With her new plan in mind, Hallie searched the ground around her, coming up with a few stones, a couple of them with surprising weight to them. She stuffed them into her pockets and was about to shift position to search elsewhere when thezauberat her hip flared a warning.
She went perfectly still, straining her senses. Between one heartbeat and the next she realised she was no longer alone. Thezauber’swarning had come too late.
“My, my, Hallie Talbot. I could feel that someone was watching earlier. I didn’t imagine I would be so lucky to find you.”
Biting back a curse, Hallie straightened to her feet and turned to face Findo Trask. The shadows under the trees blended with his bronze skin, so for a moment he appeared to just be a dark outline with pinpricks of vivid red light in his eyes. Then he tilted his head and she caught sight of the bright red streaks in his black, tightly curled hair.
“Here to cause me trouble again?” he asked.
“I had no idea you were here. Causing you trouble is just a bonus,” Hallie told him candidly. She slipped a hand into her pocket, making the move as casual as possible, despite her heartthudding against her ribs. Findo was dangerous at the best of times. She’d been the one to catch him before - twice - and the last time he’d been taken into Conclave custody, which she imagined hadn’t been a pleasant experience. He was probably furious with her.
“And where is your sidekick?” he asked. Oh, yes, he was definitely angry. That silky-smooth voice didn’t hide any of the rage.
“I have no idea,” Hallie said with perfect honesty. “I mean, I assume he’s still somewhere on the island, but I don’t know beyond that.”
“He left you out here all on your own? That’s not very gentleman-like of him.”
“I can take care of myself,” Hallie said. The small, heavy stone was rough against her palm. She didn’t even think about reaching for the gun at her hip. Findo was too fast, and he’d be watching the obvious weapon. But he might not be expecting something as crude as a stone thrown at his head. She shifted her weight a fraction, as if she was thinking about going for her gun, and saw his immediate reaction. While his focus was on the weapon, she flung the stone at him.
Her aim was better than she’d hoped. The stone hit him in the face with a satisfying crunching sound and he howled, partly in surprise but also in pain.
Hallie was already moving. From her previous encounters with him, including chasing him through low city, she knew she couldn’t outrun him over a long distance. But she needed to put some space between them. As she ran, she fumbled for the gun and freed it from the holster.
Something thumped into her back and sent her flying, face-first, to the ground. She managed to keep her grip on the gun, but only just, and cried out when hard, bronze-tinted fingers wrapped around her wrist, squeezing tight. She managedto twist, get a bit of room, sending her other elbow back, connecting with Findo’s midsection even as she got one of her feet under her. The strike was hard enough that he grunted and loosened his grip on her wrist. She pushed up and sideways, out from under theveondken’sweight, and scrambled to her knees, aiming the weapon at him, holding it with both hands. He was barely an arm’s length from her, and at this distance she knew she would not miss.
To her surprise, he grinned, white teeth brilliant in the shadows. “Going to shoot me, Hallie Talbot?”
“Thinking about it,” Hallie told him. Her voice was too high, breathing too fast. Even with the advantage of the gun, she didn’t feel safe. Not in the least. She’d seen what this man was capable of.
He was still grinning. Too confident. Too sure of himself.
Before Hallie had a chance to think about why that might be, a dark shadow appeared from behind a tree next to her, a long, slender object in one hand that swung and connected with her head. The last thing she saw before she lost consciousness was Findo’s grinning face.
Chapter twenty-two
Painpainpain.Herskull was breaking apart. There was a high-pitched ringing in her ears and she wanted to be sick. She tried to move, to press a hand over her mouth, and found she couldn’t.
That woke her all the way up, panic battling with pain for her attention. She opened her eyes and winced, the light stabbing through her skull as a counterpoint to the pulses of sharp agony already there. Blinking, eyes watering, she realised that the light wasn’t actually all that bright. It was an oil lantern of some kind, set on low, but it still hurt her too-sensitive eyes.
She was in a sitting position, back against what felt like a stone wall, legs out in front of her on bare, filthy wooden floorboards. The room she was in looked like some kind of storeroom, with wooden shelves that were mostly empty of goods but full of ancient cobwebs. There was an old, cracked wooden barrel not far away, with the lantern set on top. The air was stale and dusty, dry in her nose and mouth.
Cold was creeping through her body. Someone had removed her jacket, sweatshirt, the gun, and her boots, leaving her in her long-sleeved t-shirt, hard-wearing trousers and bare feet. She supposed she should be grateful she was still fully clothed, but the idea of someone patting her over, partly undressing her while she was unconscious, made her stomach turn in disgust and anger.
Panic followed the anger as she remembered thezauberthat had been tucked into her pocket. It sent a tiny pulse of warmth through her and she closed her eyes for a moment, beyond grateful that she had not lost the precious object. Then she had to wonder how it had escaped the notice of whoever it was who had searched her. Even sitting still, she could tell that her pockets were otherwise empty. Thezaubersent another pulse of warmth through her, this time with more than a hint of smugness. She should have known that such an old object would be able to defend itself, or disguise itself well enough to escape notice, even while she was out of action.
The disgust returned. She had been taken down by a skip. That had never happened to her. Not in ten years fugitive-hunting in low city. There had been someone else out in the forest with her and Findo, but that was no excuse. She should have been ready for that. She knew how clever Findo was, and she’d seen how many people Jonah had at his disposal.
So she’d let herself get caught, stripped of her tools, and dumped here in this storeroom. Someone had also tied her ankles together with what looked like crude rope. Trying to shift her shoulders, she realised that her hands were also tied together behind her back. She made a low sound of irritation and disgust.
“You woke up fast.”
The voice snapped her attention outside her own discomfort. There was another person in the room with her. Disgust roseagain as she wondered what else she’d missed. A quick look around confirmed it was just the one other person, which didn’t make her feel any better. She should have noticed him, even behind the lantern light. A young man with a familiar face. Rhodda’s son and Devin’s grandson. He was standing on the other side of the barrel, near the door, a gun in his hands. Guarding her.
The young man was watching her with what he probably thought was a tough expression but which just looked sulky to her. Not pleased with his assignment, she guessed. She tilted her head to get a better look at him, trying to see around the lantern, and regretted the movement at once as the pain in her skull flared.
“They’ve got you playing nursemaid, I see,” Hallie said. She saw a flare of anger on the young man’s face. “Couldn’t find anything else for you to do? No floors to scrub or dishes to wash, kid?” It was a weak taunt, but it seemed to work.
“It’s Brock,” he said, anger on his face, chin lifting a fraction. “Not kid.”
