“I won’t slow you down.”
“Then let us show them what the Nightwild Guard does to those that take what doesn’t belong to them.”
I turn and start walking back to the village.
Hold on, Moirthalen. I push the words toward her. I don’t know if she’ll hear me while she’s unconscious, but I send them anyway.
Hold on. I’m coming for you.
FORTY-NINE
ALLERIA
My head is pounding,a dull, sick throbbing behind my left ear that pulses every time I move.
What happened? Where am I?
The memory is there but I can’t quite reach it. It slips away every time I focus. I try to sit up and the world tilts violently.
“Easy. You’ll fall.”
Brennan? Why is Brennan here?
And then everything crashes back.
The strangers arriving at the village. Walking with Nella. Her crying. And then Brennan stepping out of the shadows.
Vel!
The fae who hated me from the first moment she saw me took an arrow because she was trying to reach me. She went down and I couldn’t get to her. My stomach lurches, and I have to fight not to be sick.
Is she alive? Is she dead? Oh gods, does Cairn know what happened?
“I know you’re awake.” Brennan’s voice is close to my ear. “Your breathing changed.”
There’s no point in pretending, so I open my eyes.
I’m on a horse, in front of Brennan, whose arm is wrapped tight around my waist. We’re moving along a wide road at a slow walk. I try to sit up and pull away from him, but his arm tightens.
“Let me go.”
“I can’t do that. We have to make sure we’re far enough away that they can’t catch up to us.”
They. He means Cairn.
I twist in his grip and look around. There are eleven soldiers riding in formation around us. Sharing a horse with one of them is Nella. Her face is pale and tear-streaked, and when she sees me looking she tries to smile. It falls apart before it fully forms.
Shedid this. I thought she was my friend. The woman I trusted with everything. She led me right to them.
“She did the right thing,” Brennan says, seeing the direction of my gaze. “She saved you.”
“Saved me from what?”
“From them.” His arm shifts, pulling me more securely against him. “From whatever they did to make you stay.”
He thinks he’s rescuing me. He knocked me unconscious and snatched me away. In his head he thinks he’s the hero of this story. The loyal guard saving his princess from the monsters who stole her.
“Brennan.” I make myself breathe, force myself to sound calm, even though my heart is racing. “I wasn’t a prisoner. Ichoseto be there.”
