse of whatever was stalking in the dense forest. I couldn’t see anything and glanced back to Fallon, to see he’d moved from the branch beside mine to one lower down. He was facing my way, watching the pack at the foot of the tree.
“Hey,” I called in a loud whisper.
He scowled up at me and pointed to where his bow lay.
I shook my head, but he wasn’t looking. His attention was firmly fixed on the wolf facing north.
Was that the leader? They all looked the same to me and I’d lost track of which was which.
Before I could think any more on it, there was a low growl from one of the trio facing south and out of nowhere, Nox pounced.
Despite his size he was fast, capturing the wolf’s neck in his jaws and dragging it to the ground effortlessly. I could see the force he used to crush the animal’s windpipe, and it kicked and struggled uselessly under his weight.
It was a brutal death, but rather him than me.
The other three reacted a second later, and so did Fallon.
He hung from the branch he was standing on, hanging there for a moment before dropping to the ground. He landed perfectly, bending his knees to absorb the impact and rolling off to the side to retrieve his bow.
By the time the three wolves had caught up with Nox, Fallon had an arrow nocked.
How he took aim and fired so quickly, while the three wolves were moving around so much, fighting to lock their jaws on any part of the lion’s body, was anyone’s guess.
His arrow pierced the side of the wolf nearest and it yelped, before falling to the ground.
With one less enemy pinning him down, Nox was able to roll over, pulling the wolf still caught in his jaws with him.
The wolves on his back released him, only to spring toward his exposed underside. But one misjudged, tearing into his trapped companion instead, and Nox took the chance to regain his footing as another arrow struck one of the remaining wolves in the eye.
It yowled in pain, spinning and rolling, trying to dislodge it, but it was deeply embedded, and the creature was clearly becoming weakened.
Another twang of the bowstring as Fallon fired. This one missed its mark, but pulled the two remaining wolves’ attention to him.
I turned my head, looking where he’d last been, but he had moved to get out of view of the remaining wolves. If they took off after him, Nox would have to give chase and that would put him at a disadvantage.
With just two wolves left to fight off, Nox appeared to have the advantage, and I concentrated on getting myself down from the tree.
In the end, I jumped. My landing wasn’t graceful but it did the job, and I rushed to Fallon.
“Are you okay?”
He nodded and approached one of the wolves, pulling the arrow he’d used to kill it from its body.
“I’m fine,” Nox muttered, kicking one of them in the head, “thanks for asking.”
I turned around and checked him over for injuries. His hair was a mess, and there were a few scratches on his arms and legs. “Sorry. Thank you. We thought you’d left us.”
He tipped back his head, shaking his braids. “I had. Then I heard the pack had been seen around the city ruins and came to check on you. Good thing I did, otherwise you’d have been stuck up that tree all night.”
I looked down awkwardly. I’d been so angry with him before, and then he’d risked his life to help us with those monstrous things. “That was good of you, thank you.”
He crouched to examine the dead wolf he’d just kicked, checking its coat and mouth. “These are unusually large. I’m inclined to think they belong to your friendly southern friend. Their pelts will come in handy for someone, and their meat will feed the birds, so they won’t be wasted out here. Can you wait an hour so I can let the people know they’re here to be skinned, and I’ll escort you the rest of the way?”
I looked sideways to Fallon, seeking his opinion. When he nodded his agreement, I turned back to Nox and replied, “We appreciate it. Thanks.”
Without another word he turned and walked into the forest, and I moved back to the tree I’d hidden in.
“Suppose I should get comfortable,” I muttered, sitting on a large, exposed root, looking at the four corpses scattered around. “Why do you suppose he’s changed his mind about us?”
Fallon looked in the direction Nox had disapp
eared in and narrowed his eyes.
“You still don’t fully trust him?” I asked.
He shrugged.
I understood how he felt. It was hard to know who was a friend, but I couldn’t suspect everyone of being an enemy. If I did that, I’d never have gotten to the fortress and I wouldn’t have Fallon.
We certainly wouldn’t have Sayer.
I still trusted him. I had no reason not to, regardless of what Nox had said. He hadn’t done anything to harm me. He’d kept me safe. He’d helped me and continued to lie to Glinda about us.
But that could just be more lies. More deceit. Him saving his own skin.
No. I couldn’t let thoughts like that in. I’d come too far. I wouldn’t turn against him. I needed him as much as I needed Fallon and our new ally.
Chapter 8
Nox returned wearing different shorts and a heavy belt. As soon as he arrived, we set off walking and continued to do so until long after nightfall. I was waiting for Fallon to indicate he was ready to stop. He, it seemed, was waiting for Nox or me to indicate it was too dark to continue.
“So, you have no idea what you’re capable of?” Nox asked.
I’d been waiting for him to bring that up, so I shrugged, and started, “No. I mean, when Tatiana’s Lioneag and the flying monkey—”
“You’re walking into enemy territory with a mute archer and hitherto untested magical abilities,” he interrupted, pointing out the obvious.
“Well, yeah, but—”
“You need to work out what you can do before you get to the tower. The people living in the area aren’t likely to want to harm you, but you can be sure there’s someone or something waiting to intercept you. Glinda will have this meticulously planned.”
“But Sayer—”
“Can’t be trusted,” he replied crisply.
I stopped walking and turned to Fallon, but he looked away. I wasn’t sure what that meant and looked for somewhere to sit, both mentally and physically weary. The two of them may have been prepared to walk into the night, but my feet were killing me, and I was getting hungry. “What makes you think that?” I demanded. His cryptic shade throwing was pissing me off.
The Quartz Tower (Kingdoms of Oz Book 2) Page 6
