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“Yes,” I crow to the moon. “You did it.”
“Don’t celebrate just yet. Didn’t you say there are three of them?” He takes off again, bounding through the dark streets that grow shoddier the closer we get to the bay.
Sirens blare behind us, and summer realm soldiers spread out, flooding the streets like blood through a body. They’re looking for us, for all of the runaways. I can only hope the other slaves got enough of a head start to escape the city. They’ll be able to hide in the Greenvelde, and once they reach the Vundi, they’ll be golden.
“I thought the hounds were immortal, I guess. It never occurred to me that you could kill them with something as simple as a blade to the head.” I practically vibrate with excitement. “But you did. You killed it.”
He grunts and dashes down a narrow lane that stinks of piss. “We’re going to have to take to the sea.”
“Good.” I bump against his back as he surges forward, carrying me as if I weigh nothing more than a half-empty sack of grain.
“Not good.” He squeezes the back of my thigh, and a thrill shoots through me. “The sea doesn’t lead to the winter realm, and that’s where we’re headed.”
“That’s not where we’re headed.” I make an oomph noise when my ribs ache as he jumps down onto a ratty dock.
“That is where we’re headed.” He pauses. “Where’s my boat?”
“You have a boat?”
He shrugs. “I borrowed one.”
“Who would let a brute like you borrow a boat?”
“I’m not a brute.” He bends over and sets me on my feet.
I feel my ribs. “No, you’re not. Just growly and grouchy.”
His eyes soften as he runs his fingers down my side, light sparkles of green healing the ache. “Sorry about that.”
Is it his touch or the magic that makes my heart beat faster? “It’s okay. I’ve had worse.”
A distant howl punctuates my statement.
He grimaces. “I’d prefer to end these beasts before we leave, but we don’t have the luxury of time.”
I peer back at the city, the lights belying the darkness that oozes through the streets and runs toward us with clawed feet.
“Come on.” He grabs the line for a boat that looks much the worse for wear. “This one will have to do.”
Voices rise, some of them close by. “—escaped from Granthos. They can’t have gotten far. Spread out. We can’t let them get out of the city.”
Gareth pulls me with him and lowers me into the shoddy boat that wobbles so violently I have to grip the sides. I spread my legs and press my feet against the hull just above the mosh of dark water sloshing about in the bottom both to stay dry and steady myself. Silently, he follows me in and yanks the rope free.
“Someone’s going to be pretty peeved when they find their death trap missing.” I wrinkle my nose at what I suspect is the remains of a rat in the filthy water.
“I’ll get us something better as soon as I can.” He grabs the oars and silently lowers them to the water. With a fluid pull, he propels us out into the bay, a low mist covering our departure as the town grows louder. Soldiers are kicking in doors, searching taverns and inns. Worry tries to burrow under my skin—what if the others can’t escape? Should we go back?
A howl nearby cuts through my thoughts like a sword, and I turn. Red eyes watch me from a dock not 50 paces away. It’s the alpha, Kizriel, his gaze fixed on me, his eyes like red coals that burn so brightly they’re visible even through the fog.
“Can they swim?” Gareth grunts and pulls even harder, picking up speed.
“I don’t know. I hope not.” I wrap my arms around myself.
“They won’t hurt you ever again.” He spits toward the alpha.
We glide away as more soldiers pour into the streets. The red eyes fade from view, and just as I relax a little, a low, rasping voice flows across the water. “Mine,” it says.
“They talk?” Gareth’s brows rise.
“No.” I stare with horror, but the fog obscures the nightmare. He’s out there, though. I can feel him. “At least, I didn’t know they could.”
“Doesn’t matter. The guards will round them up, give them to another sick bastard to take care of.”
“Mmm.” I want to agree, but I’m not so sure. I always knew the alpha was cunning, but perhaps I’d underestimated him. Mine reverberates through my mind, and I shiver.
Gareth reaches forward and squeezes my knee gently as we coast along the water. “You’re safe. They can’t get you. They’re gone.”
I take a deep breath and try to shake off the fear. “Okay.”
He gives me a curt nod and begins rowing again, the moonlight playing along his flexing biceps and sending my thoughts in a more welcome direction. Lust is the perfect salve for terror, especially when the look of Gareth flexing every bit of his thick muscles warms me so thoroughly.
“If you keep looking at me like that, I’ll have to stop rowing,” he grits out, his gaze traveling down to where my legs are spread to stay above the water.
“This new, direct Gareth is rather fascinating.” I peer at him.
“I intend to show you just how direct I can be as soon as we’re away from this accursed island and on our way back to the winter realm.” He keeps his eyes locked on mine.
“I told you I’m not going to the winter realm.”
“Yes, you are.”
“No I’m not. I’m going to the southern mines.” I shrug. “When I’m done vacationing there, perhaps I will visit the winter realm for a trip. I heard you fools strap polished strips of wood to your feet and slide down mountains. I’d like to try that.”
“Skiing.”
“Eh?”
“It’s called skiing.” How does he talk when his jaw is that tight? “And I’ll happily take you skiing when we return to the winter realm. Which we are doing now. We are not going south.”
“I am.”
“You’re not.”
“Okay I’m not.” My wide grin provokes him perfectly.
“I mean it.”
“So do I.”
“I will drag you to the winter realm.”
“Sounds rough.” I waggle my brows. “In a good way.”
“Is that what you want? I will put you over my knee and give you a lesson on who’s in charge, and then I’ll tie you up and carry you there.”
“Is that supposed to be a threat?” I trail one hand down my throat, past my breasts, and rest it on my thigh. “Because it sounds like foreplay to me.”
“Changeling,” he growls, his eyes fixated on me.
My cheeks heat and my nipples harden under his direct gaze. “Cold out here.” I quirk a smile at him.
“You tease a dangerous fae, my beloved.” He murders the oars with hard strokes. “I would not tempt the feral.”
“Really?” My smile grows. “After all that time we spent in the Greenvelde and the Red Plains with you treating me as a wastrel, after all the ways you ignored me on the journey back from the Gray Mountains, all the ways you made me feel as if you had no interest in me and didn’t care for me? Now you tell me I shouldn’t tempt you?” I ease my hands down my legs and slowly pull up the hem of my dress.
