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“I can carry you,” Baxian insisted, even as he slid an arm under Ruhn’s shoulders. Hunt could have sighed with relief at having the burden lessened.
Ruhn said nothing. Didn’t even move as Baxian and Hunt kept him upright.
Lidia shook her head at the Helhound. “You’re both at death’s door. Take Ruhn and go.” Her expression held no room for argument. “Now,” she snarled, and apparently the discussion was over, because she shifted.
Hunt had never seen Lidia in her deer form. She was lovely—her coat a gold so pale it was nearly white. Her golden eyes were framed by thick, dark lashes. A slice of darker gold slashed up between her eyes like a lick of flame.
Lidia looked at Ruhn, though. Only at him.
Half-dangling between Hunt and Baxian, Ruhn stared at her. Still said nothing.
The world seemed to hold its breath as the elegant doe walked up to Ruhn and gently, lovingly, nuzzled his neck.
Ruhn didn’t so much as move. Not a blink as Lidia pulled away, those golden eyes lingering on his face—just a moment longer.
Then she bounded off into the trees, a streak of sunlight that was there and gone.
Like she’d never been.
* * *
Ruhn scanned the forest where Lidia had vanished, his hand rising to his neck. The skin there was warm, as if her touch still lingered.
“Right,” Athalar grunted, stooping to reach for Ruhn’s legs. “On three.” Baxian tightened his grip under Ruhn’s shoulders.
Wings stirred, and Ruhn stirred with them. “Lidia,” he croaked.
But Athalar and Baxian jumped into the skies, both males groaning in agony, the world tilting—and then they were airborne, Athalar holding Ruhn’s legs, Baxian at his shoulders.
Ruhn hung like a sack of potatoes. His stomach flipped at the dizzying drop to the arid ground far below. The mountain rising before them. The glittering blue sea stretching beyond.
Behind them, shooting among the olive trees like a bolt of lightning, raced that beautiful, near-white doe. A hind.
To reach the sea, she’d have to ascend through the hilly groves, and then right up the rocky mountain itself.
Was there a way down on the other side? She’d only mentioned an aerial landing when she’d spoken to Dec. Not a sea rescue. Or a land rescue.
Lidia wasn’t coming.
The realization clanged through Ruhn like a death knell.
“Oh fuck,” Athalar spat, and Ruhn followed the direction of the angel’s gaze behind them.
A pack of two dozen dreadwolves streamed like ants through the forest. All headed straight for that deer.
A wolf larger than the others led the pack—Mordoc. Closing in fast on Lidia as the hills slowed her.
“Stop,” Ruhn rasped. “We have to go back.”
“No,” Athalar said coldly, his grip tightening on Ruhn’s legs.
Which was faster—a deer or a wolf?
If they caught up to her, it’d be over. Lidia had known that, and gone anyway.
“Put me down,” Ruhn snarled, but the malakim held him firm, so hard his bones ached.
The wolves narrowed the distance, as if the hills were nothing to them. But Athalar and Baxian had caught an air current and were soaring swiftly enough now that Lidia rapidly shrank in the distance—
