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No mistake, all the ways he planned to kill us rambled through his skull. His dismissal of me, of Ari, left me feeling much the same.
Rune owed me for allowing him to keep his tongue.
Shadows crawled over knolls and stones. Paths in the thick Mossgrove were covered in leaves and twigs and made silent steps difficult. Not more than a length into the trees, I tossed aside a few brambles and grinned. “This is an old troll burrow. Take cover here. I’ll be back before the next toll. Feel free to muzzle him.”
Calista’s eyes brightened as she snatched up a handful of moss. She laughed with a hidden brutality as Stefan and Niklas pinned Bo to the ground and shoved the moss into his mouth. He spluttered, but Calista made it worse when she took out a tattered, linen scarf from her satchel and wrapped it around Bo’s chin and mouth.
“We’ll keep a watch on him.” She beamed at me, and for half a breath I almost feared for Bo. The girl had a wildness about her, something feral and untamed, and I was oddly drawn to it.
“You’re not going out there alone, are you?” Junius said.
“You mentioned there was more I kept from you. It was true. There is a piece of the tale I have not shared. Did Ari ever speak to you of being followed by a raven?” Niklas and Junie shared a strange look with each other before facing me again. I didn’t explain more and ducked behind a shrub to strip free of my clothes. “It’s true. He does have a raven who is quite devoted to him.”
Eyes closed, I embraced the burn of my shift. Without Astrid’s cruel curse, to shift felt much like sliding into a new set of trousers. One layer of my body shed, while a new texture took form. My body bent into something small and lithe as seamlessly as releasing a long breath.
“By the bleeding gods.” Niklas gaped when he saw my second form. Junius clung to his arm, lips parted.
I spread my wings and shot toward the treetops.
Chapter16
The Raven Queen
From the skythe world always looked different, but tonight—it was unrecognizable. My heart pounded in my narrow chest as I found a position near the top of an evergreen. By the hells, the isles were not the isles I knew.
A bite of relief bloomed through my body when the walls I’d helped secure with Gorm and his court still surrounded the blood fae. More than that, Gorm seemed to be constructing a wall with watchtowers. Several panels of spiked logs were already erected, along with half a tower.
Loyal. Unyielding. Strange. I planned to praise the blood lord until his last breath.
The Court of Blood seemed to be the only place where light remained. Across the barren strips of land where the Mossgrove did not cover, black tents, torches, and smoke from battle camps dotted the ground. Trees were blackened as though they’d been scorched. Massive chunks of the Mossgrove were withered and deadened.
I tried to make out any hint the Court of Serpents was shielded, but shadows surrounded the swamps, from Davorin or spell casts by the forest folk, I couldn’t tell. In the distance, the gleam of the ever-lantern in the divination tower flickered like a star. Honored seers lived in that tower, a round space filled with pamphlets, vellum, and books riddled with star seer prophecies.
Had they been lost to Davorin’s armies? The Court of Stars was reclusive to most fae, and they would fight to keep it so should they be attacked. They cherished their sacred prophecies more than they cherished their children.
Eryka might know. Thoughts of the starlight princess drew me back to the refuge in the Court of Blood. We needed to find a safe route to the gates. I would be seen in the open should I fly out of the trees.
Caves near the hot springs might provide enough cover, then again there could be countless guards surrounding every entrance to the Court of Blood. I needed to signal to Gorm, or Gunnar, or anyone within the gates that we’d returned.
The snap of a branch beneath me drew out a shrill squawk.
“Easy, easy. Saga? That you?”
I blinked. Ten branches away, amber eyes met mine in the dark. The rest of his face was coated in mottled paint, but when he grinned, I knew him at once.
I flew down to Gunnar Strom. He was armed in a bow and quiver of arrows. His blood came from both the earth fae and Alvers, meaning his mind tricks with his mesmer controlled the elements in his arrows.
He never missed his target.
I landed on a branch beside him and pecked his arm.
“I thought I saw you and tried to follow,” Gunnar said, voice low. “Come on, we can’t stay here. There are archers everywhere. In fact, there was one in the tree over there, but he unfortunately ate his own arrow.”
Gunnar winked and tapped the side of his head.
“Hurry,” he said. “We use Hodag’s and Dunker’s burrows. They’re the only way we can manage to move about.”
I fluttered to the ground. The moment he touched the ground, I pecked his head.
