“—traps." I continue, as Kelen's body hits the floor with a dull thud.Ouch. "To be sure there aren’t any traps."
"I think there might've been a trap," replies Stellan, with his mouth full.
Onyx laughs, shaking his head in despair at our best friend. The trap door pops open and we dip behind a hedge, watching closely as they all barrel out with weapons drawn. They skid to a halt. "It's just Kelen," says the bald man.
I zero my gaze in on him. His hand is firmly in his black coat pocket, and I just know the stone is in there. "Thought I asked you to kill him, Tane."
"Well he's sure as fuck dead now," says a hunter at his side.
"We'll leave tomorrow morning," mutters the bald one, and the others nod in agreement. They jump back down the trap door without another glance at the River King.
"You won't be leaving tomorrow," I whisper, as a few more of them head underground.
"So, I'm just saying, Renna. If you open the hatch and I shoot a couple of enchanted arrows in, it'll zap them all without us even having to aim right. That's clever actually. You think Rexxan knew when he gave me these?"
I shrug. "Probably. His father had visions of the future too."
"How does it feel to get fucked by—“ Onyx's hand slaps over Stellan's foul mouth before that sentence can be completed. I think Stellan is having withdrawals from the women and men who frequent his bed. Either that or he has a huge crush on my lover.
"Ready?"
"Born ready."
We hop across the space between us and the trap door in an oddly choreographed dance. It is the route the others took, which tells me it's trap-free. Stellan's middle and index fingers run up and down the feathered fletching on his arrow, waiting for me to open the door.
Sliding two needles from the wraps around my wrists, I put them into the lock, turning them silently with my heart lodged firmly into my mouth. All is quiet, save for the whistling of the wind and the oddly calming noise of Stellan stroking the fletching of his arrow, poised like a cat waiting to strike. Finally, I am met with the satisfying click that tells me I've hit the target.
"Ready?" I whisper, putting an arrow in my own bow. Onyx does the same, and in a split second, I yank open the door. Stellan shoots first, and chaos ensues. Shouting and swearing fill the air as a couple of our new friends pour out of the trap door and charge at us. Arrows and weapons fly in our direction, one skimming my thigh.
Stellan shoots another arrow in, and six of them drop to the ground.Thank you, Rexxan. Onyx, now bored of taking it slow, barrels down underground like a bull in a china shop.
"Onyx! Save some for me!" Yell Stellan and I, at the exact same time. Stellan bends over and laughs, letting me head down first.
Wow, is my first thought. I was expecting a cave. This is more of an...underground house, I suppose. No time to think about it right now, I begin fighting the bald one. He's huge, blocking my swords with a double-sided axe. "Nice," I say, nodding at his weapon.
"You're the sorceress," he snarls. "We have hundreds of people out hunting you."
“Then clearly that’s not enough people, is it?" I suggest, the last word coming out as a shout as I duck under the swing of his axe. "You stole something of ours. We'd like it back."
"We'll get the Fire Stone next, when our shelters are ready,” he replies, his lips curling into a reprehensible grin. "Melt that oversized lover of yours even more than he was last time."
Nope. Fuck this. My intentions of never using my powers to give myself unfair advantage when fighting go out the window at the earliest opportunity. Insurmountable rage courses through my blood, and like Rexxan has shown me night after night, I set the bastard on fire.
He panics, trying to put the flames out by hitting his arm, which presents me with a lovely opportunity to pluck the stone right out of the pocket I thought it was in. It's unexplainably heavy, and I know it's the real one.
"Wow," says Stellan, looking around us once our job is done.
"We'll rest here tonight," I decide.
"Are you joking? We can't delay getting this back into the Vault."
"Yeah, O, and if we leave this mountain now after days without sleep, we'll get killed by the first spy that crosses our path. I struggle to believe that if the enemy can build underground bunkers to wait out the floods, they’ll only have built one. We rest for six hours. We regain strength. We leave."
Stellan lets out a squeal akin to the toddlers I've met in the orphanages, jumping up and down excitedly as he pulls jars of food off the wooden shelves. "There's bread! There's dried fruit! Oh my gods, Onyx.There's cured meat."
"What?" Replies Onyx, his head snapping up as he carries a body up and out of the cave. He tosses it over his shoulder, sprinting back down. I flop on a wooden chair, watching them eat an entire loaf of bread and six apples between them before moving onto the meat.
It's only when Onyx and Stellan are sleeping and I’m staring at the grey, candle-lit ceiling of the bunker that I’m hit with a wave of longing. I miss home, and that’s so bizarre to me because I’ve never had a home to miss. Just a tent that follows me everywhere I go. I adjust in the hope that I might find sleep, gasping under my breath as I lean on a cut on my thigh.
