Demory barred her next attack, locking their swords for a brief moment. His eyes were dark with determination as he lunged forward, hooking his foot behind hers and pushing her off balance.
Raven stumbled backward, hitting the ground with a thud. Demory launched an offensive flurry of strikes, giving Raven no chance to counter his attack, only blocking his swings as he rained blows down on her.
Landyn inched forward but didn’t interfere.
Raven lifted her sword up, tightening her grip around the hilt as she desperately fought off Demory’s relentless attack. Each strike sent tremors through her arm, sapping her strength.
The last sunlight glinted off an object to her left, catching her eye. She shifted her gaze in its direction, and a glimmer of hope blossomed inside her.
He struck her weapon again, the crash ringing out through the cemetery. Before he could raise it, Raven snatched the dagger from the weeds and thrust upward with all her might, piercing Demory’s abdomen with its sharp edge.
He stood with the sword raised, his face twisted in agony. His voice was guttural as he uttered a strangled “No,” and threw all his weight into swinging his weapon again.
The blade descended like lightning, yet Raven effortlessly deflected it away with a single flick of her wrist, for there was only desperation behind it.
He fell onto his knees, and Raven scooted back. She gazed into his eyes as his expression changed from anger to confusion. He shook his head in disbelief.
Landyn stepped beside Raven and offered her his hand.
Raven bent to whisper in Demory’s ear. “That’s for my father.”
Demory defiantly grimaced before toppling forward to the ground.
Raven half expected him to rise again, but he didn’t. The air around them was silent and still until she turned to Landyn, her gaze moving to his wounded abdomen. “How bad is it?”
He removed his hand from the cut to look at his palm.
Raven’s stomach lurched when she saw the dark, sticky red smeared across his knuckles. She sheathed her sword. “It should be cleaned and bound.”
“I’ll be well,” he said.
“Raven?” Sage rounded the corner of the boulder and stopped, her hand tightening its grip on the handle of her sword. Marcus came to a halt behind her. With a quick scan of the scene, she asked, “What happened? Is that Demory?”
Raven nodded. “He attacked us. And he was behind a plan to kill Father.”
Sage shook her head as her lips thinned in anger.
Marcus looked toward the stone lion in the front of the cemetery. “Where are Christian and Willow?”
Raven met Landyn’s gaze, explaining, “Christian went the other way to find out who was trailing us.”
“Willow was with him,” Landyn added.
Raven glanced at Landyn’s wound and couldn’t resist touching his arm to comfort him. “We should go to the church and have this cleaned.” Despite her orders, they had split up. Now Landyn was injured, and she had no idea where Willow was. She was angry that they ignored her advice and overwhelmed with guilt that she had allowed it to happen.
“Marcus and I will remain here to decipher the code,” Sage said.
Raven ground her teeth. Sage was still not listening. “We stay together. Look what happened when we didn’t. This was a trap and—”
“A horse,” Marcus said, tilting his head and squinting his eyes in concentration as the distant sound of hoof beats carried through the air.
Raven hurried to the front of the cemetery near the two guardian stone lions.
The horse came into view, her mane flying as Willow rode hard toward them. She pulled on the reins of her horse and slid from the saddle. She stumbled to Raven’s side, her face twisted in a mask of anguish and fear. Willow grasped Raven’s hands and searched her eyes, her lower lip trembling as tears threatened to fall. “They took Christian.They took Christian.”
“What?” Raven asked in confusion. “Who did? Slow down.”
“We have to go after him.” Tears flooded her blue orbs. “We have tohelphim.”
