The afternoon was hot but not nearly as hot as it was farther south in Olney, and she was grateful for that. Still, all the hiking made her wish she was in something other than leather armor.
“Can we stop for a break soon? I need some water.”
Teddy sighed. “I’d like to go a few more miles before we stop, but?—”
He drew his blades and spun toward the forest to their right.
A blur of color came sailing out of the thick foliage so fast it took Stella a moment to realize it was Dixon and Drew.
The sky went suddenly dark, clouds blotting out the bright sunlight as a swirling tempest took form overhead. The tree branches groaned.
Dixon looked up, his magic surging, ready to defend Drew from whatever Teddy was summoning.
Stella could wield storms, but not like this. Her storms werechaotic and wild. She could sense an organized rhythm in Teddy’s magic, like he was carefully weaving threads on a tapestry.
Teddy sprang into action immediately, his swords moving like an extension of his body. He called down lightning and directed it with his blade. Dixon and Drew had the element of surprise. They had attackedhim, but they were the ones immediately on their heels. Teddy came at them so hard that there was little for Stella to do but stand there and watch his back.
She’d always known Teddy was powerful—could sense it when he was close, like an electrical charge running over her skin—but now she could begrudgingly admit that Teddy Savero was mesmerizing in action. She’d never seen his father fight, but her mother had talked about it like it was a thing of legend. Teddy commanding lightning and wind with one hand while he wielded a blade with the other was some of the most precise magic and fighting technique she’d seen in her life.
How could anyone stand against him?
Dixon fought against the storm, sending the bolts of lightning scattering into the nearby trees. They sparked into flames. Stella yanked the fire from the branches, rolled them into a fireball, and lobbed it back at Dixon. He barely deflected in time, pulling a blast of cold rain on it just as it singed his leathers.
Teddy was fighting Drew. Dixon was covering them. Stella searched the woods around them for any sign of Rett or Christophe. They had to be there. That must have been what Skylar’s note meant. The bugs in the woods were the Roach and his friends.
She drew her bow, aiming into the trees beside her. She listened closely, trying to tune out the clashing steel and swirling wind behind her and just focus on what felt out of place in front of her.
An arrow shot out of the trees and she only had time to shift her weight enough that it skimmed the outside of her arm.
“Bleeding gods,” Stella groaned. It wasn’t deep, but it was enough to draw blood.
She fired back, half looking at what she was doing, half goingentirely on instinct. The satisfying grunt as her arrow struck flesh came a second later.
“Fucking slut witch!” Rett came barreling out of the brush despite the arrow stuck in his thigh.
He tackled her to the ground.
Stella kneed the arrow lodged in his leg and he howled and rolled off of her.
Before, when Stella had been fighting some faceless assassin, it had been hard to wrap her mind around killing someone. But, surely, confronted face to face by the man who had promised to hurt her so Teddy would feel it, Stella would be able to finish the job.
Pain flashed through the bond. She heard Teddy grunt, but didn’t dare look at him.
“I’m fine,” he shouted to her over the storm, but the clouds were pulling apart, sunlight shining through. Whatever had happened was enough to momentarily break his connection to his magic.
Stella sprang to her feet and drew her short swords as Rett scrambled to stand. He yanked the arrow from his thigh with an animalistic growl.
Stupid. Now it would bleed like crazy until he was healed.
He drew his short swords and charged at her again, forcing her to block a blow that rattled down her arms.
Sweat pooled on her back and neck, the loose curls from her braid clinging to the clammy skin. She was tired and hungry and she just wanted to get to her cave and complete this stupid challenge. Most of all, she was so sick of people trying to kill her.
Her satchel and bow and quiver rattled against her back as she went on the offensive. She charged at Rett and knocked him back until she could see Teddy in her periphery. Rett’s blade cut into the skin just above her armguard and she grunted as she pulled away. Blood sprayed across the dirt at her feet, but it was a surface wound. It would heal in a minute.
She needed to get her and Teddy out of there. As she began to fight Rett, she called to mind the map of the area and the rest of Skylar’s note.The river is safest.
They were close to a river crossing. They could cross the bridge, but that would add at least a day to their journey; while that was doable, she preferred not to cut it so close.
