Like they were hunting the beast.
How did it get inside?
Arawn raised himself to standing, so silently she couldn’t even hear the whisper of his cloak on the leaves.
She reached for his hand.
No.
He gently pried her fingers away – and held a hand down, like he was commanding a dog.
Stay.
‘No,’ she whispered, as quietly as she could, though it sent a spikeof pain rushing through her from her nose. ‘I am not going to sit here like bait, while you?—’
His eyes widened, and he lunged forward and pressed a hand to her lips, silencing her.
She froze beneath his touch.
She could taste the sweat of his palm on her lips, the dirt from the forest floor. He leaned in, his lips skimming her ear.
‘Please,’ he breathed against her. ‘Please, Ezer.Stayuntil it’s safe.’
She nodded.
Not to please him, but because she didn’t want to die, and for whatever reason, she trusted him.
He turned and snuck away through the trees, following the path of the young raphon.
And there she stood, alone. Her back pressed against a tree trunk, her heart racing. Overhead, she saw nothing but the domed ceiling, and beyond it, the subtle flashes of light that meant the Sacred were still out there fighting with the gods’ magic, far beyond the wards.
She looked to her right. They were almost at the edge of the woods, back to the golden doors and the warm halls of the Aviary.
She could make it, warn any other Sacred that didn’t yet know of the threat.
A raphon is loose inside the Aviary!she imagined herself screaming.
The mere thought was wilder than even her worst dreams.
A gentle breeze slid past her temples, and with it came that trusting whisper.
‘Ezer.’
It was leading her back to those golden doors.
‘Go.’
She didn’t need convincing. She pushed away from the tree and inched her way across the ground.
Be soft with your steps,she told herself, for despite his size, Arawn had crept away like he was one with the woods.
But she …
Two steps, and a twig broke beneath her heel.
Panic surged through her, but she heard nothing in the trees.
And the wind …
