Her guilt faded into a cold and deadly calm.
Setting her jaw, she returned her gaze to the camp and waited for the next body to fall.
23
Teryn watched James die. He hadn’t realized that was what had happened, at first. When James had begun to slump to the side in the middle of his story—something Teryn was grateful for, considering the repulsive subject matter the man favored—it seemed James had just fallen asleep. It wasn’t until another man toppled over. Then another. Teryn glanced at James with renewed interest, saw the blue tinge to his lips, his open eyes that stared sightlessly ahead.
With a jolt, Teryn rose to his feet, just as two more men fell. The camp burst into fits of commotion as the remaining men ran to their comrades, checking their pulses, shouting panicked orders at each other.
Teryn’s eyes darted around, then landed on Helios. Suspicion crawled up his spine. Helios, however, looked just as perplexed as Teryn. Heavy brow furrowed, Helios stood frozen as another man collapsed, fingers clawing at his throat as his face turned blue.
“What the hell is going on?” came Lex’s voice as he sprang up from his bedroll. His question went unanswered.
Only three of the hunters remained breathing. Gringe, Hammond, and a man named Sam. Gringe and Sam were distracted by their fallen brethren, but Hammond was backing away from the fire. Toward his crossbow.
Teryn palmed the hilt of his belted dagger, edging slowly toward his horse, where he’d left his shortsword and spear with his saddlebags. Lex simply stared at the horror unfolding around them, muttering curses under his breath.
One step. Two steps. The next brought him to his horse—
Hammond cocked his crossbow, loaded a bolt, and aimed at Lex. He swayed slightly on his feet before planting his legs firmly beneath him. “I thought you were supposed to be mute, boy.”
Lex’s hand flew to his hip, but he too had come to the campfire unarmed. Hammond squeezed the trigger on his crossbow, but Teryn already had his spear in hand. Hammond swayed again, and his bolt missed Lex by a foot. Teryn’s spear, on the other hand, did not miss. It struck the center of Hammond’s gut. The man looked down, staggering once more. Gringe and Sam whirled away from their companions. Gringe’s sword was drawn, while Sam unsheathed his dagger. Unlike Hammond, neither man seemed affected by whatever had felled their friends.
Helios already had his sword drawn by the time Gringe rounded on him. “Did you poison our meal?” Gringe said as steel met steel. “Or our rum?”
“Neither,” Helios said through his teeth as he parried Gringe’s attack.
That was all Teryn could witness before Sam sprang at him. Teryn didn’t have time to reach for his sword or his spare spear, so his dagger would have to do. Sam was a grizzled man, older than Teryn by at least twenty years, and his stout stature put his reach at a disadvantage to Teryn. But his confident composure was that of a man who had no doubts about who would come out the victor. Teryn dodged a lunge aimed at his stomach, then another angled toward his side. He sidestepped, turned, brought his blade beneath Sam’s ribs. The other man blocked him, slicing Teryn’s inner elbow. Teryn staggered back, his fingers flying open from around the hilt. Sam lunged for his throat, but Teryn dove to the ground, fighting through the pain in his arm as his hand closed around the hilt of his dagger again. Blood slicked his palm, but he blocked Sam’s thrust. With a kick to the gut, Teryn sent him back a few steps. Sam staggered for only a moment before he closed in again. Teryn blinked sweat from his eyes, felt a wave of dizziness rush over him. Was it blood loss, or…
He knew the truth then. It had been the rum. Every man had shared the meal, but not everyone had drunk the rum. Not Helios. Not Lex. He hadn’t realized it then, but he’d never witnessed Sam or Gringe accept the bottles either. But Teryn…
He’d let the liquor touch his lips when he’d feigned drinking. Lips that he’d surely moistened at some point during the fight. It wasn’t enough to knock him off his feet, but dread filled his bones. He tried to clear the terror from his mind and parry Sam’s attack—
The attack didn’t come. Sam halted a foot away. Teryn shuttered his eyes, trying to figure out what had happened. In a matter of seconds, a spurt of red caught his attention, trickling down Sam’s neck to stain his tunic. That was when Teryn saw the steel tip protruding from his throat. Lex withdrew his sword and they both watched Sam fall to the earth, clutching his throat until he died in a pool of his blood.
“Seven gods,” Lex said, voice panicked. His sword fell to his feet. “I…I killed a man. I’ve…I’ve never killed a man.”
Teryn met Lex’s haunted gaze, realizing he could say the same for himself. He glanced beyond Lex at the carnage littering the camp. At Hammond, dead with Teryn’s spear protruding from his gut. At the men lying lifeless around the fire. Finally, his eyes settled on Helios, who simply stood with his arms crossed, a smug smirk on his face. Gringe lay motionless against a tree, his tunic punctured with several wounds.
“Turns out Lex is the better man with the blade after all,” Helios said, tone mocking. “He just saved your pathetic life.”
Teryn stormed over to him. “While you just watched.”
Helios shrugged. “I was curious.”
Fire raged through Teryn’s blood. “You did this. You poisoned them, didn’t you?”
“No,” Helios said, “but it certainly benefited us, didn’t it?” Without another word, he stalked over to the caged unicorn. A dead man was slumped before it, and Helios kicked him to the side. The unicorn trembled within the cage, lips peeling back from his teeth as Helios brought his dagger—the one carved from horn—to the ropes binding the frame.
His conversation with James swarmed his mind, and he recalled the suspicions he’d had right before James fell. Teryn wiped his bloodied hand on his pants and strode over to Hammond. After prying the spear from the man’s gut, he raised it. “Stop.”
Helios glanced over his shoulder, but only let out a dark chuckle. “You wouldn’t dare, princeling. Trust me, you need me for this next part.”
“Tell me everything about thisnext partor I will throw this spear. If not to kill, then to maim your leg. You’re not keeping any information from me for a second longer.”
Finally, Helios stopped cutting the ropes and turned to face Teryn. He spun the unicorn horn blade in his palm, unfazed by Teryn’s threats. “I respect your initiative,” he said, though his expression revealed anything but respect. “What would you like to know?”
“Tell me what you’re planning on doing to that unicorn.”
