Stop for lunch.
Walk some more.
Make camp.
Sharpen knives.
Sleep.
With as little talking as possible.
Orelia craved the shade of the trees and the rain-scented breeze, so she set Bute’s jar on her bed and excused herself.
When she stepped outside, the hairs on the back of her neck rose. There was an edge to the woods that hadn’t been there earlier. A strange sense of something closing in around her. She turned to go back inside but a rough palm covered her mouth.
Someone dragged her away, snorting like an animal in her ear. She thrashed as hard as she could as whoever, or whatever, pulled her away from the shelter. Orelia clawed at the hairy arm wrapped around her body and finally got the clammy hand away from her mouth.
Before she could scream for help, Vade burst through the door, almost blowing it off the rope hinges. His eyes went straight to the knife now digging into her neck, and a low rumble of warning emanated from his throat. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
A gruff, inhuman voice spoke in her ear. “Take one more step and I’ll cut her open.”
Creatures with piglike snouts and small tusks came out of the trees, but their faces were otherwise human. They walked on two legs, bent like a deer’s with hooves for feet and small, bushy tails. Their dust-covered bodies were coated in coarse boar’s hair, and eachheld simple, homemade weapons in their human hands. Orelia had never read about, or heard of, the creatures. Her heart pounded in her chest.
Vade said with unsettling calm, “Been a while since I’ve encountered Freebeasts.”
The five human-pig-deer creatures cautiously descended on them in the way deer approach water looking for submerged predators.
Hot breath tickled her cheek. “I know you, fae. You’ve been in these woods before.”
“Funny. You must not have been that memorable, because I have no recollection of meeting you, swine.”
A pig’s snort sounded in her ear. “Just as much of a prick as you were the first time, Death’s Shadow.”
Vade’s lips quirked. The nickname certainly fit him well.
The Freebeast lifted her chin with the tip of his knife. “What’ll you give me for her?”
“I’ll let you keep your life,” Vade said with an annoyed sigh.
Another defiant snort. “Money, fae. I know you have it just by looking at you. How much is her life worth to you?”
Calculating eyes watched the scene unfurl, blunt weapons waiting to bash their brains in. Vade wouldn’t let her die, but it was six on two, and she wasn’t sure what to do. Her arms were pinned, though she might still be able to reach the knife Vade had given her in her belt, but then what? She didn’t want to kill anyone; she just didn’t want tobekilled.
“I don’t have much,” Vade said. “Got robbed a few nights ago.”
“Lies.” The Freebreast nicked her skin, and she winced.
Vade’s calm composure faltered, and a heaviness swept through the woods. She’d learned the sensation was the weight of his power being readied. A slight twitch of his fingers confirmed it. “Prick her skin again, and you’ll regret ever doing so.” His voice was dangerously low and menacing.
“Then give me money.”
Vade surveyed the others one by one. A flash of uncertainty crossed his face, but it was gone when his eyes met the creature holding her hostage. “I know you beasts don’t have any sense of decorum, but it’s bad manners not to discuss this situation like civilized beings. Why don’t we negotiate?”
“Enough with the fancy talk. Hand over the money, or she dies.”
The tiniest shadows slithered out from Vade’s fingertips, and she couldn’t tell if any of the others had noticed. “How about I just kill every one of you filthy, odorous fucks instead?”
Snorts erupted, weapons raised into the air, egging him on. They wanted a fight.
