Then I released my shot.
28
Dae
Heaviness pressed in, like a hand holding me underwater, and I questioned if I’d somehow shifted without realizing. A quick glance at my human hands told me I hadn’t, but the world felt heavy all the same. Commotion sounded from the campfire as they beheld their prisoner, blood leaking from her skull where the arrow pierced.
Ro retched at my side. Not something I would have expected from a person who’d just willingly shot their friend in the head with an arrow and created a serious clusterfuck for us both. The shock dulled the incredible throb in my leg momentarily before it resumed as I staggered back from the cusp of the ledge, trying to stay out of sight from the members scrambling down below. I gently placed my hands on Ro’s shoulders, guiding her away to keep us from sight.
We were monumentally fucked. It would only take minutes for the members to reach us on the hillside if they accurately judged the angle of the shot. The pounding in my chest carried to my leg, and I didn’t doubt my wound started bleeding again.
My brain viciously tried to piece together what just happened. Had she lied to me this whole time? Did she even know that prisoner at all? What was her end game knowing she didn’t have enough arrows to take out the rest of them?
“What have you done?!” I whispered frantically as the forest swallowed us from their vision below.
If it had been daylight, maybe I would have been able to read her eyes. From the way she barely seemed responsive, I wondered if no amount of light could help penetrate the vacancy that now roamed them. She’d become dazed. I knew what grief looked like, and seeing the reminder fractured my heart along all its scarred lines.
Her hands showed no indication of retrieving another arrow, even as I forced her to move. She wasn’t going to attack. Everything in me roared to hold her in my arms, to comfort her in the only way I could. Grief and shock were a potent combination, and there was no remedy, only the comfort of what or who remained.
Then she suddenly snapped to and stood. Before I could speak, she was winding through the trees, heading back toward the road.
No, she couldn’t. The trees held our only cover, the night providing us a chance to sneak away unseen. Once she became exposed on that road, they’d take her next. I couldn’t let it happen, couldn’t sit back and watch.
I won’t.
I forgot what living without pain felt like as I staggered through the uneven forest, chasing after this mystery woman who’d splintered my life in one afternoon. Why was I following her? She only brought the opportunity to screw up my plans. Yet, I couldn’t help myself. My thoughts emptied as I raced to keep up, not wanting to lose sight of her.
Besides wreaking havoc on branches and bushes, the forest remained quiet. The moon broke through the scattering leaves above, highlighting our path to the road with silver light. Ro cleared the thick brush, but I wasn’t far behind. I expected her to start running south, using the road as her guiding marker so she didn’t get lost. To my surprise, yet again, she faced north, toward the camp. And started walking.
I burst from the bushes, trying to snag her attention. “What are you doing?!”
She ignored me. Ignored, or simply couldn’t hear in her state. Had her mind snapped? Her strides were even and calm as she ascended the path, clearing the peak before descending on the other side. I pushed and pushed and pushed, my bandage now thoroughly soaked through and cold from the night's chill. What if I didn’t make it before they swarmed her? Cries of terror rang out in my memory, and I swallowed the lump in my throat. I wouldn’t be too late this time.
I transformed. Nothing but a pure, animalistic need to protect coursed through my veins. My sharp fangs begged to tear into any flesh that threatened her safety, consequences be damned.
“Stop! Who the hell are you?!” Harlson called as I cleared the ridgeline. My form didn’t shock them, and they kept their eyes fixed on Ro who strode toward them with unnerving calm.
“You had no right to take her,” she said, a steady bite to her words.
Her voice may have come out level, but in this form I sensed her anger, her fear, her sorrow. The scent carried on the wind that banked the fire in subtle wisps. I remained behind her, intentionally staying out of her line of sight. With raised hackles, I kept watch of their movements. Subtle flexes in their muscles would tell me if they made to move, to strike her with their raised weapons or magic. Daggers and swords had been drawnbefore we’d even breached the hill. They were looking for a bloody fight.
“Excuse me?! Who the fuck are you?” Val asked, her brow furrowed into hard lines as she relaxed her hand at her side. The forest began moving at her command, roots emerging from the soil in a slow crawl toward the redheaded huntress.
“I’ve been sent by King Taja. That woman was meant to be my offering when I made it to camp. You had no right to take her.”
If I hadn’t been able to detect her thundering pulse, she may have had me believing the lies that dripped from her lips, smooth as honey. Earlier in the day, she’d asked if the King of Windguard had known about the dark magic. She couldn’t have been sent by him, then. What was her game plan?
“Bullshit,” Johni spat, teeth bared and shining from the fire over the loss of his one bargaining chip.
Ro remained poised, her posture steady. “Why else would I be this far north and not have already put an arrow in each of your heads?”
The roots stilled, and the men spared glances at one another.
Gods above. She was convincing them.
“Dae, you know about this?” Dalin asked, having emerged from the tent sometime between when she fired that arrow and now.
“Not only does he know about it, he’s responsible for spooking the stag I almost caught,” Ro said, unaware of the feline shape lurking near her.
