Ice spears sliced through the storm. Impossibly sharp. Deadly. But when they reached the monster’s hide, they shattered into useless shards. Pierce swore. Colorfully.
“Flynn!” I leaped over the fire and kicked him. Hard. “Wake up! We need you!”
He muttered incoherently, still lost in a dream.
“A basajaun stole Haven.”
His eyes flew open, and he jumped to his feet. “Where? When? Why didn’t you wake me?”
“There.” I pointed through the hole at the disappearing monster.
Flynn gathered fire in his hands and hurled a ball of flameat the beast’s retreating back. The fire guttered when they met its fur.
I yanked on my cloak, my fingers clumsy in their haste. “Let’s go.”
Grayson caught my arm. “We’re not following.”
“What?” My voice cracked with outrage.
“There was more than one basajaun. Everything we know about them says they’re solitary creatures. Why are they working together now?”
Was Grayson being deliberately stupid? The answer was glaringly obvious. “They’re working together to take Haven!”
Grayson pursed his lips. “Why would they do that?”
“We’ll never know if we don’t follow,” I insisted.
“Too risky,” he replied firmly.
Pierce’s eyes narrowed to angry slits, and the chill that rose from his pale skin frosted the air. “She stood over your body and fought to protect you. You owe her your life. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”
“I swore an oath to protect my brothers. You. All of you. Following an unknown number of basajauns into a blizzard is as good as signing your death warrants.”
“So we fix the wall and gather around the fire? Maybe roast some marshmallows? Is that your plan?” I’d never been so angry.
“My plan is to get us to Angelfire. Alive and in one piece.”
I could see the calculation in Grayson’s eyes—the same look he got when weighing impossible odds on a battlefield. We were already behind schedule, and the storm was getting worse. If we didn’t arrive on time …
“You’re a coward.” Pierce’s furious accusation hung in the air.
Pierce was wrong. Grayson carried the weight of keeping us alive. Haven mattered to him—I could see it in the way his jawclenched when he spoke about her—but his oath was to protect his brothers first. The bastard was trying to save us from ourselves.
None of that mattered in the face of Pierce’s accusation. Grayson turned to face him. “Say that again.”
Pierce lifted a saddle onto his horse’s back. “She challenges you. She intrigues you. And worst of all, she tempts you. And you’d rather let her die than admit it.”
Grayson’s face was nothing but harsh lines and flushed skin. “That’s bullshit. She’s a shield.”
“She’s far more than a shield, and we all know it.” Pierce looked to Flynn and me for support.
I nodded, jaw set. Grayson was my family. My only family. But he needed to get his head out of his ass. Haven was something special, and he refused to see it. After what we’d been through, I got it. I did. But that didn’t mean I’d abandon Haven. “I say we go after her.”
“Not your call,” Grayson stated flatly.
That didn’t deserve a response. I turned to Flynn. “What about it? Do we rescue the damsel or leave her to her fate?”
Grayson scoffed. “He doesn’t get a vote. He’s thinking with his cock because he still wants to fuck her.”
