Cole turns, and Tyler watches him go. Just before reaching the clearing, Cole turns back, looking Tyler in the eyes. “Also, Tyler . . . I suspect but cannot speak for the others, but I think Jacob and Noah feel just as strongly about Eve as we do. Goodnight.”
“Rest well,” Tyler says. “Tomorrow, we start a long journey.”
Chapter 18
Eve
Opening my eyes in the grey of the morning, I see Noah awake and Jacob still sound asleep. “Where are Tyler and Cole?”
“I know what you’re thinking, and I think they worked that out last night,” Noah assures me. “They went to hunt down some traveling supplies. There is a manor house not too far away. Considering who owns it, I don’t think a little theft is out of the question.”
“Who owns it? No way,” I ask, a grin breaking out on my face as Noah’s face says it all for me. “The queen?”
“Exactly. It’s one of her royal vacation homes. She rarely visits it, but it should have some things we can use.”
“And Jacob?” I ask, looking back at my snoring companion. “Is he always like this?”
“When he wants to be. Just wait for the first sign of danger, and he’ll be up in an instant.”
I hear hoofbeats approaching, and moments later, Tyler and Cole appear, Tyler looking elated as he pulls out a beautifully shaped heavy bow, the tips made of something black and the handle of a gray wood that glows with inner light.
“An enchanted bow! Not too strong, probably for hunting, but it’ll do,” he says. “We found something for everyone. Even—”
Tyler reaches behind his back and throws something at Jacob. True to Noah’s words, Jacob rolls out of the way, jumping nimbly to his feet, and gives Tyler the finger. “Did you actually get me something, or am I supposed to be happy with an apple?”
“We found you something,” Cole replies. “Best of all, warm clothes. But there’s only one problem. We only found one horse. Which means we only have two.”
My ass is sore, and after riding for hours each day for the past two days, the last thing I want to do is train, but Cole is insistent. “You must learn to ride on your own. That will be tomorrow,” he says as he stands across from me, no softness or sympathy in his voice. My lover and Guardian is gone for a bit. Right now, I’m face to face with Cole the warrior. “And you must become skilled in the forms of combat we have.”
“But . . . this?” I ask, looking at the short sword in my hand. The blade’s not long, maybe only two feet, and just barely wider than my thumb. “This thing looks like an oversized letter opener.”
“The courtsword is a classic weapon of the Guard and a fine all-around weapon. You will find it stronger than it looks. It’s enchanted,” Cole explains. “And you are ready for a weapon.”
I take a deep breath, swinging the blade back and forth. “This feels weird. Your sword’s twice as long.”
“As Jacob tells me often, it is not the size of the blade that counts but how you use it,” Cole says, cracking a slight smirk for the first time in two days of training. “Come. While the others prepare the cloaking enchantment for the night, let us begin.”
We start off cutting at the air, Cole carefully guiding me through the basic cuts, stances, and defenses of the courtsword.
“Raise the tip. Your stance defends neither your body nor your head,” he says, urging me to lift my hand a little more. “Relax the arm . . . not the grip, the arm. There, now thrust!”
When I’m covered in sweat, he sets his sword aside, picking up a slender stick about the length of my courtsword. “Now, let us see what you have learned. Attack.”
I’d question his command, given that he’s unarmed except for a stick, but I think we both know it doesn’t really matter. He’s got centuries of training on me.
I swing my sword, but Cole avoids it easily, whirling behind me and whacking me sharply on the butt with his stick. “Ouch!”
“Off balance. Your attack was clumsy and slow. I’d expect more from a child.”
I turn, pissed off. I thrust, but this time, he steps near me, grabbing my bracer and twirling me around, sending me spinning for three steps.
“Balance, Eve. Come on, you were a police officer and are better trained than this!”
Except it wasn’t with a friggin’ sword.
I take a deep breath, feinting with a low thrust before coming back with a high slash. It was my best move during practice, but Cole intercepts me, blocking my blade before sweeping both of my feet out from under me, causing me to land on the grass in a breathless whoosh.
“Ow. I thought sweeping the leg was only in the movies?”
Cole kneels down, checking my back for any injuries. “Eve, I know I seem strict . . . but we were lucky to have gained the lead on Lysette and the others that we have,” he says. “Tyler’s scouting shows that they do not know where we are just yet . . . but that is only temporary. You must practice hard, for five of us can put up more of a fight than four.”
“And my bracers?” I ask, lifting my arm as he helps me up. “It frustrates me, Cole. I have power inside me, but they hold me back.”
“Perhaps . . . but we can’t trust it yet,” Cole says thoughtfully. “For now, let us train, and there will be time for honing your abilities soon.”
For the next week and a half, life becomes a pattern. We wake up before dawn, making sure our simple camps are cleared and disguised before mounting as the sun rises, where I ride while the others rotate through the other horse. We push them, not to a frothing mess but until they’re tired and the Fae themselves are tired and hungry.
After we break for camp, I train while Noah and Tyler hunt or forage for our food. Jacob and Cole alternate days, Jacob using his small blade skills before Cole works with me on basic swordsmanship.
“We should have you with two blades,” Jacob says as he and Cole discuss my most recent training over dinner one night. The fire is small, just enough to cook with.
“Two blades?” I ask, chewing. Whatever this is, while it might not be expertly prepared, there’s something in the honest to goodness character of the meat that makes it so good. It’s been that way about everything I’ve put in my mouth here in the Fae realm, and it’s hard to focus when I’m eating. “You mean, like you?”
“No, you’d still have the courtsword,” Jacob replies. “The other blade would be a short dirk for parrying, defense, and the occasional trick maneuver. Just think, Princess . . . dirty fighting lessons with me,” he says with a wink.
“Sounds like fun,” I reply, winking back. It’s fun, and I’ve learned to give it back to him as much as he dishes out. It actually gets him to tone it down some when he knows I can take it.
Cole is still my primary teacher, and I’m proud today as I maneuvered my horse through some pretty rough patches of swampy ground today. Still, in order to make sure the horses are rested, we break as soon as we’re back on solid ground, and my thighs are tired from doing all the controlling.
“Prepare yourself,” Cole says as soon as we dismount.
“I’m exhausted,” I admit, shocked when Cole puts his foot in my ass and sends me tumbling.
“The enemy will not wait for you to be rested before they attack. Lysette is too smart for that, and Tyler’s scouting says they have turned. They may be on our trail, regardless of what we do to cover it. Now, out with your blades.”
I unsheathe my sword and knife, holding them just like Jacob has taught me for the first defensive position. Cole pulls his own sword, something that looks like a claymore with a long blade and a slightly Y-shaped cross guard that’s kept me frustrated for ten days. Despite the weight, Cole handles it like it’s an extension of his body, never losing his balance or his form.
Today, he attacks without warning, the tip of his sword aimed right at my chest, but my parrying knife is right on time, meeting the blade as I step and deflecting it away from me as I thrust my courtsword at him.
He moves, of course, but as our practice con
tinues, I feel more and more confident, my steps coming more easily than before. Maybe I’m too tired to think about it. I’m just reacting and then acting, and as Cole’s sword flashes, I start to see . . . openings?
They’re tiny gaps, barely there before they’re gone, but I’m seeing them. Cole presses the attack again, and I try something Jacob taught me yesterday, deflecting not with my knife but with my courtsword as I switch feet.
It works, and Cole grunts as my elbow hits him in the solar plexus and he steps back, smiling grimly. “Good.”
I nod, shocked that I actually got a hit in, proud of myself. Cole steps back, his body gleaming with sweat in the afternoon sun, and a heat different from the sun floods my body. He’s so handsome, his muscles flushed with effort and his eyes gleaming. He looks like a savage sex god, and I have to smile a little.
“Ready to go again?”
Cole nods, and we attack each other, our blades flashing. As we do, I hear the little voice in my head tickling me again.
Do it.
Slip it between his ribs.
He’ll regenerate. He’ll be fine. Show him your power.
Cole attacks again, and I find the opening, stepping inside and reversing my blade. I stop, the point just a fraction of an inch from his flesh, and push him away, dropping both of my weapons.
“What’s wrong?” Cole asks, smiling. “That was a tremendous move.”
“I think I’ve had enough for today,” I gasp, glancing up. Behind Cole, I see a dark image . . . the Rider shimmering in the distance. Maybe now is the time to break the silence and tell them all what I’ve been seeing. “Who’s that?”
Cole turns, peering in the distance before turning back, confused. “Who?”
“The rider,” I reply, lifting a shaky finger. “He’s only about fifty yards away, atop the horse. Can’t you see him?”
Cole looks again, shaking his head. “Eve, there’s no one there.”
“Cole, I’m telling you . . . there is. From the very beginning, he’s been there.”
Chapter 19
Eve
Jacob, Cole, and Noah are armed, gathered at the edge of the clearing Cole and I were using to spar, peering in all directions. “I don’t see anything,” Noah says.
“Noah, I’m telling you again, I saw him. A Dark Rider.”
Jacob looks worried. “Eve, this Dark Rider . . . is this the same being you were talking about in the sewers?”
Before I can respond, Tyler comes in from his scouting mission. “There’s a patrol fire maybe a half-day’s ride behind, but nothing closer.”
“I swear, I saw him!” I tell them. “And yes, Jacob, I’ve seen him before. In the forest, twice in the Warrens, and one other time, just as we were riding the other day. Nothing happened that day, but . . . but I swear he exists, and he’s watching!”
“It is troubling,” Cole concedes, “that you seem to have these visions of a Dark Rider that no one else can see just before dangerous things happen.”
I think about the way the crowd just flowed around the Rider in the Warrens and the way nobody reacted to his presence. Slowly, regretfully, I nod my head.
“What does that mean? In the past few days, I’ve seen more things from fantasy than I can count. Just because you guys can’t see him doesn’t mean he doesn’t exist.”
“We don’t doubt you for a second,” Noah assures me. “What’s the old line? There are more things in heaven and earth than dreamt of in your philosophy? But an invisible horseman is a new one for us. If I had to guess, it’s your demonic power trying to play on your fears. You must ignore it. For now, we can’t do anything about it.”
“Noah’s right. We shall keep a careful watch,” Cole says. “For now, though, let us eat and have a small celebration. You did well in your training today, better than expected.”
“You want to what?” I ask, surprised. “I’m having nervous fits, I nearly stab you, and you want to celebrate?”
Tyler puts an arm around my shoulder. “There will be plenty of tough times ahead. It’s important to take the small moments to find joy when and where we can.”
It’s a fine little party, some quiet singing and long, sensual lovemaking that leaves me sleeping soundly all night. We press on early in the morning, and as we come over a hill, Noah leans over. “We’re entering an area known as Faerundel. It marks the edge of the territory that recognizes Cassina’s rule. That ridgeline will lead us to where we want to go.”
It’s a beautiful country, wild and rugged, with mountains rising like hunched masses in the distance, and I pull my cloak a little tighter around me.
“Is it always this cold?”
“The growing season here is short,” Noah agrees, glancing up as Tyler circles overhead in his bird form. “Tyler says we must move more quickly. The patrol chasing us is pushing their steeds faster.”
We pick up the pace, and for the next hour, we push deeper into the rugged forested lands. It’s beautiful, and what Tyler said last night is correct. I need to enjoy the little things. Right now, I’d be on one tremendous date. Beautiful day, great ride, amazing men . . . what else do I need to have a smile on my face?
Suddenly, I stop, as the sight in front of me strikes hard, shattering the illusion of today’s being a date.
“What the . . . I think I’m going to be sick.”
It’s a field. Maybe at one point, it had wheat, but now it bears a whole different kind of crop. Instead of grain, the field is filled with bodies. The ground is trampled, deep gouges torn in the black earth and smoke rising from the few remaining clusters of plant life. Between the scraps of plants are at least five large stacks of heaped-up corpses, bodies that have been desecrated in ways that make my stomach churn. Men, women, old people . . . children . . . it doesn’t matter. The piles rest while nearby, clearly exhausted, desolate people, their eyes empty and their limbs quaking, dig trenches nearby.
“What happened?” I ask as Noah leads us on. “It looks like a massacre.”
“Likely a demon hound attack,” Noah says sadly before hailing a man who looks halfway still mentally together. “Sir, what happened?”
“The demons came . . . beasts from the blackness,” the man says, shaking his head. “The town guard fled before even unleashing a single arrow. The coward.”
I shiver, looking as one group finishes their trench and starts laying bodies in. One of the workers, a woman, sees a young boy placed in the trench and screams, sobbing as she falls to her knees and cradles him, kissing his forehead over and over. The man Noah’s talking to turns, sighing.
“I thought I made sure nobody was burying their own family. Not until the dirt’s down. Excuse me.”
We keep riding, the horror repeating itself as I try to keep myself composed, and it isn’t until we stop in the town square that I realize I’ve been crying and wipe my face.
“Noah?”
“Yes?” he asks, grabbing a bundle of clothing for Tyler to use once he returns from scouting so he can change quickly. While the Fae seem to have no problems with nudity, the somberness and the chill air will certainly urge Tyler to hurry.
“Is this all . . . is this all because of me?” I ask, my hand shaking as I try to tie off my horse. “My . . . power?”
“Shh,” Noah says urgently before shaking his head. “And no, you’re definitely not to blame. If someone is to blame, it’s those pathetic cowardly guards. They could have at least held off the attack long enough for the innocents to get to safety.”
I nod and sigh. “I wish I felt that way. I feel like all this is my fault . . . like if I just could get this power under control, we could seal the demon realm forever.”
“Your fault?” a townsperson, hearing my words, asks. His eyes are rimmed in red, bloodshot and obviously distraught, and he lifts a trembling finger. “EVIL! DEMON! DEMON!”
The words are picked up by others, and suddenly, I see a small mob coming toward us. I turn to them, my hands clenching as I realize that I may h
ave triggered a massive problem.
“Oh, no.”
Chapter 20
Cole
The size of the crowd catches Cole off guard, quickly swelling to a mob of twenty or more. Cole grabs his sword from where it’s stashed underneath his saddle as the man who screamed at Eve stumbles back, blathering panicked words.
Where did all these people come from? Jacob asks as he readies himself. Tyler’s still scouting their rear and seeing how much of a gap they have on Lysette, but he’s only a few minutes behind. Tyler’s five minutes out!
This fight won’t last five minutes, Noah replies as Jacob retrieves his weapons. Noah strikes first, his staff sweeping in front of the crowd and catching one man in the ankle, sending him off his feet.
“KILL THE DEMON!” someone in the crowd screams, and Cole takes a defensive stance. This is a farming village, and out of seemingly nowhere, weapons appear in almost every hand, common farm tools repurposed for deadly intent, threshers and machetes, staffs that rival Noah’s, and more. Still, there’s more people than there should be. Where did they all come from?
The crowd charges, and Cole strikes, his sword catching a thresher, knocking it from a man’s grasp before Cole’s foot smashes him in the chest, sending him flying back.
“Retreat north!” Cole yells as another man attacks. Cole’s sword flashes, his enchanted blade slicing the machete into pieces before his foot crashes into the man’s balls. He drops, and Cole takes a step back, grimly satisfied. Perhaps in sport or in practice, a kick to the balls would be seen as unfair . . . but sport didn’t involve being outnumbered five to one.
“You!” Eve screams, and Cole looks back, seeing Eve pointing her sword at the rear of the crowd, but Cole doesn’t know what she’s pointing at. Eve’s move creates an opening, and one of the villagers tries to strike, Noah’s staff barely intercepting the blow in time.
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