Or why the barmaid had led them directly to Aidon and Will.
They darted down the alleyway, Will’s quick thanks to the gods for its open end driven more by habit than belief. He could hardly see a breath in front of him, what with the rain and the pitch black of night, but it didn’t stop him from pushing himself faster, their boots splashing in the mud as they turned the corner.
He barely saw the blade coming for his throat.
Will ducked, a vicious curse bursting from him as he drewhis sword, his knife still firmly gripped in his other hand. A clang of metal sounded behind him—Aidon, locking blades with another Talan guard.
A third charged at Will, but Will was faster. His knife landed true, slicing through the guard’s throat with a sickly squelch. Will whirled, his arm reverberating with the impact of his sword meeting the first guard’s, as another rounded on Aidon. Will threw out his power, spearing pain across the space as he shoved the first guard off of him. The soldier behind Aidon stumbled, and Aidon whirled, his sword finding his chest.
Will’s blade clanged over the rain as he blocked his attacker’s parries, his boots sinking into the mud. His power met the man’s shield, but it pulled the soldier’s focus enough that Will’s next strike met flesh. The soldier screamed as he dropped to the ground, but then there was an arm around Will’s neck, and someone was dragging him back before slamming him into the stone wall of the building behind him.
The two guards from the tavern had joined the fray.
The rain was too heavy for Will to see Aidon, but he made out a shout, and a flash, and a thud, before his attention was pulled back to the man with a hand at his throat as he tugged Will forward before slamming him back once more.
Will’s skull cracked against the stone, stars exploding across his vision as his ears rang. It did nothing to diminish the rage that tore through him as the soldier smiled.
“Enforcer,” he crooned. The rain hammered down on them, the wind howling like a wolf. “Her Majesty looks forward to—”
The man’s words cut off with a gargle, blood spraying from his mouth and onto Will’s face. Will could just make out the glint of a knife blade protruding from his neck before he slumped forward. He caught his deadweight, his lungs burning as the hand around his neck went limp and he sucked in his first breath.
“Well I’ll say this,” a familiar voice drawled. “Saving your ass certainly doesn’t get old.”
There, drenched to the bone and looking as haggard as Will felt, stood Liam.
Fire was still flaring from Aidon’s palms, and in it, he could just make out Liam’s bonded Athatis at his side. The remaining guard was dead at Aidon’s feet.
Will blinked against the rain, the dead guard thudding to the ground as he shoved his body from him.
“Seven hells,” he panted. “Never one for a dull entrance, are you?”
7
If Will never saw the inside of a cave again, it would be too soon.
He should be grateful, he supposed, that they’d even managed to find shelter. The thick tree cover of the Druswood managed to slow the rain, but between the unseasonable cold and the creatures prowling the forest floor, the tucked-away space should have been a welcome reprieve.
He couldn’t bring himself to find it as such.
They’d just barely managed to make it out of Maumart. They’d been unable to return to their horses, and with the possibility of more Royal Guard milling about, it had been too risky to steal another three from the town.
They’d escaped into the Druswood on foot, and now, here they were, tucked away in a cramped cave, with none of their provisions. The maps hidden in the saddlebags…the documents Will had stolen from Kakos camps and clung to in a desperate hope that they would holdsomethingabout how to find Aya…
All of it, gone.
“Why the hells is the Royal Guard in Maumart?” he demanded as he whirled to face Liam, his hand shoving his wet hair out of his eyes.
Aidon, despite Will’s protests and his obvious dizziness from using his power in the fight, had managed to get a small fire going. The light cast deep shadows across Liam’s dark brown skin and worsened the haunted look in his eyes.
“Hyacinth named herself queen,” Liam murmured. He dabbed a worn shirt against his tight curls, his other hand scratching mindlessly at the thick, marbled brown and gray fur atop his bonded’s head. “One of her first acts was to put a bounty on your head.”
“Shit,” Aidon swore as he sat back on his heels. Blood stained the skin beneath his nose, and he scrubbed roughly at the dried flecks.
“On what grounds?” Will spat. But he already knew—perhaps as soon as that Talan guard had made eye contact with him.
“Treason. Regicide. And…kidnapping.”
Aidon frowned. “I came willingly.”
