“Can’t I just leave them off after I go? I swear I’ll put them back on before we reach Kai’s tongue …”
I hope for a laugh. At the very least, asmile.
A happy trinket for me to cling to.
But all I get is silence—taut, tangible silence that only succeeds in making me feel like he’s slipping away, too.
I tip my head to the side, looking up at him through the sodden lengths of my hair, missing the feel of his lips on mine. Of his breath pouring into my lungs.
Filling me up.
“I don’t want to die crushed beneath the weight of your silent anger …”
His eyes darken further. “You’re not dying,” he snarls, the thick, feral words pummeling me.
Weighing me down.
I know all about denial; have drunk from its poisonous well too many times to count. But I don’t want to argue. Not now.
Not again.
“Okay.” I offer him a soft smile that seems to make his eyes harden, like he can see the lie I’m buttering all over my face. But it feels better than sadness. Regret.
Fear.
“I’m going to relieve myself,” I murmur, easing his arm from where it’s still bound around my waist. “Don’t watch.”
“Don’t go far,” he rumbles, and I wave, meandering across the unsteady terrain. I itch the back of my hand, certain there’s something grubbing beneath the skin.
The trees continue to darken, stretching like inky limbs.
Reaching for me.
Finding a nice, cozy shrub, I squat and do my business, re-button my pants, then begin to wander back.
A distant twang makes my ears twitch.
I look up in time to see Rhordyn—a charging blur barreling for me. I don’t get a chance to brace before I’m tackled to the ground so hard and fast all the breath is punched from my lungs.
There’s a thudding sound as something impales the tree not two feet away, and I look up, heart in my throat.
An arrow with a gray fletching wobbles to a still in the trunk. Perfectly level with where my heart would have been a split second ago.
“Did somebody justshootat me?”
Rhordyn snarls, rears back, and crushes me against his chest. I’m lifted, cradled as he bolts through the forest, cutting a zigzag path, dodging an invisible threat while my heart beats me up.
Everything becomes a blur of rain and darkening foliage and booming, ground-crackling sounds that shaft into my tender skull and threaten to split me. The constant change of direction makes my guts tip, flip, and squirm.
I swallow the retching urge inching up my throat, cheeks tingling, hearing more of those thudding sounds.
Too close.
Too many.
I try to tip my head back to glance behind us, but Rhordyn’s violent, air-splitting growl makes me reconsider.
We near a clearing, and I glimpse gray tents through the trees, armored soldiers spilling from their flaps, yelling at each other.
