“I thought her shadow buddies did a good enough job of that already.” Twobble frowned.
“More of her games,” I whispered.
This wasn’t a warning meant to scare us back. It was a marker, a promise that the race had begun.
I straightened, lifting my chin as if the Priestess herself could see me through the trees. “We don’t slow down.”
The warmth at my hip flared in response.
Whatever came next, one thing was clear.
She knew where we were going, and she intended to make sure we felt every step of the way.
We stopped just long enough to breathe, which felt ironic considering how little breathing anyone seemed inclined to do.
We moved into a shallow wooded basin where the light dimmed into a coppery twilight, the kind that made it hard to tell whether it was early morning or late afternoon.
The ground here felt older, compacted by centuries of passing things that had known better than to linger. It was the sort of place travelers used instinctively, even if they didn’t know why.
Lady Limora was the first to speak.
“Now that we have a little cover, we need to decide whether we move faster,” she said calmly, her voice carrying without effort. “Or smarter.”
Several of the vampires gathered close, their attention sharp and focused. They weren’t anxious, exactly, but I could feel the tension in them, a subtle vibration like glassware set too close together.
Keegan stood beside me, arms crossed loosely, gaze sweeping the perimeter. Caleb lingered a few steps away with two other alphas, their posture relaxed but alert, like wolves pretending they weren’t paying attention to everything at once.
“It’s a race,” I said, stating the obvious because sometimes it helped to hear it aloud. “We have to reach the orcs before she does.”
Caleb nodded once. “She knows you’re moving,” he said. “But she isn’t.”
That caught my attention. “You’re sure?”
“Our scouts would feel it,” he replied.
“You sent scouts?” I asked in surprise.
“We did.”
“Thank you.”
“Shadowick leaves a trail. Whatever she’s doing, she’s still anchored where she is.”
“That gives us an advantage,” Nova said from where she crouched near the edge of the basin, fingertips brushing the soil. “Momentum matters.”
Stella hummed softly. “I’ve always said she hates to rush. She prefers to let the world come to her.”
“Which means she’s counting on them to fight us and find her,” I said. “She wants desperation to do her work for her.”
Lady Limora’s gaze sharpened. “Then we cannot allow that desperation to fester.”
I rubbed my palms together, trying to quiet the nervous energy thrumming through me. “We need to beat her to the orcs.”
“Great. So we’re focusing on speed rather than smarts,” Twobble muttered, and the vampires chuckled.
Caleb studied me. “Persuasion won’t be easy.”
“I know,” I said. “They’re frightened and displaced, and likely angry. And they have every reason not to trust someone offering another path when all the others have failed them.”
