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There were around twenty tents along with a few firepits, and I suspected everything here could be easily packed up and moved if need be. I spotted both men and women, but no trace of a child.
“I can practically feel you fuming from here,” Kiara hissed, deigning to glance over her shoulder. Her hair whipped about her face in a foul breeze. I prayed it was coming from the smoldering fires below and wasn’t another hallucination-inducing wind.
“I’m being safe, and you know that. You’re just being difficult,” I dared to add. “Believe it or not, I kind of like youalive.”
I tacked that last part on knowing she couldn’t say anything snappy in response. I hid my smile as she growled, flipping her head back to the village. “Another minute, and I promise we’ll leave,” was all she said, so low I could hardly make it out.
I’d won one round, at least.
Five minutes passed, and then, “Wait.” She held up a lone finger. My eyes sharpened. “There.”
Before I glimpsed whatever had captured her attention, a scream shook the humble village, the shrill sound piercing my eardrums.
Shoving Kiara into the thicket, making sure the onyx reeds shielded her, I pressed her body into the hard soil. I could feel her breathing go ragged beneath my arm, which was curled protectively about her torso.
“Shhh,” I soothed, or tried to. It probably came out as a harsh growl, but at this moment I didn’t very much care. Beside me, Kiara froze, her chest going frighteningly still.
Forcing my attention away, I squinted into the dark, noting a group of masked men clutching torches. There were about ten of them, five on each side of what appeared to be…
No.
It couldn’t be. How had they managed to round them up in the fog? Unless they had somehow found one another after the attack.
Kiara gasped as Patrick and Jake came into view, followed by Alec.
A soft hiss escaped from between Kiara’s teeth, the muscles in her back seizing.
I secured my arm around her body, partly to reassure her and partly to make sure she didn’t go bolting to the rescue like a fool.
She would, too—run down this paltry cliff and toss herself in harm’s way. All because she couldn’t bear to see her friends tortured and killed. Still, I wouldn’t let her throw her life away, even if she despised me for it afterward.
All the boys had their hands tied before them as they were kicked and prodded forward through the zig-zagging tents, the villagers grunting and making incoherent noises as they passed. Whatever language these people spoke, it was not one I knew.
Jake wasn’t as collected as his friends, his long legs tripping over rocks and debris, his bright blue eyes wide enough to shine through the darkness to where we hid atop the rocky hill.
“We need to get them.”
There it was.
“Wait,” I murmured, holding firm. I could sense Kiara’s limbs itching to move. That wasn’t going to happen. Something about these people was off in a way I couldn’t put my finger on.
The rotten air grew stronger as the villagers howled in delight, some snapping their jaws and clawing in the recruits’ direction. Their movements were animalistic in nature, as if they couldn’t control their limbs.
I wished they would take off those damned masks.
“We can’t just stand by and wait for them to do gods knows what to them,” Kiara snapped with a fierce bite.
Enough.
My features were sharp and deadly when I twisted to her, the unyielding facade I wore for my inferiors securely in place.
“We will not make a single move. Not yet. And not until I say so.” I enunciated every word, an assault of dismissal.
Undeterred, Kiara wrinkled her nose, her eyes darkening. “You do not tell me what to do. Not anymore.” The breeze turned frigid, and my skin prickled from the sudden cold.
I flinched. “We just went over this, Kiara. What part of ‘I don’t want you to die’ do you not understand? Youwilldie if you go in there unprepared. And your friends will die because of your recklessness and your innate need to act first and think later. I won’t be around to bury all your bodies.”
Kiara ground her teeth, battling with her need to act and ultimately conceding to my logic. When moments passed and she remained in position, I nearly sighed with relief.
