Chapter Thirteen
Just before sunset, Landyn layin the tall grass of a hilltop overlooking a large group of men setting up camp for the night. Small campfires dotted the valley below him.
Boucher was somewhere in that camp. Landyn was close to finding him. It had been a long time since he wanted revenge. Now, it wasn’t revenge as much as it was a necessity. For all those lives Boucher had slain, for all the people he would endanger if Landyn let him live. He hoped Raven would forgive him for leaving her. It was for her own good. He had to protect her. He had to do for her what he couldn’t for Viola. He couldn’t watch Boucher kill her.
Protecting her was essential because of his vow to John to take care of her. He tried to convince himself there was no other reason. It certainly couldn’t be because of the way she looked at him. Nor the image of her lips and soft body or the feel of their kiss that still stirred his desire.
He slowly retreated from his hiding spot and returned to the horses he had left tethered in a nearby forest.
As he was riding away from the cottage, Raven’s horse had pulled back, rearing onto its hind legs, tugging at the reins, and had almost unhorsed him. After a moment of defiance, the steed had continued with him. Landyn believed Raven had used that high whistle of hers to call the horse back. Landyn should have been prepared for that. But it hadn’t changed his mind.
He rode for the rest of the day, tiring the horses out and finally catching up to Boucher’s squadron.
He found them camped for the night in the valley below. His only obstacle now was to figure out where Boucher was and how to reach him.
His steed pulled at the tethered reins as he approached. Landyn ran a hand along his horse’s nose and whispered calming words to soothe him. For some reason, the horse was nervous. They were far enough away that the men in the valley shouldn’t be causing his horse anxiety. He patted the neck of his horse and stepped out from behind him. Raven’s horse seemed relaxed as he ate some of the grass at his feet.
Suddenly, a man in a beige tunic was shoved to the ground at his feet.
Landyn recoiled, startled, and reached for the handle of his sword.
“You’re getting careless,” Raven said, stepping from behind a thick tree trunk. She gripped her sword tightly in her hand.
Shock blasted through him. How had she found him?
“He’s been following you since the farmer’s cottage,” she said, gesturing to the man cowering on the ground. Her tone was taut.
“How did you find me?” he asked in amazement.
She shoved the tip of her sword into the ground and stepped past him to her horse, spearing Landyn with a burning look of rage. She tugged open a saddlebag on her horse and pulled out a piece of rope before returning to the man on the ground. She yanked one of his hands behind his back. “Give me the other one,” she commanded between her teeth.
The man grimaced but did not comply.
Landyn took a step forward to help Raven.
She grabbed the man’s brown hair and yanked his head back. “You’ve been a pain in my arse all day. I’d love to slit your throat.”
He groaned from an open mouth that had lost many teeth. He reluctantly put his hand behind his back.
She wrapped the rope around his wrists and pulled it tightly. Then she turned her full anger on Landyn. Like rays of fury, her eyes scorched him.
He almost recoiled beneath the weight of her rage.
She rose stiffly. Her hands balled into fists. “I should run you through.”
The man on the ground lifted his gaze to look at Landyn in curiosity.
Landyn held up his hands in supplication. “I know you’re angry—”
“You have no idea how angry,” she snarled through clenched teeth. “You took Thunder.”
“I had to take him. You would have followed me.”
“Istillfollowed you.”
He was both impressed and annoyed that she had. He had underestimated her. “I had to take him. It was the only way to prevent you from following me. The only way to keep you safe,” he admitted.
“Keep me safe?” she repeated in disgust. “I didn’t ask you to do so. I don’t need you to keep me safe.”
