“It’s the witch,” Daris hissed in his ear. “That wasn’t Rowan. The witch is trying to lure you inside.”
“You don’t know that.”
Securing the crossbow at his back, he drew his sword, eyes fixed on that door. The fire in the brambles had died down. It didn’t cast enough light to pierce that absolute darkness.
“Don’t—” Daris began.
He ran.
Daris cursed behind him.
Casrian threw himself through the door and rolled. Coming to his feet with his sword in his hand, he tried to make sense of what he was seeing. There was a familiar rushing toward him. A hulking black shape that blended with the shadows. The reflection from the fire off the leathery hide. The gleam of its eyes. He swung across the thing’s chest, readjusted his grip and slashed again for the neck.
But there was movement behind the creature, so he pulled his swing, barely slicing through the skin as he angled his body to meet the new threat.
There was Asher. Pale as a ghost, eyes wide and frantic. His arm was wrapped around a smaller form, supporting her completely. Rowan? Was she hurt? He didn’t have time to look.
“Outside,” he shouted. “Daris is through the door. To the right. Rowan?”
“I’ve got her,” Asher said, and relief shuddered through him.
No time for it.
He positioned himself between Asher and the familiar. The thing lurched forward again. Two steps and he caught it between neck and shoulder. It was too dark. The area too closed. There was something to the right—some presence that was coming closer, making the hairs rise on his body, making the familiar’s movements frantic and jerky.
Fuck.
The witch was coming. They had her full attention now.
He rushed the familiar, striking out and severing a clawed hand that swung at him and he was through the door. Daris had Rowan in his arms. Asher was moving, squinting against the dim light, limping a bit.
“Faster,” he shouted. “She’s here. Emrys!”
And, thank God, Emrys must have heard, because he launched another volley of those flaming arrows that hit the stone behind them just as the familiar burst through the door.
They didn’t pause at the wall. They scurried over the broken stone and ran for Emrys’s position. Casrian covered their retreat.
Witch hunters surrounded them. Emrys was yelling at him, but Casrian didn’t hear anything he said. He dropped to his knees beside Daris who’d collapsed with Rowan as soon as they hit the line of archers. It was dark. The only light was from the fires burning at the fort walls.
It was just enough to see Rowan’s pale face. Her eyes were closed and her thin body looked so small. He put his hand on her chest and didn’t breathe until she did.
Emrys’s medic pushed him out of the way. Asher fell to his knees beside him, speaking quickly. “She has a head wound and her hand is burned. Badly, I think. No. Right one. Yes, there. I don’t think her skull is fractured, but there’s a knot. Definitelyconcussed. She was vomiting earlier. She was still walking when we were on the stairs, but the familiar threw her against the wall.”
Casrian stood, backing up slowly to give them space. His hands were shaking. Somewhere he’d dropped his sword.
Behind him, someone called his name but he couldn’t tear his eyes away from Rowan. A roach scuttled from the forest floor over the curve of her throat toward her mouth. Asher flicked it away. The flat-backed insects were everywhere. Rats too. He could hear them chittering in the dry leaves as they swarmed the ruins, called by the witch as she gathered her power to her.
His hands clenched to fists. “We have to get her out of here.”
She shouldn’t be here. He’d promised her she wouldn’t have to face the witch.
This was his fault.
“Cas.” Emrys’s hand clamped down on his shoulder and spun him around. “What part of “don’t go inside” did you not fucking understand?”
“They were already on their way out. I just helped them through the door. The witch is still alive.”
“No shit.”
