The arrows shifted and grated against bone with every bounce of the carriage, and my blood had cleaved my shirt to me. After we made it to the hidden road, I could deal with my injuries and open a portal without fearing someone would follow us.
We rounded another bend, and Ellery pulled on the right rein, directing the horses straight at a bramble of tangled bushes and thorns. Before we arrived, Ellery jerked the reins to the right, where there was a hidden space barely large enough for the horses and carriage to squeeze through.
The carriage wheels caught in some of the briars, but the horses easily tore them free as they raced onward. I leaned back around the carriage as the remaining guard burst free of the brambles and came after us.
He only made it twenty feet before another rope sprang across the road. This one caught the horse’s front legs, and it fell forward, throwing the rider from the saddle as the horse rolled.
One of Tucker’s followers bolted from the woods and cut the guard’s head off before fleeing into the woods. I smiled grimly as I sat upright in the seat again.
“He’s dead. We’re alone.”
One of the horses stumbled and nearly went down, but Ellery jerked up on the line, lifted its head, and helped keep it on its feet. We could open a portal now, but with where we’d planned to meet, there wasn’t much room between the trees; if the horses continued at this reckless pace, the carriage and us would be shattered to pieces.
Ellery let the horses run free for another quarter of a mile before she started reining them in. The gradual easing back on the reins and her soothing words of comfort caused their ears to flick back and forth.
Eventually, her efforts and their exhaustion calmed the beasts enough that they slowed to a walk before halting. Their sides heaved, and white sweat coated their bodies as their nostrils flared with every breath, but they didn’t move while Ellery tied their lines around the brake, pulled her hood free, and turned to me.
“Ryker!” she gasped as her eyes fell on the arrowhead protruding from my chest.
When she reached for me, I grasped her hands to stop her. “I’m fine. We have to move.”
“You’re soaked in blood!”
“It can wait until later. Open a portal.”
Ellery hesitated, but when I released her hands, she lowered them and jumped from the carriage. With my teeth grinding together, I removed my hood as she walked in front of the horses to create a portal.
Every movement caused fire to lance through my body, and more blood spilled as the arrow shafts grated inside me, but I kept my expression blank while I hoisted myself down from the carriage. Once on solid ground, I pulled my sword free.
When a portal opened in front of her, she turned back to the carriage but stopped when she saw me. “What are you doing?”
“Go ahead; I’ll follow you through.”
“There’s no one out there; get back in the carriage.”
“Go.”
“Ryker—”
“Go, Ellery.”
“Stubborn fool,” she muttered as she stalked toward the carriage. “You took your hood off; why would you do that if there was a risk?”
I didn’t reply as she climbed back into the carriage, untied the lines, and tapped them against the horse’s asses. At first, the exhausted animals didn’t move, but they plodded forward when she tapped them again.
I walked behind her as she drove the carriage into the portal. None of Ivan’s men remained, but there were other things in this forest that could follow us through, and I wasn’t going to take the chance of an ambush coming from behind.
CHAPTEREIGHTY-ONE
Ellery
I haltedthe horses and tied their lines around the brake again before climbing from the carriage. I immediately went to Ryker’s side to examine his wounds.
Before I could touch him, he grasped my hands to keep them away from him. “Take care of the horses first.”
“Ryker—”
“I’m fine, but we have to get them unhooked from the carriage in case something happens. We can’t have them bolting into the woods.”
