Page 91 of Dream Reaper

Please, he urged, his emotions tense and tightly coiled.

He was onto something, and she let him flood through her thoughts, taking control of her limbs and actions and reactions. They moved as one, a ghost of a figure sneaking along the edge of the camp, so quietly no one noticed them.

Then, only a couple of yards ahead of them, something long and sinewy snaked out of the darkness pooled around a small stand of trees. Ava’s lips parted to shout a warning, but she wasn’t fast enough.

A scream cut her off, reverberating through the camp.

Moments later, a girl streaked past them, caught by the ankle. Her fingernails dug into the dirt as she clawed to stop herself from being dragged into the forest. Ava launched to her feet, energy flooding her veins, sizzling and popping. Somewhere in the recesses of her mind, something like music stirred in the darkness.

Was Dragon humming?

Ava stretched a hand toward the girl. Her wide eyes clapped onto Ava and held.

Then she was gone, ripped from view and dragged into the impenetrable darkness beyond. Ava stared at the place where the girl had disappeared, her pulse a loud echo in ears. Then she jerked and tore after the screaming girl.

CHAPTER 22

JERRID

Talos fought the entire way to the cave. It took all three of them to drag him through the undergrowth with the way he was kicking and screaming into his gag. Once they had him secured, however, he lay still against the wall, eyes seething.

Finnr returned to the camp, but Brynja lingered at the entrance as Jerrid gave the chain one last tug to make sure it was tight enough to keep him contained. He hesitated and then tugged the gag off of Talos’s mouth.

“If you start cussing again, I’ll put it back,” he warned.

Talos bared his teeth but remained blissfully silent.

“That’s better. If you behave yourself, I’ll leave it off.”

Talos opened his mouth but seemed to reconsider and clamped his lips closed again. His gaze slanted toward Brynja and then back to Jerrid.

“I know something you don’t know,” Talos blurted when Jerrid shifted onto the balls of his feet so that he could stand.

Jerrid settled back into a crouch, resisting the urge to see if Brynja was listening. He could hear her sharpening her dagger on a stone behind him. Talos’s eyes glinted, mingled with desperation and a hint of smugness.

“I’m listening,” Jerrid growled. “It had better be good.”

Talos’s cheek twitched. “It’s about Ava. And her brother. I know things about them, things you would benefit from hearing. If you let me go, I’ll tell you.”

“Fat chance.” Jerrid barked a laugh and eased to his feet, joints popping in protest.

When had he started to feel so old?

“If you don’t listen to me,” Talos snarled, firing out the words as if he were running out of time to say them, “she’ll hate you for it. She’ll never forgive you for robbing her of her one chance to save her brother.”

Jerrid stilled. What was he on about? Ava hadn’t even told him that she had a brother…or if she had, he’d forgotten. It hadn’t been important before. As Talos stared at him, eyes so dark they were nearly black in the shadows of the cave, Jerrid had to wonder: was it important now?

He inhaled a deep, aching breath. “Forget it, Talos. You just want me to unchain you, and that isn’t going to happen.”

Talos cussed soundly.

From the entrance of the cave, Brynja called out a mocking, “Ah ah ah. You heard what he said. Any cursing and we’ll put the gag back. And I’ll tie it good and tight, let me tell you.”

Talos clamped his lips closed, but his eyes still flung curses at them both. Jerrid turned his back on him and walked away, wondering if he would regret it later. What if the information that Talos possessed really was important?

He ducked to clear the low entrance to the cave. Brynja had made herself comfortable, feet propped up on a log as she sharpened her dagger. He did a double take before realizing it wasn’t a dagger at all but some sort of small chisel with a flat wedge on the end.

He’d seen his grandfather use such things when carving toy figurines for him and his brothers and sisters when they were little.