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Tavion looked to Tristan who groaned then climbed to his feet, his lip curling when I held out a hand to stop him. “No, I can’t do this with an audience. I just need a few minutes. My stomach hurts, just give me…some time.” I looked hopefully at Tavion.
When he just glowered, I switched my gaze to Tristan, giving him my best puppy dog eyes. “Please?” I waved to the rocks. “I’ll be ten feet away. I won’t go any further.”
“Let her fucking go, Tavion, it’s been a long fucking day.” Raz growled. “The girl’s got nowhere to run off to.”
I bowed my head to hide my smile, “No, I really don’t.”
I did throw up. And I peed, then sat on a still-warm-from-the-sun stone with my dress hiked up—just in case anyone came around that pile of rocks to check on me—then pulled Torin’s note out with a shaking hand.
Her haste was evident in her sloppy scrawl.
Anaria-
“Eighteen years ago, your mother and I made a fool’s pact. We hoped your blood was pure enough to entice the king’s magic to abandon him. We were right. When you drew your first breath, all the power of the Fae abandoned Carex and went to you. Adele paid for her betrayal, but she knew the price.
Now you must hide that power from the world for a while longer.”
But I don’t have any power, I thought, my fingers gripping the edges of the letter. Maybe an ember, but no more.
As if Torin saw my innermost thoughts, she went on, “The magic remains within you. The ritual locked the power down, but you must never touch this magic, no matter how dire the circumstances. Once Carex is dead and Caladrius freed, we will decide what is to be done. But using it is too dangerous.”
There was a huge ink blot, as if she thought long and hard about this next part.“Do not trust Carex’s dark brother, he will only use you as his weapon, he has no idea of your true worth. Survive what’s coming, Anaria and trust no one.”
My heart crashed in my chest. Torin believed I wasworthsomething. I doubled over, trying to catch my breath.I still had the king’s magic, locked deep within me. They hadn’t taken it from me after all.
“Are you taking the world’s longest piss or are you dead?” Tristan hollered and I quickly folded up the note and stuffed it in my pocket. “Don’t make me come after you.”
“I’m sorry.” I made a show of straightening my dress. “I was just getting cleaned up.” Tristan glared down at me while I tried to look appropriately pathetic.
“Get your ass back to camp where we can keep an eye…” Tristan blanched white when his gaze lifted over my head, his body freezing with that strange Fae stillness. “Get back to camp, right now.” His deep voice was breathless.
I took one look and nearly collapsed.
Soldiers on horseback flooded the barren plain, little more than a vast dark shadow in the dusk, but the ground beneath our feet rumbled with the thunder of horses.
This time, no one helped me onto the stallion, I hurled myself up into that saddle and was waiting for Tavion by the time he got on behind me. There were dull thuds all around us and I hunched down.
“Arrows.” Tavion muttered, then we were flying down the road, dust rising behind us, giving the Fae King’s forces a visible target.
Solok had brought all of them, by the looks of it.
And our horses were already tired.
* * *
We gallopeduntil Tristan’s horse went down.
He spilled onto the road, a tangle of legs and arms, climbing to his feet with a groan of pain, his shoulder out of place, his arm useless.
“Fuck.” Tristan’s auburn hair was blood-soaked when he limped back to his fallen horse, flailing in the dust like an animal that would never walk again. He already had his knife out, kneeling to slit the beast’s throat, then climbed behind Raz and we raced away into the dark.
The crescent moon was bigger tonight, but even so, the plain was an endless sea of black that stretched in all directions, empty except for the thunderous rumble of the enormous army hunting us.
I blinked wind-blown tears from my eyes, leaned lower onto the stallion’s neck.I should be afraid.
I should be afraid, but I wasn’t.
I kept my eyes focused on the road ahead of us, my future ripe with possibilities. There was nothing behind me, nothing but certain death.
