“‘Leave the horses. Beware the bugs in the woods. The river is safest. Skylar.’”
Teddy sat down on the edge of the bed and pulled on his socks and boots. “What does that even mean? There’s not a river near here.”
She frowned and stuck the note in her pocket. “But there is one near the caves.” Pinning her braid around her head in a crown, she slung her bag over her shoulder. “Why would we leave the horses?”
Teddy frowned and considered it. “It’s rainy season. There were a few mudslides on our journey to Olney that slowed us down. Or?—”
Stella arched a brow. “Or?”
“Or that witch is trying to get us killed.”
She crossed her arms. “It will take longer on foot.”
“Then it takes longer.”
“So you trust her now?”
“Why give us the maps if they wanted to kill us? They could have just poisoned our dinner.”
Stella sighed, but she didn’t argue further. “Then you better move your royal ass. We have a lot of ground to cover today.”
Stella pushed the door open and stepped out into the hallway. A blur of green whizzed by the door and tackled Stella to the ground. Katerina Shank shoved up, pushing off of Stella’s back, and sprinted toward the stairwell.
Teddy made to give chase, but he was shoved into the wall as Jeneva Lampry barreled into him, knocking the breath from his lungs.
He spun, catching her in the ribs with an elbow. Teddy shoved Jeneva into the opposite wall. The hallway was too narrow for a fight. A dagger sailed past his face and he whipped his head around to see Katerina waiting for her friend at the top of the stairs. One inch in the wrong direction and he would have been cut by what was surely a poison-coated dagger. That’s what Stella had said about Katerina—that it was wise to not even get a small cut from one of her blades.
Jeneva slammed the heel of her palm into Teddy’s chin, and his head snapped back. His teeth bit into his tongue, the pain in his head momentarily bright and glittering.
The distraction was enough. Jeneva turned and ran toward the stairs. Stella tossed a blade after her. It clipped her red braid and embedded itself in the wood wall with the ends of her hair.
Their two adversaries escaped down the stairs, a door at the bottom slamming behind them.
Teddy should have given chase, but instead, he stared Stella down. The same fear that he’d felt when she hadn’t stabbed the assassin coursed through him. Stella had missed on purpose. She’d let them get away.
“Don’t look at me like that. I scared them off.” Stella crossed the hall and yanked the blade from the wall, sliding it back into her vest.
“You let them go.”
Stella ignored him, looping her bow and quiver across her body and picking up her fallen satchel.
Teddy’s heart was still pounding. He wasn’t afraid their opponents wouldn’t be scared off. He was afraid they’d know that Stella didn’t have the stomach to kill and they’d come back soon to finish the job.
23
STELLA
They’d been on the run most of the day, trying to put distance between themselves and Katerina and Jeneva, though Stella felt confident they wouldn’t follow. The women were strategic, taking a shot when the opportunity presented itself, but they had their own caves to visit and their own memories to retrieve. Katerina and Jeneva were allies—no doubt a pair of women would be underestimated in the competition, and that made them targets. They didn’t have the luxury of hunting when everyone else was hunting them.
Still, Teddy had driven Stella on, insisting they leave the horses boarded at the crossroads and travel on foot to attract less attention, but after a day of hiking, even in the slightly cooler weather, Stella was regretting listening to him. Her feet were screaming from the tough terrain.
But Teddy was right. The summer had brought thick mudslides to the lower hills and they would have had to leave the horses in a less hospitable environment. Stella was glad that Shark was somewhere he could be taken care of, even if it meant they would have to go back to pick him up later.
In what was either a stroke of good fortune or a very obvious trap,her and Teddy’s caves were only a couple of miles apart, so they could make most of the journey together. She was glad for the company, even if Teddy was quiet and broody and constantly doubling back to cover their tracks. Their progress was slow, but if they kept this pace, they would reach the first cave—Teddy’s cave—by nightfall. If all went well, he would retrieve the memory while she stood guard, and then they could camp in the cave for the night and head to hers in the morning.
Stella had wanted to prove that she could do this herself, but now she was glad to have someone watching her back and she’d grown to almost like his quiet company. Teddy was serious, but also attentive. He knew the forest well, knew which berries were safe to eat, and had a talent for foraging mushrooms. As far as traveling companions went, he was very resourceful. Perhaps he had simply realized that she complained far less when her belly was full.
He’d also taken to asking her to tell a story to pass the time, and while it was annoying that he asked strangely specific questions about the most innocuous parts of each tale, the conversation was a good distraction from her blisters.
