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She chuckled, the sound like bells. “As best as could be expected, given that we slept on rocks. I miss that poor excuse of a cot back at the palace right about now.”
“Same.” Patrick’s eyes warily scanned the shadowed tree line.
I pretended to be busy with fixing my saddlebags in place. My steed nickered as if he knew what a fool I’d turned into.
“Nervous?” Kiara inquired softly, lowering her voice.
“Obviously,” he snorted. “I’m terrified.”
“Me too. But I have your back.”
She would too. That was why she’d snuck away from the sanctum to come here in the first place. To protect them.
Either that, or she had a death wish.
“And you better have mine!” Jake called out as he lunged into her shoulder, causing her to stagger a few steps to the side.
“You’re too energized in the morning,” she grumbled, but Jake merely smiled.
“Better than being cranky. But as I was saying, we all have each other’s backs out there. Especially Ki,” he clarified, grabbing on to her shoulder. “You better protect us all.” Patrick managed a chuckle as Jake ruffled her already disheveled hair. “Ohhh, and I like this look. You should let your hair down more often.”
She should. Kiara looked—
No. None of that.
“But it would be easier to kill you if it were out of my face,” she replied, her smile turning sickly sweet.
“This one over here”—Jake jerked his thumb at Kiara—“always with the jokes.” He slung an arm around her shoulders, tugging her into his lanky frame.
I bit down my growl, deciding it was the perfect time to interrupt.
“Recruits!” I thundered, unable to wipe the scowl from my face as I took in Jake, his arm still slung casually over Kiara’s shoulders.
“We stick close together out there. No one wanders off alone. If you must relieve yourself, you bring someone with you,” I said, my voice hard and unforgiving. “If you fall behind, we all fall behind. There are things in this place that even I do not know of. We fight by each other’s sides. That is the only way we will make it out alive.”
Kiara glowered when I shot Jake another glare, but his arm dropped from her body, the lad taking a generous step back.
“Now get mounted up. And remember, you shouldneverbe alone out there. The Mist loves to play tricks on the mind, and you need someone to watch over you.” I’d told them of the hallucinations earlier, that they might see things that weren’t there. People that had long passed or monsters that haunted dreams.
The recruits sobered as they mounted and brought their horses to the mouth of the cave. I positioned myself at the front, Isiah at my side. We hadn’t spoken about Carter, not yet. As a rule, we only talked about the dead once we weren’t in danger of death ourselves.
Unable to help myself, I stole a glance behind me.
The boys’ eyes were all brimming with fear, but when I took in Kiara, perched like a warrior queen atop her mare, none filled her stare. She looked…excited.
That expression would be wiped off her face soon enough.
With atskof my tongue, my steed shot out from the cave’s mouth, the rest of the recruits falling into line behind me.
And as the rocky ceiling gave way to open charcoal skies, exposing us to the cursed haze, I felt a slight tremble rack my body.
And I knew this time would be different, worse than before.
This time, I felt like I had something to lose.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Kiara
