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Time slowed to a crawl as we all searched the obscurity, anxiously awaiting the next arrow to fly. Waiting for the bedlam to unfold.
We didn’t have to wait long.
Another whooshing sound echoed before the second arrow struck a target.
Isiah.
He slumped over his steed, an arrow piercing his shoulder. His horse whinnied beneath him, the panicked animal bucking his rider off before galloping into the copse of trees.
Arrows fell across us like a wave of silver, the moon’s glow shining on the gleaming metal tips as they descended. Foolishly, I looked up, covering my head with my hands, knowing that without a shield, I was helpless.
“It’s coming from our left!” Jude dismounted his horse, his lean frame vanishing as the fog swallowed him up.
Following his lead, I dismounted Starlight, Patrick at my heels. We stuck out like sore thumbs on our steeds, and we had a better chance of survival if we used the Mist and its unnatural cover to our advantage.
While I sprinted, keenly picking up on Jude’s heavy steps, I heard more boots hit the ground.
Who could possibly be attacking us?
No one survived out here—the king made that quite clear to any who thought to try their luck beyond the kingdom’s borders. We’d been led to believe it was a realm occupied only by beasts and monsters.
Judging by the arrows that had been aimed at our heads, that hardly seemed the case. They were nocked and released, and my breath caught when a startled whinny rang out into the gloom. I stopped dead in my tracks.
Starlight.
One of the damned arrows had struck her in her belly, blood already dripping from the fresh wound. I began to backtrack, a cry of rage lodged in my throat, when a hand encircled mine.
“Kiara!” Jude’s voice penetrated the haze, the sound of my name on his lips a growl. “We have to go. Now!”
My heart fell further into my stomach as Starlight collapsed, nothing but a blur of red-stained hair. Her cries of pain tore through me, had my hackles rising and wisps of darkness clouding my vision. I couldn’t just leave her here, I had to—
“Kiara!” Jude snapped, yanking me so hard I went flying into the solid muscle of his chest. “You can’t save her,” he whispered, understanding lacing the cutting words.
I swallowed down my rage, the black spots receding enough for me to focus on him. It took everything in me not to bolt.
“Who’s attacking us? I thought no human could survive?” I asked as Jude’s hand gripped my arms, his mismatched eyes wide and full of confusion.
“There shouldn’t be anyone. Last time I was here, we never came across another living soul.”
That didn’t make me feel any better. “We need to—”
The flicker of a sword cut me off, the gleaming metal emerging from nowhere. Before I had the chance to alert Jude, he’d already spun around on his heel—
Bringing his blade directly down upon his attacker’s head.
Black liquid oozed from the man’s skull, his face masked by a crudely wound cloth. The scream died in my throat, my adrenaline surging as I watched Jude jerk his blade free from bone.
It happened so quickly, Jude a flash of vengeful lightning.
“Get ready! There are more.” He held his blade out before him, swiveling protectively in front of me as I stared open-mouthed at the black blood streaming around the man’s lifeless gray eyes.
“Kiara, focus!” Jude bellowed, shaking me from my daze.
Regaining my balance and swallowing my suffocating fury, I brought my dagger before me, angling my back against Jude’s as we awaited the next assault.
For a moment, instinct kicked in, my mind going back to all the exercises Micah made me perform back home.
Stand this way. No, not like that. Don’t drop your guard!His commands looped around and around in my head, and I fixed my form, preparing for the inevitable onslaught.
