by S. D. Grimm
Ryan glanced around him. His bow. He picked it up and grabbed four arrows. Nocked one. Held three others in his hand. Line taut. Eyes locked on his target. He released an arrow. It sank into the giant’s ear. The monster snarled, and Ryan stalked to the side. As the giant turned, his foot shifted off Jayden’s cloak. She rolled out of the way.
Ryan focused. Let out a breath. Shot the second arrow. It lodged in the giant’s eye. Everything seemed to stall as the beast fell to his knees.
Jayden scrambled to find her weapon on the ground.
The giant, even dying, picked up his Morningstar and aimed it at Jayden. He’d kill her.
Now it was time for the sword.
A cry escaped Ryan’s throat as he raced forward. He swung. The blade glinted in the sun, drying blood mixed with something so pure—like sunshine. He couldn’t stop it now. Couldn’t change his mind. Momentum stole that choice. He had to own the fact that he’d chosen to make a killing blow.
The blade sliced into the giant’s neck and cut clean through. His grotesque face contorted then spun in circles as his head left his neck, a stream of red flowing out after it. The head landed near Jayden.
Ryan’s knees gave away as the headless heap crashed to the ground.
He’d . . . he’d killed someone.
A purr thundered in his skull.
Chapter 12
Muzzled Dragon
Jayden screamed as the giant’s head hit the ground beside her.
Her breathing quieted and she clutched her injured arm. That enemy couldn’t hurt her anymore. As the body of the giant collapsed, she caught sight of Ryan on the other side.
He sank to his knees, staring at the dead giant.
Oh no. He’d been forced to kill. She picked up her weapons and raced over to him. Knelt beside him. Crimson trickled down the side of his face, and the ripped fabric in his pants revealed a huge gash. But he was okay. Physically.
“Ryan?” She gingerly touched the side of his head. He winced and pulled away from her hand.
His eyes focused on her, and at once his mask of a smile returned. “I might have a headache for a whole season.”
He was joking right now? Something about that calmed her quaking.
His eyebrows knitted together and he touched her cheek. “You okay?”
She wrapped her good arm around him and buried her face in his chest. “If you weren’t here—”
“I was.” He hugged her. “But Logan and the others aren’t back yet.”
The words “with Chloe” lingered unspoken on the end of his sentence.
Westwind raced up to them, blood staining his muzzle. Ears back, he scanned her body and whined.
“I’m fine.” She touched him. “Are you okay? Where are—”
Her question died as Logan, Melanie, and Gavin returned. They brought someone with them, but it wasn’t Chloe. It was a soldier, and judging by the sword tip in his back and rope around his wrists, his presence with them wasn’t by choice.
Logan pushed the man, who stumbled to his knees with a thump. “We caught this one fleeing. It seems someone else joined our fight. We don’t know who, but a group of Franco’s men was ambushed.”
“Chloe?” Ryan’s voice cracked.
Logan pressed his blade to the captive’s neck. “We’ll get information out of this one.”
Jayden gasped when she saw the tattoo of the queen’s crest on the back of the man’s hand. A muzzled dragon. The first of Thea’s warnings rang clear in Jayden’s mind: He’d rather die than talk.
Logan leaned closer to the captive, his sword tight to the man’s skin. “How did you find us?”
The man laughed, a deep, wicked sound that gave Jayden gooseflesh. He looked right into her eyes and chilled her bones.
“He wants you. You can’t stop him. If he can’t have you, he’ll kill everyone you love. He’ll make sure the Feravolk are destroyed.”
Jayden stepped toward him. “Franco.” His name emptied her lungs. Would she never be rid of the man who had the ability to spread fear into her veins?
The prisoner’s unflinching gaze bored into Jayden. “You know what to do.” Then he thrust his head forward, and Logan’s sword punctured his throat.
Blood pooled out, black as pitch, and his head fell back.
Jayden turned away. How could anyone do that to themselves?
Ryan pulled her away from the body. “His blood is black.”
“Clear out of here.” Logan held out his hands to tell them to stay back. “I don’t know if it’s magic or sickness. And I’m not sticking around to find out.”
“Logan,” Gavin said. “Callie and Glider found more soldiers headed this way. We need to backtrack.”
“How will we find Chloe now?” Ryan’s voice seemed so small.
A tingle prickled behind Jayden’s ears—a warning that someone’s emotions were too strong for her to block on her own. Ryan’s. She looked up at him, and his pain and worry crashed into her. She clutched her daggers. Breathed deep. Now was not the time to let emotions ruin her ability to focus. She touched his arm, hoping that would help.
His return glance bled gratitude, but the worry hadn’t lessened.
Gavin gripped Ryan’s shoulder. “Glider thinks he spotted Chloe down by the lake. She’s not alone.”
Logan faced Ryan and Jayden. “Let Melanie take care of your wounds, and we’ll rescue Chloe.”
Ryan stepped forward. “I’ll—”
“Stay with Jayden and your sisters.” Logan’s gaze didn’t flinch, and Ryan finally conceded.
Jayden tried not to wince as Melanie sewed the last stitch on her arm.
Melanie wrapped a makeshift bandage around it. “Unfortunately, it’ll leave a scar.”
Jayden let her sleeve fall over the gash. Scarring was not her main worry. Why weren’t Gavin and Logan back yet? And where was Chloe? “Have they found her?”
Melanie shook her head. She looked unruffled, but Jayden opened her talent. Her stomach seemed to tie in twice as many knots. She closed her eyes and turned away from Melanie. The herd of galloping horses in her stomach didn’t thin. She pulled out her dagger and held the hilt. Channeled everything she felt into her bond with the weapon. The thunder of hooves on her heart seemed to lessen.
Melanie’s hand covered Jayden’s, not in comfort. She was stiff and still. This was a warning. She stood. “Callie says the men are surrounded.”
Jayden grabbed her pack and sprang up. “Are they okay?”
Everyone else grabbed their supplies and stood. Echoes of their worry returned, and she could hardly breathe. She glanced at Ryan, and the hope in his eyes sent a ray of warmth through her. Even so she tried to turn her talent off.
“Follow me.” Melanie covered her blonde hair with her Feravolk cloak and headed the way the men had gone. Her boots barely made a sound. Jayden tripped on too many sticks to count. They followed in silence until Melanie stopped. Finger to her lips, she faced them. Movement in the trees had Jayden reaching for her weapon until a familiar face rounded a tree.
Logan lowered his hood.
Jayden glanced into his emotions. Wariness. Typical Logan. But did she also detect a hint of deep regret? “Chloe found a group of Children escaping from the palace. She ran into some of the Royal Army, but helped the Feravolk fight them off. They brought her to their camp.”
“A Feravolk camp out here?” Melanie asked.
Gavin came up from behind them and lowered his hood. “Apparently Children have been escaping from the palace and building an army right here by the palace. They call themselves the Dissenters.” He held his arms out as if showing them something, but Jayden saw nothing but trees.
Melanie sprouted a smile. “Yes. I see it. Very well done.”
Saw what? Jayden saw no people. Smelled no cook fires.
Gavin disappeared.
Jayden stared at the trees in front of her. Then Gavin’s head peeked out from behind some invisible wall, and he motioned for her to follow. She c
omplied, moving toward what she thought was a dense clustering of trees.
A whole town unfolded out of the camouflaged covering of tents arranged between the trees. Jayden stopped in her tracks and stared in wonder at the world she would have walked right past.
Fires blazed. The aromas of stew, potatoes, and sweet bread filtered toward them once they stepped past the camouflage. Gavin led them through a maze of trees and tents until Jayden was certain she’d be easily lost. People mingled everywhere. Animals, too—slinking through the shadows, curled up in the sun, or lurking in the trees.
“How?” She turned in a circle.
“This is how the Feravolk use camouflage.” Gavin smiled.
Logan’s eyes met hers, and worry siphoned into her so that her heart squeezed. He swallowed. “There’s something you should all know. Chloe is fine. She was rescued . . . by Ethan.”
“Ethan?” Jayden’s knees turned to water. Hope dared to rise, and it sparked a part of her heart to life. The part she’d tried so hard to keep numb. “Thea was telling the truth? How is that possible? I thought you said—” She stopped when his sadness grew. Oh. Logan must feel terrible.
“He’s hurt pretty bad.” His voice cracked. “Most of the bleeding has stopped, but—”
Kinsey grabbed Logan’s arm. “Where is he?”
Scout bolted past her, and Ryan and his sisters ran after him.
Jayden forced her leaden feet to follow. They followed Scout into a tent, and she went inside, too. The Grandens clustered around someone. Blood covered his clothes. Scratches and dirt marred his face, but it was him. Her Ethan.
Scout whimpered, his whole body quivered, and he lay down and rested his chin across Ethan’s chest.
It was really him.
Kinsey and Wren knelt near him, holding each other.
Ryan fell to his knees next to his brother, and his shoulders shook.
Jayden cupped her hands over her mouth. Tears flooded her eyes. She blinked them back as she sank to the ground next to Ryan. Gripped his hand in hers.
He looked up at her, his eyes red-rimmed. “I didn’t—Thea was right.”
“It’s okay now,” she whispered as much for him as herself. “He’s going to be okay.” She hugged him until his breathing evened and he wiped his eyes.
“Sorry,” he whispered.
She released him and touched his shoulder. “No need to be.” With her other hand, she grabbed Ethan’s. He didn’t stir, but he was warm. Ethan was alive. She memorized the feel of his hand. Pressed it against her cheek.
Melanie checked Ethan’s wounds.
“How is he?” Jayden’s voice held a tremor she didn’t expect.
Melanie’s eyes softened. “His pulse is weak, but it’s there. Let him rest. They’ve taken good care of him here.”
A redhead entered the tent, and the Grandens sprang up to greet her.
“Chloe!” Wren reached her first and smothered her in a hug.
Chloe sported a few new scratches and bruises but looked otherwise fine.
“You okay?” Ryan asked, his voice rough.
“Thanks to him.” She motioned to Ethan.
“And those Children are all right thanks to him.”
Jayden finally let go of Ethan’s hand and stood as a young man—tall like Ryan, but lanky—entered.
“I’m Richard. Welcome to the Dissenters camp.”
Melanie said, “Gavin tells me you’re all escapees from the palace?”
He nodded. “We have spies inside. They help as many of us Children escape the palace as possible. Idla was building an army—using some sort of spell. We’re not yet sure how, because none of us have been infected with it. But there are people in the palace who are on our side. It’s best to assume Franco is continuing his mother’s work. We want to build our own army to fight him.”
“How is it you keep safe in the palace’s shadow?” Melanie asked.
“We’ll move soon, and we move often, but we have to stay close for the escapees. And we have special talents among us that help us to guess when and where the Royal Army will enter these woods.”
“Clairvoyants?”
Richard simply smiled. “If it weren’t for our Morgan, I think Chloe, Ethan, and the Children they rescued would have been taken back to the palace. She saw it coming and rescued them.”
“I’d like to thank Morgan, then.”
Richard shook his head. “I’ll pass the message along. She’s already left to find her sister.”
“Richard.” A young woman with reddish blonde hair entered the tent. She had fresh blood on her sleeve and a cut beneath her eye. “As ordered, we brought a prisoner.”
“Good, let me talk to him.”
“He’s asking for someone named Jayden.”
Jayden’s heart skipped a beat. “What’s his name?”
“Calls himself Rune,” the young woman replied. “Do you know him?”
“No. How does he know I’m here?”
Richard’s eyes narrowed. “He doesn’t. I’ll talk to him.”
“I’d like to come.” Jayden touched her dagger’s hilt to still the rising emotions battling to get inside of her. A tingle behind her ears told her it wouldn’t be easy to keep them at bay.
Richard motioned for her to follow. Logan and Melanie walked beside her, but Ryan stayed with Ethan.
They approached a young man with a large, hooked nose and skinny arms. Jayden had never seen him before. “Is that the prisoner?”
The young woman nodded. “You recognize him?”
“No.” But perhaps Thea knew him. Maybe she’d sent him. “But I’m not afraid to talk to him.”
They held him with his hands and ankles bound. “I want to speak with Jayden. I have a message for her from King Franco himself.”
He turned toward her, and she noticed a small charm tying his cloak together. A wooden arrow. And it was broken. Thea’s second warning stared her in the face. She’d said a man wearing a broken arrow would tell her what she wanted to know about Franco’s plans.
She didn’t want to admit it, but this time she hoped Thea was right.
Chapter 13
A Broken Arrow
and a White Horse
Jayden stood behind Logan as they approached Rune, but Rune’s gaze found her. Unnerved her. His smile brought no light to his eyes. She fought the urge to recoil.
“You’re Jayden, aren’t you?”
In three strides, Logan was close enough that his sword blade bit into Rune’s neck. “The message?”
Rune’s eyes opened as wide as a frightened horse’s, and he tried to pull back from the sword, only to find two men restricting his movement. His back arched like a startled cat’s. “I—I w-won’t tell you.”
“You will if you value your life.” Logan’s voice was quiet but hard.
“You can threaten all you like—”
“It’s not just a threat. You’re no use to me if you won’t talk.” He pressed the blade deeper, ready to slice the man’s throat open.
Jayden held her breath.
“Wait!” Rune’s knees knocked together, and he sank lower to the ground. “I’m no soldier. I’m a palace bard.”
Logan didn’t answer, didn’t even move. Rune’s eyes flicked to Jayden, and her ears tingled. His fear was attempting to control her.
She stepped forward. “What’s the message?”
“Franco says he never finished things with you. He says if you return to him, he’ll spare your friends, but if you don’t he’ll kill everyone you love. If you don’t return with me within four days, he’ll hunt down your loved ones and kill them. H-he’ll let the Mistress destroy Soleden.”
Jayden’s heart squeezed until it hurt. Why always her family? Her people?
She fisted her hands. “When I face Franco, it’ll be on my time and my terms. And if he doesn’t surrender to me, I’ll kill him.”
“I’ll be sure to let him know.”
Logan grabbed Rune by the shirt collar and
nearly lifted him off the ground. “How does Franco plan to find everyone Jayden loves?”
“He has ways.”
“How?” Logan raised his voice and Rune trembled.
“I don’t know.”
Logan slammed him against the ground and lowered his sword to Rune’s chest. “What does Franco have planned?”
“I truly don’t—”
“A palace bard always knows more than he should.” The blade pushed harder, through clothes, and the tip sank into skin.
“Stop. Please! He’s planning to free the Mistress. All he needs is blood from a female Deliverer, a Whisperer’s tear, and . . . an untraceable seeing stone. Then he has to put them into a Feravolk’s heart to complete the spell that will break her prison open.”
“Where is he performing the spell?”
“I truly don’t know.”
Logan’s shoulders sagged. “You’ve been very helpful. The Creator give you peace.”
Rune’s eyes widened. “I don’t know! I’m telling the—”
Logan thrust his sword through Rune’s heart. “I know you are.”
Jayden turned away, a shaking hand covering her mouth.
Logan touched her shoulder. “I’m sorry. He had to die. He’d seen the camp.”
“I understand.”
“Gavin, will you send Glider to Moon Over Water? I think it’s time we bring Reuben, Beck, and Samantha in on this.” Logan sheathed his sword.
“Perhaps they can meet us halfway?” Gavin said. “I looks like we’re running out of time. We have to stop Franco from freeing the Mistress. That’s what the Deliverers have come for. ‘A sorceress will rise’ and all that. They are the keys to the Creator’s power. You know we aren’t the only ones looking for those keys. Franco can’t be, either. As soon as she’s free, though, she’ll be after the Creator’s power. We have to find the Whisperer and female Deliverer before he does. Soleden’s existence—our existence—depends on it.”
“Agreed.”
“When do we leave?”
Logan was quiet for a moment. “I am not leaving Ethan again. He’s too valuable in protecting Jayden. We will wait here for three days, then we leave.” Logan looked at Jayden. “I’m sorry. This is far from over.”
