A Time of Dying (Araneae Nation)

by Edwards, Hailey

  I rolled my eyes skyward. “You’re wasting valuable time splitting hairs.”

  “Yes.” He grasped my wrist and twisted it, and me with it, until my back pressed against his front and I held the knife at my own throat. I was so furious, I vibrated at his laughter. “You are.”

  “Murdoch. You will either agree to my plan or I will scream and tell the guards of yours.”

  “That makes sense,” he conceded, his mouth soft on my neck. “You don’t want me harmed, so you call the guards and spew enough treason to see me hanged. I do applaud your reasoning.”

  With a throttled cry, I sank my elbow in his gut, breaking his hold on my wrist while he gasped at my ear. When I turned, his head was low, his neck close, and I did what I must admit I had wanted to do for some time. I bit him. Hard. I was barely venomous enough to count, but his quick indrawn breath told me he felt the tingle working through his veins. Pressed to me as he was, I felt his arousal swell against my thigh. Its firmness shocked me to my senses, and I released him with a sharp apology I doubt he heard over the sudden pounding of fists at the door.

  “You still awake in there?” The guard paused, listening. “I’ve word Stefan is on his way.”

  I broke from Murdoch’s embrace and shoved him behind me as if that would protect him.

  “Oh good,” I called cheerily. “I’ll wash my face then and prepare for my fitting.”

  “Make it quick.” Boots shuffled as he resettled himself. “He won’t be kept waiting long.”

  Erratic as Stefan had been that day at his shop, I believed the guard’s warning.

  “I’ll be ready,” I assured him. When he let the matter drop, I grasped Murdoch’s collar and tugged him to the window. Pocketing the knife, I patted that pant leg. “Do you need persuasion?”

  He touched the side of his neck, reddened from my teeth. “You bit me.”

  “I did.” I leaned out and caught the rope he’d released during our scuffle.

  “I’ve never been bitten before.”

  I glanced over my shoulder. “You aren’t serious.”

  The ruddy smudges on his cheeks told me he was.

  “Hurry up.” I put the rope in his hand. “Or else I’ll bite you again.”

  “That’s hardly a threat.” He rubbed the spot.

  “Fine.” I shoved him until he sat in the opening. “Hurry up and I’ll bite you again.”

  Twisting around, he let his feet dangle. With practiced ease, he pulled the rope upward, crossing his torso, from his left hip to his right shoulder. The rope crossed his back from his left shoulder to his right hand. Without qualm, he pushed off the ledge and hung from his rope. Once settled, he held out his hand to me.

  I try not to remember how the wind swung us or how my sweaty hands made my grip slip. It was a testament to Murdoch’s skill that we survived, that my flailing managed not to unseat him. Details of our descent are as blurry as my recollection of some dreams and just as happily forgotten.

  An eternity after my feet left the stones of my chamber, they touched ground, and I sagged.

  “No time for that.” Murdoch withdrew a knife and climbed several feet above the ground.

  “What are you—?” I stared, wide-eyed as he cut the rope over his head.

  He landed with a feline’s agility and wound the rope around his arm before affixing it to his hip. A final glance up, then around, and we were off again. Running through the garden, we beat the first cry of the guard by seconds. We took the same door Isolde had led me through, but then he twisted where she had turned and unlatched a heavier door. It swung wide over nothing. There was no light, but the stink of mildew made me sneeze. He stepped into the void with confidence I envied. I clung to him, blind. My feet hit stairs made slick with moisture, and we began a descent into what I realized must be the grotto. I was at once grateful Murdoch had spared me this place.

  “Watch your step.” He reached for my hand, and I stepped beside him.

  We had hit bottom. Even standing still, I had to balance or risk sliding into blackness.

  “Stay close to me.” He led me past what I imagined were cells. They were not in use, and not one torch flickered to illuminate the space. I was left to my imagination, and it was far too vivid.

  “How good is your eyesight?” No one should be as surefooted as he appeared to be.

  He sounded amused. “My night vision is excellent, if that’s what you’re asking.”

  Replaying last night’s lack of light, I understood I had been the only one at a disadvantage.

  “You might have mentioned that sooner.”

  “We are partners now,” he said solemnly. “My secrets are yours for the asking.”

  “You might regret those words,” I teased, to lessen the impact of his vow.

  If I had thought him subtle with his affection, I found him frank with his meanings. He said I drove him insane. I had thought it an insult, though an oddly flattering one. Now I understood the mania he referenced. His body pressed to mine had driven away all thoughts but to claim him, an impulse Mother would shudder to know ever crossed my mind, a fierce desire that surprised me.

  Perhaps Murdoch had been right. Perhaps I did understand force best.

  After all, my teeth piercing the skin of his neck had made perfect sense to me.

  “Here we are.” He placed my hand against the wall to anchor me. “Stay still.”

  Metal grated and loose stone pattered the floor. Several harsh grunts later a burst of fresh air swept past me. In the distance, a shaft of pale morning light made what appeared to be the end of a tunnel glow. Running my hand along the wall, I reached Murdoch and saw he had swung open a hatch. He ushered me ahead, and I picked my way along until he sealed us out and caught me.

  “Where does the tunnel end?” I peered ahead, but the morning’s light was too faint for me.

  “In the forest outside Cathis.” He overcame me with ease and took the position as leader. “It would have been better to avoid this route. All guards know of the grotto, and Vaughn especially is fond of this exit when he craves escaping the city for a while. They will look for us here first.”

  “Then we should have a care not to be here when they do.”

  “We’ll bypass the waterfall.” He glanced back at me. “There’s a cavern there. It’s obvious. I doubt the paladin would waste time searching it, but we can hope the guards he sends might try.”

  “I wondered at the noise.” It made my earring vibrate, but not in the way the harbinger did.

  “I’ve heard it said there are all types of underground waterways beneath Cathis. Gods know it’s damp enough in the grotto.” He plunged through foliage into the forest without hesitation.

  “I heard in Beltania there were canis in these woods.” I eased down the path his body made.

  “There are.” He glanced around us. “They keep to themselves, though.”

  “That’s good.” If they only continued to do so.

  “Don’t concern yourself. We’ll clear their territory soon enough.”

  “How long do you think that will take?” Mimetidae lands were vast. Surely the canis hadn’t claimed all Mimetidae holdings as theirs. I had managed to avoid canis thus far, and I prayed my luck held.

  “It depends on how long we can keep up this pace.” He seemed reluctant to admit, “Our best chance at reaching Titania is on foot. There’s nothing but forest between there and here. No beast can run through them. We can travel lighter alone, and we’ll have two ways less to split rations.”

  “That’s good to hear since a quarter of nothing is still nothing.” But I had made do with less.

  He cast me a strange look. “You think I would leave on such a journey without supplies?”

  I bit my tongue to keep from admitting it was exactly what I thought we had done. “Do you know something I don’t?”

  “Many things,” he said with a grin in his voice. “I ran these woods as a boy. I patrolled them when I grew older, and there’s one thing ev
ery guard knows, and that is to expect the unexpected will happen the moment you least anticipate it will.” He pointed at a spot up ahead. “Up there to your right, see that leaning pine? There’s a cache hidden at its base. We’ll find food, clothes and skins for water. Weapons and tools are a given, perhaps a bedroll depending who stocked it last.”

  “They’ll know we stopped for supplies.” They must realize we left in haste.

  “They will, but there are caches scattered all through these woods. Until they catch our scent we have a measure of protection. This cache in particular is one used by friends of mine. They’re not the sort who take without giving back twofold. If we reach it, we can survive off its stores.”

  “Will the others guess where we’re headed?”

  “They won’t have to.” He tapped his nose. “Once they catch our scents, they’ll be on to us.”

  “Can we outrun them?”

  “We don’t have to. We just have to outsmart them until we reach Titania.”

  “They won’t dare cross into our woods without Hishima’s permission.” That gave me relief.

  “I wouldn’t say that.” Chagrined at his expense, he said, “They won’t be caught doing it.”

  The thought rankled me. “Are your guards so familiar with our land?”

  “Few know their borders better than the Mimetidae. Beyond them, you and I will hold the advantage. You will save us valuable time. While the others are looking for a way in, we will be raiding the caverns for the proof we need. If we meet the others in the middle, afterward, then so much the better. We can use all the extra hands we can get to restrain the harbinger once she’s captured. After seeing her, they should be swayed to our cause long enough to get her to Cathis.”

  “It’s a serviceable plan.” It was simple, straightforward and likely to get us killed.

  “If you think of one better, feel free to share it.”

  Directing my thoughts inward, I tried concocting a better plan for us, a safer way to get what we needed. I thought of no angle Murdoch’s plan was not fit to cover. Simple, in this case, was best. It had been a long time since I had been to Titania, and I had no idea what state of recovery she was in now. The streets might be as pitifully bare as Cathis or worse. I forced myself not to speculate.

  “Stand watch and I’ll dig it up.” Murdoch put a hand on my shoulder and gave me direction.

  I stared where he pointed, the likeliest spot for any who followed us to appear. I began studying the area as well. If these males knew him half as well as he knew them, we might be surrounded before realizing the magnitude of the trap we walked into.

  He uncovered a short-neck spade matted in the underbrush. After he determined the cache’s location, digging met my ears. Metal on root. Grunt. Metal on dirt. Pant. Metal on rock. Swear.

  It was familiar enough to be a lullaby for me.

  “There we are,” Murdoch said at last. “It’s all as I said it would be.”

  “Do you need help carrying supplies?” I abandoned sentry duty to study his findings.

  “There’s only one pack.” He slid it onto his back. “There are weapons here, nothing fancy.”

  “I have all I need.” I patted my pocket, taking comfort in Bram’s small blade.

  He shoved a few items into his pockets and into the pack before he stood. “We’ve wasted as much time here as we dare. It would be safer to leave the patrol routes for the thicker passages.”

  We had turned to go when I saw the short spade leaned against the tree. The decision took a split second. I darted over the gaping hole Murdoch had left unfilled and snagged the tiny spade. Its handle was worn and cracked from exposure. It was not the same quality as the one I had left with Isolde, but it would do. While I didn’t expect to dig up any graves on this trip, you never knew.

  When Murdoch caught me picking rust from the weather-beaten metal, his smile blinded me in a way that even the morning sun glancing off the rolled handle failed to do. He didn’t ask what use a spade was against a harbinger. He seemed to realize it was a comfort item for me, one that held a practical use. If I required a token to calm my nerves, at least I had chosen this useful one.

  Besides, my unconventional choice of weapon was worth Murdoch’s throaty chuckle, worth the light filtering through the trees to dapple his shoulders as he shook his head of midnight hair.

  Chapter Ten

  Better females than I had made the journey from Cathis to Titania inside of seven days. Late into our first morning, after a night of no sleep, I began dragging. Murdoch forged ahead, and he set a grueling pace. Though I had done my fair share of walking these past few months, and I did possess enviable endurance, those applied to my own slower gait and not to his long-legged one.

  A stitch caught my side, and I put a hand to it, frustrated by pain that hobbled me further.

  Murdoch chose that moment to check on me. “We’ll stop here and catch our breath.”

  “Are you tired?” Though he stood waiting, I kept walking and finally passed him.

  It was a short-lived lead.

  “Yes.” He wrapped his arm around my waist and lifted me off my feet. “I am.”

  After kicking a pile of loose pine straw into a mound at the base of a tree, he dropped onto it with a grunt and sat me across his lap. His head fell back against the trunk, and his eyes closed. I watched him breathing easily and knew we had stopped for my benefit. I thumbed his eyelid and pushed it open. His other remained resolutely closed. His lips, though, curved at their edges.

  “Well?” He stared at me unblinking, which was no doubt due to my grip on his lid.

  “Nothing.” The steadiness of his gaze unnerved me. “Rest while you can.”

  Crooking an arm around my shoulders, he drew me close, and I nestled my face into his neck. “Only if you will.”

  I shoved him. “Must everything be a negotiation with you?”

  He rested his chin atop my head. “Must everything be a battle with you?”

  “I have learned to fight for what I want.” It was how I had survived on my own.

  “Even if what you desire would be freely given?”

  “Especially then. Being offered things of value at no cost is when you should be wariest.”

  “So rather than accept an offer, you think it best to force others into making the same deal?”

  I huffed. “I was bargaining in terms you understood.”

  “Huh.” He rubbed his bite marks. “So that’s what you were doing.”

  “Yes.” I pulled at his hand. “The bite was incidental.”

  “Was it?” He traced my lips with his fingertip.

  I resisted the urge to nip him. He might like it too much. “It got your attention, didn’t it?”

  “Yes.” His voice went husky. “It did.”

  “You liked it.” My eyes widened. “You actually want me to do it again.”

  His grin was at once roguish and shy. I’m not sure how he managed the combination.

  “You did say if I hurried you would bite me again.” He paused. “I hurried.”

  I thumped his chin. “You are incorrigible.”

  “Where you’re concerned, yes.” He cupped my neck in his palm. “I possessed some sense of self-preservation before we met. After…” His thumb stroked my pulse. “I’ve been more reckless this week than I have in all of my life. I haven’t been the same since the night you stabbed me.”

  “You had to remind me.” I groaned and put my face in my hands. “See a physician for it.”

  Peeling aside one of my hands, he set it on his chest. “I fear my condition is untreatable.”

  My heart melted. His quiet ways had won me. Why had we not met when our lives were our own? Why find one another now, when the future loomed so uncertain? Why torment both of us?

  Never would I have imagined he was capable of such tenderness. The way he poked fun at a situation he had to find as strange as I did endeared him to me. Once, he said that I understood force. Perhaps that explained
why these tender moods confused me.

  “I’m no healer, but I have often observed Mana at her work.” I straddled his lap. Let him tug me flush against him. His heart thumped hard beneath my hand. “Let me see if I can’t cure you.”

  Breathing him in, I feathered my lips over his jaw, down his neck, where I scraped my teeth.

  Murdoch inhaled harshly and held his breath. I delighted in swirling my tongue across his skin while smoothing my hands over his broad shoulders and lower, past his thick arms, to link hands.

  “I don’t mean to question your credentials…” he hissed when I nipped his ear, “…but is the cure supposed to hurt worse than the condition it treats?” He gripped my wrist and held it steady.

  “Your heart does seem overtaxed.” I feigned regret. “Perhaps I should try curing you later.”

  “I want it now.” He turned his mouth against the inside of my wrist and pressed a kiss there.

  Chills swept down my arms. “You want what, exactly?”

  He didn’t hesitate. “You.”

  Sliding his hands through my hair, he bent me to him. Impatient for the arrival of my mouth, his met mine halfway. His lips were firm, his tongue demanding as he coaxed my mouth open to him. Murdoch’s taste was as complex as the rest of him. He filled my senses, and I moaned at it.

  Too soon he turned his face aside, allowing me to taste my mark upon him.

  “We can’t do this.” He was breathless. “Not while you belong to someone else.”

  Part of me knew he was wrong. I no longer belonged to Hishima in heart or in body. The other part felt Murdoch hard between my thighs and didn’t care who was right.

  Before I became this shadow of my former self, I had enjoyed the pleasure found in the male form. I had always been tame in my tastes, but I wondered, what might this wilder Kaidi crave?

  He gripped my hips, held me down as his hips rolled to meet mine.

  “If we don’t leave now,” he said, out of breath, “we won’t be leaving any time soon.”

  Tempted as I was to force his hand, he was right. With supreme effort, I mustered resolve. “We will finish this. Later.”