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Tenah’s brows kneaded. “Excuse me?”
“For getting out of here.” Vesara rattled her chains. “You’re not going to accept this, are you?”
Tenah’s mouth parted, but words failed her.
“Listen.” The assassin’s eyes glittered. “We’re not en route to Dreaddix. They transport those prisoners at night. Which means we were packaged up to deliver to Cragnore. It means the crooked councilman of this forsaken isle deemed us worthy of a personal, intimate sentencing. Nothing good will come of this. And judging by your ties to a powerful, renowned criminal, he has plans for you.”
The cart lurched to a stop. Tenah went careening into the back wall. Warm hands helped her back onto her feet. “No blood. You’ll survive.”
A thunderous roar shook the cart. Vesara let out a string of fluent Denesè. “I prayed to Renix to save us. Should salvation come in the form of a Bogland monster, I will question his validity as a benevolent elemental.”
Tenah didn’t have time to share her own twisted feelings about the Greater Elementals as the lock on the doors screeched. Her pulse hammered. When the doors cracked open, she unleashed her flames, growling when they came out as nothing more than pathetic sparks.
Someone shouted her name. She snuffed her flames, and Renton immediately stepped into the cart, his electric stare intimidating enough to stop the flow of blood in her veins. Stupidly, she didn’t bolt when he picked the lock on her shackles and dropped them to the cart floor.
Vesara held out her shackles. “Share the love?”
Awaiting Tenah’s nod of approval, Renton freed the assassin. In a flash, Vesara was out of the cart. A tanned male hunter with lean muscle caught her around the waist and swung her around like a child. “Are we sure we want this one running free? Heard rumors about her from other prison guards.”
Planting her boots into the ground, Vesara flipped the hunter over her shoulder, dropping him onto his back in a terrifying demonstration of brute strength.
The hunter wheezed. “Yep. She’s dangerous.”
Tenah’s focus slid back to Renton. Her heart was thudding too hard against her ribs at the way he was looking at her. Whatever his intentions, she couldn’t want anything from him.
“Stay away from me,” she ordered, easing back.
A pained look flashed across his face. “Tenah.”
“You took me right to your employer.” She blasted a warning shot of fire at his boots. Sparks ricocheted off the floor. “Saving me, stitching me up, taking me away from my home—it was all just to keep me alive long enough to execute some stupid contract. What did you stand to earn? Krotens? Rank?”
“My brother’s freedom from eleven years of imprisonment and abuse.”
Tenah deflated. He looked so torn up, so defeated, it was messing with her ability to make solid decisions.
“Why are you here?” she asked.
“To set things right,” Renton said. “Come with me, and we’ll get you off this isle. I promise.”
“Consider things righted. I want nothing else to do with you.”
She brushed past him, jumping from the cart. Only, the horrible creature that had halted their procession made her want to scramble back inside the iron box, her recently healed wounds pulsing in remembrance.
The welkin stood taller than the trees. Its black, skeletal wings scraped the sky as it fought off a dozen hunters with spears and blades. An Ashen stood atop the platform secured to its back. Snow white dust coalesced around him like a blizzard.
There wasnoway she was flying again. End of story.
A wave of bittersweet magic drew her gaze to the Bogland trees. Two robed figures stepped out of the vines, a towering male wearing a malevolent smile and a curvy woman with a halo of crackling dark magic that made Tenah’s body constrict in want of its power.
“Mias,” Renton uttered, shielding Tenah.
She frowned, peeking around his broad form. “The brother that pushed you into the lake?”
“Stay alert. He’s a dual caster.”
Tenah didn’t have time to ask what two magics he excelled in when the air around them rippled. The hooded figures vanished as the swamp transformed into a lush, rich forest of autumn-stained trees. A feingrot slunk into view, identical to the beast that had killed Ames. It tilted its head in taunt.
Dread sluiced through her, thick and heavy. How was that even possible?
