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“Enough,” Ozias growled.
To my utter lack of surprise, that hardly deterred Clay. His brow shot up like the response confirmed everything. But it was Lars who said, “Well, good for you both!”
Always so fucking cheerful, that one. But then he hardly had a reason to be jealous. He could lie with her whenever he liked.
The demon pushed at my skin harder. We could too. She had only to see the truth and then she’d understand.
I bit back a snarl.
“But hold on now,” Clay said, still sounding amused. “How the hell’d you get so far ahead of us so fast, man? We’ve been hiking at top speed for hours, and yet you managed to make it all the way here and still have time for some fun too?”
Sharp discomfort and alarm suddenly flashed over Gwyneira’s face, but she ducked her head quickly, hiding the reaction behind a pretense of fussing with her hair.
I froze. That was odd.
“I track well,” Ozias replied gruffly.
Bullshit.
The thought was as much the demon’s as mine. Ozias may have been acting nearly the same as ever—curt and about as emotionally expressive as a boulder—but Gwyneira’s reaction told another story. Even beyond that, Clay also had a point. No amount of skill at tracking should have given him that much of a lead on us.
No, Ozias was lying somehow. And Gwyneira knew it.
The others didn’t call them on that, though, and for me to do so would only make me look like even more of an ass. But something was wrong here, and nothing in me could just stand by and let it?—
A strange sound like a tide of branches rattling against one another interrupted my thoughts. With the others, I looked to the east.
The trees were rustling. And bending. And?—
Oh, shit.
I spun, lunging for the princess while Dex shouted, “Everybody down!”
And then we were out of time.
13
GWYNEIRA
With incredible speed, Roan lunged for me. Ripping me away from Ozias, he flung me to the ground, covering my body with his own.
Wind hit the clearing like a battering ram.
The blast howled like a wild thing, scouring over us and pelting us with branches and rocks and the gods knew what else as it ripped past. My instincts screamed in panic like everything awful in the world was flooding over me and there was nothing I could do to escape it. To flee would only be to get caught in it. To fight back would be to die. Tucking myself into as tiny a ball as possible, I wrapped my arms around my head and begged the gods to spare us from whatever this was.
It felt like an eternity until the wind finally eased.
Trembling, I started to straighten, only to have panic surge a second time when Roan didn’t do the same. His body was shaking, proving he was alive, but his arms felt like restraints of iron around my body.
He wasn’t letting me go.
I wriggled in his arms. I could feel Ozias somewhere nearby, still alive, and my thrill at our connection earlier had nothing on the gratitude I felt for it now.
But he was in pain. And I couldn’t hear the others at all.
“Roan, let me go.” I twisted my shoulders, trying to break free of his grasp.
His chest hitched in a sudden breath. Sharply, he released me and shoved to his feet, retreating quickly.
