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Jude left through the flap, then peeked back inside. “You might want to come see this.”
Luc, with Nix leaning heavily on him, followed the prince and his guards to where another soldier held a young boy of eleven or twelve by the back of his filthy overalls.
“Found the urchin lurking behind your tent.”
“I just wanted to see a prince,” the boy snapped, jerking in the soldier’s grip.
“Well, boy? Why did you think a prince was here?” Brendsen said.
The boy’s thrashing stopped, and his bright eyes leveled on Brendsen in a way that unnerved Luc. There was something wrong about it, but he couldn’t identify what.
“Rumors,” the boy said, shoving his hands into the deep pockets of his pants. “Heard the prince’s wife is stuck behind the hedge. And there’s magic.” He tilted his dirty blond head at the hedge.
“Let him go,” Lachlan ordered the soldier, who complied. “It’s dangerous,” he told the boy. “Best you stay clear of it, yes?”
The boy’s unnerving gaze slid over Lachlan in a way that made Luc tilt his head. There was something threatening in it. Something… familiar.
“Yes,” the boy replied.
“Be off with you,” the soldier said, pushing the boy out toward the roadway.
The boy stopped and looked at them all, his eyes jumping to each one of them, as if memorizing them. His gaze lingered on Nix and Luc for a moment longer, then he turned and ran, his bare feet kicking up dust.
“That was… odd,” Lachlan said, clearly as unnerved as Luc.
“How do we find the witch?” Johesha asked, reminding them they had a task.
“Can you do it?” Luc asked Nix. When Nix nodded, he said, “He’ll summon this Baba.”
“Why would she answer?”
“Most magical beings can’t resist a god call,” Luc answered. “Especially if there’s something to be acquired from the god. We’ll make it worth her while.”
“We should be prepared. We saw what the creature could do. In the field,” Johesha said.
“Prepared for what?” Lachlan asked. “We did see what it could do. There’s nothing we possess that could stop that entity if it wants to end us.” Then he disappeared inside his tent, leaving that grim thought for them to ponder.
Johesha stared at where Lachlan had disappeared, turned to look at the hedge with his dark eyes, then nodded and followed his prince into the tent.
Luc, with Nix leaning heavily on him, said, “I think you should summon Lexa.”
“Why?”
“For backup.”
Nix nodded, then closed his eyes and was quiet, leaving Luc to worry that his brother might not make it through the day. And Luc knew right then and there that he would do everything in his power to make sure Nix would. Even if it meant making an impossible choice.
29
“Hold on,” he’d said before leaving her, cradling her face in his palms.
Then he was gone, and his absence left her aching, as the gray world worked harder to drag her under.
Brinna reached for Auri and fell into her mind, if only to do something to keep her connected to this plane of the dream. When she surfaced inside her sister’s dream, Auri laying on her back on a beach again, the sea washing over her feet, her eyes closed.
Brinna rushed to her side. “Auri. Auri,” she cried out, and Auri smiled as if she could hear her. But Brinna knew she was still just an observer in her sister’s dream, walking along an invisible surface.
It didn’t matter—Brinna needed to talk to her sister. “I’ve finally found my love,” she confessed with a wan smile, sitting next to Auri even though the dream kept them apart. “It’s Lucian. Can you believe it? And he’s only in my dreams.”
