“Steady,” he says, his voice low, like we’re just sitting in the firelight again. But he’s also turning, shifting me, pushing me away. “Help her.”
Someone catches me, and I realize it’s Asher. I can’t look at him, though, because I whirl, keeping my eyes on Ky. He’s already got weapons in hand, and he’s now responding to the man who followed me out of the hut, blades drawn. My attacker doesn’t stand a chance against the king. Before I can blink, Ky has driven a sword right into the man’s side, just at the base of his armor. The man keeps coming, and I gasp, but Callum is thirty feet away, loosing an arrow from the back of his horse. It’s so smooth and practiced that their movements could have been choreographed. The arrow catches the man in the back of the neck, and he pitches forward, falling into the dirt. Dead.
Suddenly, all I can hear is my roaring breath.
But then Charlotte’s voice breaks through. “Is she all right? Let her go. Let me see.”
“She’s all right,” Asher is saying. “She’s all right.” But there’s a grave note in his voice—because nothing is all right.
I finally peel myself away from him to look down at the dead man on the ground. He’s in brown armor, his black hair thick with sweat. His face is pressed into the dirt, but I caught a glimpse when he attacked Ky, and nothing about him seemed familiar. He seems older, too, with gray threading the hair at his temples.
I remember what the Suross woman said.
I told the first one.
“You put that blade in his leg?” says the king.
My eyes skip to the man’s thigh. The dagger is buried right at the juncture of his hip, a little twisted from the way he’s lying against the ground. I swallow, then nod.
“As I said: vicious, Princess.”
He says it like a compliment. Just this moment, I’m not sure it feels like one.
“Who is he?” I say, my voice low. I look at Asher, who’s soot-stained and damp from carrying buckets to the flames. “Asher—is it another Hunter?”
“No,” he says. “At least...I don’t think so. I don’t know him.”
“It’s not a Hunter,” says Ky, and his voice is grim. “He’s not from Astranza at all.”
“Do you know him?”
“Not personally.” Ky kicks the man onto his back. An agonized sound bursts from the man’s lips—which tells me he isn’t dead. But I doubt he’ll be alive for long. Not with the tight fury in Ky’s voice, or the way Callum has another arrow nocked and ready.
Not with the bolt that pierced him straight through the neck, or the dagger lodged in his thigh.
My eyes fall on the crest in the center of his armored chest, a winged shield emblazoned with two crossed keys.
I suck in a breath. “What’s that crest?” I say—but I know.
Ky looks over. “Draegonis.” His eyes scan the empty fields around us, and then he looks back to the old woman. “He wouldn’t be alone. Where are you hiding the rest?” he demands.
“We are hiding no one!” she says quickly, shaking her head. “He said he was looking for the rest of his crew. I thought that wasyou.”
Ky scowls and casts another look around. “Garrett. Fetch Sev. Cal, search the other huts. Makesurehe was alone.” His eyes shift back to me, and like before, his manner is so severe I take a step back, colliding with Asher.
Something in that must take the king by surprise, because his expression softens, but only a fraction. His gaze drops to the cut at my neck. “He hurt you,” he says.
A note in his voice tells me the Draeg soldier will be a pile of ash in a second if I sayyes. I shiver, and Charlotte moves close to take hold of my hand. “I’m fine,” I say breathily to both of them, even though my pulse hasn’t stopped racing. “I’mfine.”
That old woman has come closer. She’s pointing at Ky. “You must leave. You and your soldiers are not welcome here.”
Callum scoffs, shoving his unfired arrow in the quiver. “That sure doesn’t sound likethank you.”
“You want my thanks?” the woman snaps at him. She points at the man on the ground, then gestures at the scorched earth all around. “You are notwelcomehere! You all brought your warmongering ways—”
“More soldiers could come after him,” says Ky. “We won’t be here to help you again.”
“Then we will return to the stars,” she says. “And we will be at peace.”
