Daigh’s wheezing scream sliced the air. Smoke curled from the edges of the wound as the iron did its work, poisoning his skin and drawing out his magic. Arthur stepped back, whipping another bone knife from his belt.
“Get it out!” Daigh yelled as he tugged at his hand, but the sword held him fast to the ground. The skin around the blade withered and curled up like dead leaves in fall. The fae quivered against the walls, too afraid to touch the iron blade.
“Maeve,” it was Arthur, his hand on my arm, pulling me toward the door. “We have to go.”
“You don’t need to tell me twice!” I lifted Corbin higher on my shoulder. Rowan and I raced dragged Arthur as he cut his way through stunned, terrified fae and out into the crisp moonlight.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
MAEVE
We raced for the trees behind the sidhe, crashing through the undergrowth, no longer caring how much noise we made. My chest heaved as I struggled to carry Corbin’s dead weight…
I hope he’s not dead.Please, don’t let him be dead.
The sky darkened overhead as we ran, darkness creeping in much faster than was natural, but I guessed nothing was truly natural in this realm. Arthur bowled through the trees ahead of us, his enormous limbs tearing leaves and snapping branches, clearing our way. If only he knew where the hell he was going.
Flynn huffed behind us, dragging Blake along, his blade still pressed to Blake’s throat. Blake tried to yell something, but his words turned into bellows of pain as Flynn socked him in the jaw.
All around us, fairies leapt and danced through the trees, chittering to each other in their foreign language. They stayed well back, nervous around Arthur, even though he no longer had his sword. But I could see they were closing around us. Soon we’d be completely surrounded.
“What the fuck do we do?” Flynn yelled.
“We keep going.” Arthur stormed ahead through the gloom. “We’re heading toward the valley, but I don’t know how to get back to the place where we came in.”
“There’s no bloody point,” Blake said. “You need to find the gateway?—”
His words cut off as Flynn punched him in the jaw again. “Shut your pie hole, or I’ll shut it permanently next time.”
The chittering grew louder, more focused.
The fae were coming.
“Arthur,” I moaned. My arms and legs burned. Beside me, Rowan puffed, his entire body drenched in sweat. Corbin’s body snagged on every branch and bramble.
Maeve, listen to me.
Blake’s voice reached my ears, but the sound wasn’t coming from behind me.
It wasinsidemy head.
How the hell was he doing that?
Maeve, you have to listen to me. I can save you, but you need to trust me.
“No way in hell,” I muttered out loud, my breath coming out in ragged gasps as I struggled on for another few steps. I screamed as an arrow whizzed past on my left, burying itself into a tree trunk only a foot from my head.
Fine, die here in the forest riddled with arrows like a porcupine. That’s your prerogative. Or, you could hide in the enormous hollow log up here on the left, and I’ll cast a glamour to lead the fae in the wrong direction, and you and all your merry men can live to be fools another day. Your choice.
Was I supposed to trust this guy after he betrayed us to the fae? He was clearly playing games with me, just like his father…ourfather, I reminded myself with a shudder.
But Blake had a point – the fae were getting closer. We wouldn’t outrun them. His was the only other option we had.
I glanced around, searching the gloom for a place to hide.
Hollow log…hollow log…There it is!
An enormous fallen log jutted across the forest floor. I pulled Corbin toward it, dragging Rowan along with me. Sure enough, rot had hollowed out the log so we could fit inside, and with the direction the fae were coming, there was a chance they’d head right past without seeing us.
