“What’s your name, hunter?” Sorin asks casually.
“Don’t speak.” The man’s hand tightens around Agnes’ mouth. “Hand over the other Enchantress and be on your way, or my men will?—”
“We’ll do no such thing.” Sorin crosses his arms as though he’s conversing with an old friend. “I have a better plan.” He snaps his fingers, and I don’t need to see him to know he’ssmiling. Cocky bastard. “You unhand my mother before I bury that blade of yours deep in your belly.”
The hunter laughs, and it’s then I know we’re in for a very long fight. Jarek bristles behind me. Two hunters to our rear. Two to our left. One to our right, plus the one holding Agnes.
We’ve had worse odds.
“Kill them all.” The hunter dips his chin before pushing open the door and slipping out with Agnes in tow.
“No!” I lunge forward, but a fist to my jaw has me stumbling backward before falling to the ground. My teeth clash together as blood pools in my mouth. Jarek shouts something from behind me that I can’t decipher, then everything goes red.
Jarek scoops his ax from the ground, and before I can properly right myself, it’s in the air. Swinging, he clips the leg of one of the hunters to our left. Screaming, the hunter falls but, in an instant, the rest surround Jarek. Their weapons drawn.
I pull myself up, shaking off the stars still dancing behind my eyes from the punch. The hunters have Jarek surrounded, but I don’t have my bow.
Wickersham has always been our safe haven. A place I never needed to mask my eyes. Never had to worry about hunters. But now, they’ve found us.
My stomach churns. How long until they find Loxley?
Park grunts next to me as he and one of the hunters battles over his club.
I have seconds to scan the room to find any semblance of a weapon. Then, there it is. Sorin has one hunter pinned to a wall, his hands around the man’s throat.
Typical.
But I use it to my advantage. Sprinting across the room, I pull the dagger I know is hidden in my brother’s belt. Jarek shouts again, blood falling in pools to the ground. Is it his? Panicmakes me question my ability, but it doesn’t last long before adrenaline replaces it.
Lining the dagger up, I take a deep inhale before releasing the blade.
Time slows.
Sounds cease.
My eyes trail the dagger, hoping to the Mother I don’t miss. Because if I miss, it’ll hit Jarek instead. Sucking in a sharp breath, I sprint back across the room right as the blade lands in the side of the hunter’s neck who had Jarek pinned.
He falls, and before he can get back up, I pull the blade out. The hunter holds his hand to his wound, but his life is over before he can muster a cry.
With one man standing, Sorin joins my side, caging me between Jarek and himself. Scuffling sounds behind me, but when I hear Park shout to Jeanette, my stomach unclenches.
No more surprises.
The hunter standing before us, merely a boy, looks around at the carnage brought forth by the three of us. He opens his mouth to speak, but nothing comes out.
“Go,” Sorin barks, his dark eyes flaring under the pub’s lanterns. The hunter drops his sword to the ground. His hands shake as he opens the door, but he waits until his boots hit dirt before he’s running.
Sorin sighs, glancing around at the four dead men. “We need to hurry.” He rolls his shoulders, his eyes darker than I’ve seen them before. “If they make it out of Wickersham, it’ll be more difficult to find Agnes.”
My mother’s name snaps me back to reality and the guilt I have for killing that hunter quickly dissipates.
“Let’s move. Now.” It isn’t often I see this side of Sorin. A natural born leader who isn’t afraid to shed some blood.
“You got it, boss.” Jarek wraps the wound on his arm with a rag from behind the bar. Nodding, I meet Sorin’s eye.
We rush out of the pub, and I follow Sorin’s lead. The entire incident lasted maybe minutes, but as I scan the quaint town of Wickersham, there’s no Agnes in sight. No caravan. No horses.
“Sorin…”
