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Darla batted her eyes at me. “Simple, my dear. Because I’m hilarious.”
“Yeah, you keep telling yourself that.”
“Oh, I will, trust me. I never have a hard time complimenting myself.”
I did let out a dry laugh at that because it was true. While I’d witnessed plenty of people trying to cut Darla down for being too “cocky” or flirtatious in our time of knowing each other, she’d never been phased, and always had an amazing comeback. I liked to think I was learning from her how to be kinder to myself. It wasn’t easy, but the first step was accepting that I wasn’t responsible for every single awful thing that happened in my life or in the lives of those around me.
The Shrouded Shriek was.
With a triple check to my list, we both stood up and headed out—at least we tried to—but we barely got to the court before a familiar wolf shape came bounding up to us.
“Oren?” Darla asked, sounding about as shocked as I felt. “What are you doing here? I thought you and Kai were meeting a new group of Arbiters who sailed here from the main island?”
That was true. While my nights had been spent curled up with Kai, enjoying each other’s presence and each other’s bodies, his days had been chock full as he prepared to meet the Verdanian council and convince them to break the treaty with King Nathaniel. I got the feeling my mate was just thoroughly exhausted with politicking, but it wasn’t like he could escape it yet.
Hopefully soon.
Oren shifted back into his human form rapidly, crackles and steam filling the air. That had to hurt, so unsurprisingly, his face was quite stormy as he straightened.
“You need to hide.”
Well, that wasn’t good.
“What?” Darla exclaimed. “What’s going on?”
“The Camdarian courts have sent a so-called group of peaceful delegates here, apropos of nothing. They’re saying it’s to reaffirm relations with the Isles, but it’s clear to all of us that it’s just a front to do a sweep for us. Aodin gave me instructions on how to get into Tove’s smuggling hold, but we need to cleanse our lodgings of our scents.”
Fuck, that was one of the last things we needed, but at least it wasn’t an army. A group of delegates would be easy to dodge, and while I doubted that would be the last of our problems with the mainland, it would buy us at least a week or two of peace.
“Where’s Kai?” I asked, more than panicked. Why would Oren be in front of us and not my mate? Could he have been caught already?
“He’s going to meet us on the path there, I promise. The Arbiters are doing their best to completely scrub his scent so he can’t accidentally lead any mainland shifters to our places. They’re much more likely to know his scent over any of ours.”
“Are you certain he’ll meet us along the way?”
“I swear it. But we can’t waste any more time. We must go now, and not in a carriage. Aodin’s worried about the stable houses being watched. We took to the woods. He marked a map for Kai and me.”
There was no more explanation, no more questions. The need for speed was quite apparent, and the three of us sprinted off. I’d no doubt that Aodin would have his staff hurry to clean his entire home in our absence, scent-scrubbing the whole place.
But Oren was right. The delegates were much less likely to be familiar with any of our scents. I was sure they had some of our belongings from when we had to flee, but we really were a unit. It was going to be hard to distinguish our scent from Mad Dog’s, from Aodin’s, and from the other members of our entourage, and we had to hope that was enough not to lead them directly to us.
It would be easier to race along in wolf form, but Darla didn’t have one, and I wasn’t sure I was comfortable shifting, considering how inconsistent my magic was. I worried being a wolf would weaken whatever lingering protection from Yvonne I had left, and given the situation and a lack of a certain enchantress, I wasn’t interested in risking it.
Besides, it wasn’t like I would leave Darla behind, and Oren wouldn’t, either. We escaped together or not at all.
So, we sprinted. We ran as fast as we could, calling upon our military training as we exited out of the side of Aodin’s estate, then along an impossible line of trees until we were well into the thick of the jungle.
What I did know was that we weren’t far enough when I felt someone crashing through the bracken. Oren and I reacted automatically, grabbing Darla to stop her, then settling into a triangle formation so all our backs were protected. But we barely got into position when I recognized that scent.
“Kai!” I called, dropping the spell I’d been trying to summon. “You’re safe!”
I felt the flood of relief in our bond a couple of seconds before he finally emerged to our left, looking flushed but happy to see me. I was just as overjoyed, so I ran to him, flinging my arms around his shoulders.
“Ayla, you’re safe. I was half afraid they’d be able to intercept Oren before he could get to you.”
“Like I would ever allow that,” his best friend muttered.
“We’re fine. But we need to hurry. I can’t imagine these delegates are subtle in their searches. Likely they’ll claim it was to protect the Isles,” I said.
