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The slow crawl to the main road left him straining to hear the exchange, words cutting in and out until his back was pressed against the brick at the intersection.
A chuckle slipped free from the proprietress. “You know moving to the Grand Capital is easier said than done, right? I have an entire business here. I can’t just?—”
“But I can help you with it, and it’ll be even better than before. Please just trust me on this, Nisa. I don’t want to be a Grand Capital messenger forever, but it’s also my home.”
Grey’s head lulled back against the building, relief washing over him. It was just a discussion between friends or lovers—not an interrogation to find the Hunt’s prey.
Right before a shadow stirred just beyond his bad eye’s blind spot, and a gloved hand clamped over his mouth. “There you are, you little brat.” Daz.
Grey tried to rip away, throw his elbow into the macharomancer’s gut, bite through the leather before a meaty arm constricted around his waist and hoisted him off the ground. Panic rippled through him with every flail and struggle to peel either arm off of him—a struggle that grew more frenzied the second they passed the inn door and Doctor Cavan appeared at the opposite end of the alley.
“You’ve been quite the quarry, haven’t you?” Cavan seethed with Daz mere steps away.
Grey gasped as he was dropped to the smooth pavers and tried to break into a sprint, but Daz grabbed the back of his shirt and hurled him against the building wall. Air rushed from his lungs with a quiet cry while Daz shoved an elbow into his back and seized his arms. Cavan’s sudden, viper-like grip on Grey’s jaw lightly scratched his cheek against the brick. A deliberate move not to break the skin and get his attention.
“You will not run from me again, understood?” Cavan growled.
His gloved fingertips dug harder into skin and bone until Grey winced out a, “Y-yes.” Pain radiated from his wrists with the sickening zip of the plastic ties, and Cavan let go. His nose pointed up with a haughty irritation in his turn to open up the back of the dirt-spattered van.
“Let’s get a fucking move on.”
27
NOEL
Caw.
Noel grimaced and pushed himself up in bed, his stomach immediately dropping the second he twisted to glance out the window. Grey wasn’t in bed. His head snapped to the bathroom door. Open. Their room door. Cracked.
Caw.
He cursed and threw back the covers, his mind racing as he pulled on his boots. His hands shook as he scooped up his knife. The world warped around him as he started into the hall, hating how heavy his breathing sounded to his own ears until his sights caught on the fluttering from the window by the stairs.
Caw.
The damned raven paced back and forth on the railing of the next building over, its beak pointed downward to the beat-up van idling on the side of the street. Noel lurched forward, eyes wide and breath fogging the window. Cavan and Daz. Hauling Grey into the back.
“Oh, fuck.”
Noel shoved away and sprinted back down the hall to the room. Both bags were slung over his shoulders. Every pulse turned into another fraction of a second in his run down the hall, the stairs, through the tavern-lobby and onto the street.
Caw.
The rev of an engine might as well have been a gunshot through his heart. He gritted his teeth and pushed through the weight threatening to drop him like a stone, but by the time he reached the corner, the van was already rattling away.
Caw.
Wing shaped shadows spread along the pavers, gliding after it. Noel followed after and dipped into the garage. The clink of his keys against the ignition returned a much sweeter purr.
“I’m coming for you, Grey. Just hold on.”
28
GREY
The methodical grind of metal sliding against stone again and again became Grey’s sole anchor during the bumpy ride. Cavan pursed his lips as he sharpened the blade, a single leg outstretched while the other bent like a makeshift gate between Grey and the doors of the van. Grey’s face pressed into the eroded metal coating of the floor and simply watched him.
Cavan’s nose scrunched up with every passing second until he finally snapped. “What?” Those furious eyes pinned on Grey.
