“This way, my bag is stored at the stables. We can get a couple of horses and leave,” she glances at me, “you do know how to ride, right?”
“Of course I do,” I reply.
She shrugs and smiles, “Well, I don’t know, you might not have horses wherever the fuck you’re from.”
“Well, you speak English, I mean Earth Realm, pretty well, so you can’t be too far removed,” I retort.
“I don’t speak like the humans,” she replies, her blue eyebrows dipping down slightly.
Well, shit, I’m talking her language, whatever that may be, and I had no idea that I was doing it, again.
I’m sensing a theme.
Awesome.
I decide not to fill her in on my confusion as we move swiftly through the camp, and all of our focus is on avoiding being seen, the quickly falling darkness aiding in our quest. Hopefully, there will be time once we’ve escaped to discuss where the hell I am.
The stables come into view, and we pick up our pace, grateful to find the place seemingly deserted.
“My bag is through here,” Styx says as she rushes through the barn to a stable at the back.
Inside is a beautiful, huge stallion. He snorts in greeting at Styx, as she whispers to him softly before she heads to a corner of his stall, pries off one of the boards lining the walls, and pulls out a bag. It’s not big, but then, as a slave, I doubt that she will have much.
“This way, they went into the stables!” We hear someone yell.
“Shit, come on. The horse in the next stall along is a good one, you can take her,” she says urgently.
I shake my head, “I’ll hold them off so you can escape.” When she looks like she’s going to argue, I tell her the truth, “Honestly, I’m dreaming right now, but I have a feeling that you are very fucking real and you need to escape.”
She hesitates, “Fine, but only because my own instincts are screaming at me.” She swings up onto her stallion, not having time to put on a saddle or anything. Her eyes meet mine, “I will never forget what you’ve done for me. We’ll see each other again soon, Neith.”
“We fucking better,” I grin, and then step into the corridor of the stables, calling Asael to me and splitting him into two. “Go!” I yell as the doors blast open.
Relief fills me as she takes off through the doors behind me and into the night.
Chapter Sixteen
Neith
Iset the ground in front of me on fire, creating a wall that none of them can get past, and instructing it not to harm the horses, and then I jump through it, landing on their side and grinning at their shock. I’m not letting them realize that they could just go around the stables and follow Styx that way. If they’re too busy fighting me, then hopefully they won’t realize that they can do that. Or, if they do, it will be too late, and Styx will have managed to get far away from this place.
Asael sings through the air, as my muscles bunch and I block strike after strike, blood splatters across me as I fight to keep them all distracted and give my friend a chance to escape, because that’s what she is, I know that as sure as I know that Navy, Neera, and Rana are my friends. More than that, but I don’t have a name for what they are, so friend is what I’ll call them until I have a better word for it.
I fight to give Styx the chance to escape, to gain her freedom.
∞∞∞
One minute I’m stabbing one guy in the balls with Asael, grinning at his screams of pain, and the next I’m sitting up in bed and breathing heavily as the alarm blares, telling me that it is very definitely time to wake up.
I groan as I fall back onto the pillows.
Quickly taking stock of my body, I realize that although none of the wounds I got while fighting those fuckers to give Styx the chance to escape are still on me, I definitely feel like I’ve been fighting for a while, and my whole body aches.
Which is really fucking inconvenient, considering that we’ve got such a big day today. One that definitely doesn’t involve me soaking in a bath to try to relieve the pain in my aching body.
Damn it.
It does make me hopeful that Styx is real, and that she managed to escape. I suppose I won't know for certain either way unless my magic decides to send me back. Speaking of magic, that was some freaky new magic that I displayed, and if I’m going to hope that Styx is real, then that means that I have to admit that was real too.
