Overhead, a pained cry penetrates the sky. I peer into the clouds as the wails grow louder and more painful. It sounds like another harpy could be in trouble.
My captor answers with a panicked screech of her own before launching skyward. Moments later, her gigantic, otherworldly form is swallowed by mist and rain.
I hurry toward the other side of the nest. If I want to escape whatever fate the harpy has planned, I need to leave now.
Below me, branches thick enough to support my weight extend from the tree’s massive trunk. Two more large nests are nestled in the nearby trees. The forest must stretch for miles. I can’t see the castle. Thunder rumbles overhead, and lightning flashes. For a moment, it illuminates the dreary landscape.
There!The castle is closer than I thought.
No time to waste. Kosac and his Dullahan could be torturing Fynn right now.
I swing my legs over the edge of the nest and crouch onto a nearby branch. My pulse pounds in my throat as I inch closer to the trunk.
Don’t fall, don’t fall, don’tfuckingfall.
Our trail has gone cold.We search the forest for the Dullahan’s hoofprints, none of us wanting to admit they may no longer exist. Inhaling a lungful of pine-scented air, I hate how alien it is after a life of concrete and brine back in Borealis. A knight on horseback can’t just disappear, can he? The gateway must be close by. We shouldn’t be chasing our tails.
I can’t stop replaying that footage of the creature snatching the child, terror carved into the young boy’s face. My first case as commander and I’m already neck-deep in daemons—and now a missing boy. Life really has a sick sense of humor.
If my father saw me wandering lost and mud-splattered, he’d sneer. He’d say a real Blade doesn’t miss signs or fall behind. Wendy and the other Blades are probably closing in on the rift already. I can hear my father’s derisive voice:Second best, as always.
I catch Isolde’s eye as she shoves her blue hair out of her face.
No. Wendy isn’t beating me. Not now. My girl’s watching.
“Who are you texting?” I ask, eyeing Jax. I’d wanted Ry for backup, but Wendy insisted on Jax, claiming he knows these woods. Too bad he also knows me, and every unforgivable thing I’ve ever done. “Is Wendy checking in again?”
Jax doesn’t answer, his phone’s glow highlighting his glowering face. I narrow my eyes. “Jax.”
He jumps. I raise an eyebrow. Something is going on with him that has nothing to do with me, even if he wants everyone to think so.
“Are you getting updates from Wendy about the search?”
He folds his arms, angling the phone away. “She hasn’t found anything.”
“But your phone’s been buzzing every minute for the last five. If it’s not Wendy, who is it?”
“She hasn’t found anything,” he repeats in a flat, stubborn tone.
Annoyance prickles up my spine. Maybe he isn’t texting Wendy. Perhaps he’s sending Wilder a play-by-play or just chatting with Desiree instead of helping me. But he doesn’t want me here. He’d rather have Wilder leading.
“Get off your phone and focus,” I snap, reaching for the device. “We need to be on the lookout for more hoofprints.”
Jax pulls back. “Back off, Soter. I am hanging on by a thread, and I don’t want to take my anger out on you.”
“You already are. Not to mention, you’re undermining my authority by texting rather than helping your team with the Dullahan.” I gesture wildly at his phone.
“You have no idea what I’m?—”
“Quit it! We’ve been going in circles,” Isolde snaps. Flames hover over her palm, casting jagged shadows across her angry face. “I swear, we’ve passed that tree already. Until we have a real plan, no one’s moving.”
I groan. We wouldn’t be lost if our tracker were actuallytracking.
“Stop whining and keep moving,Faez,” I snap. Not Sol. Not after Jax said we weren’t even friends, and she just let it hang there without saying anything. Amazing, right? It’s fine to tear my clothes off when no one’s watching, but gods forbid someone calls us friends in daylight.
I turn to Jax. “Put the phone away. That’s an order.”
Hurt flashes in Isolde’s eyes. “Seriously?”
