Grady tightened his grip around me and leaned in, his lips on my ear. "I'll cause a distraction. When it's clear, take Sasha and run."
I shook my head hard. He was already hurt. If they caught him, who knew what they would do? Whatelsethey would?
"Here,” Lager answered. “They werejusthere."
"For once in your life, don’t argue with me," Grady whispered, his breath feathering my cheek.
"Shit,” Faust growled. “No one went past me. Find them. I already have one downstairs."
He already had one… Archer. Dread sank to the bottom of my gut. He was probably coming up here to get the poison since his wife had never dropped it down. It would be stupid to assume it was the only batch he still had.
Grady shoved me toward the door. "When the coast is clear, get to Archer before Faust does.Hurry."
Faust strode past our door toward the end of the hallway where his wife was. Lager pushed into another room, the one next to us from what it sounded like.
I had seconds, if that, to make a break and run.
I hurled myself out of the room on tiptoe and ran as fast as I could down the hallway. Moments later, glass shattered from the room I'd just been in. The window? But Grady was still in there. Had Faust or Lager thrown him out? Unless… Had he thrownhimselfout the window as a distraction?
Panic stormed through my veins and crashed between my ears. How the hell were we going to get out of here in one piece?
Footsteps came hard toward the direction of the window just as I rounded the first corner into the final stretch toward the stairs. Faust said he had Archer down there, but where?
I pounded down the first set of stairs and then the second.
I crossed the tavern area at top speed, accidentally knocking into a few chairs and scraping them across the ground. Too loud. I was being way too loud.
Feet pounded toward me down the stairs. Someone was following me when they should've been investigating the broken window.
Shit.
A quick glance through Sasha behind us just before I turned the corner revealed Lager. My stomach dove sideways. I passed a lantern hanging on the wall and then quickly doubled back. Lager had never shifted when he’d chased me out of town and through the forest. Maybe like me, he was human. If that was the case, he needed to see. But I didn't. I'd lived most of my life in darkness and did pretty well. Time to see how he did.
If I was wrong… Iwasn’twrong.
I unhooked the lantern and moved as fast as my legs would carry me toward the next one, taking as many as I could carry. Careful not to clank them together, I set them down in one of the rooms and closed the door. Darkness crowded into Sasha's eyes, but as a wolf, she could see through it. I closed my eyes so I could hear through it. As I stood with my back pressed up against a wall, my ears burned as they dissected each individual sound.
"What happened to the lights? I can't see a goddamned thing," Lager shouted.
He was close, almost right to me. With my bow and arrow still in one hand, I buttoned my coat over Sasha's eyes in case they gave off a preternatural glow in the dark.
Another pair of footsteps thudded from the direction of the stairs. Faust, maybe. If I could somehow get behind him, he would lead me right to Archer, and then I could put an arrow through him before he did any harm to my wolf.
"Keep looking," Faust ordered.
Fast, confident steps plowed down the hallway perpendicular to mine.
Unsure, stumbling ones stepped down this one.
I slipped closer to Lager and bit down hard on my lip until I tasted blood. I wanted him dead. I wanted him to suffer. But I wanted to find Archer more, and Faust was leading me directly to him. So I snuck past Lager while he cursed and stomped around blindly. I'd deal with him later, face to face with plenty of light and a whole lot of time. When my hand curled around the corner of the wall, I swept left toward Faust. I could still hear his steps, the faint splash of another jar of poison hitting the glass sides.
I unbuttoned my coat and then readied my bow and arrow, Sasha's vision focusing just as he neared the front door. It swung open then, bringing with it a shimmery blast of heat and smoke from outside. And two men, one of them badly injured and leaning heavily on the other.
“You said you had something for this guy?” the upright one asked.
Faust tossed the jar of poison up in the air, and the uninjured guy caught it.
"Give him the whole bottle," Faust said, slapping him on the back, and then he slipped out into the fiery night.
