“What are you doing?” Olm hisses. “Run and hide! Don’t draw attention to us.”
Casting around for another stone, I locate a broken piece of pavement. I heft it in my hand and throw that, too. “Here! Come and get me.”
“Oh, lords, she has gone mad!” When I put the book down by the street, he shrieks. “Don’t leave me!”
“You’ll wait for me here.”
“As if I have a choice! You’ll die and I’ll be left here forever!”
Damn, I feel sorry for him, in the same way I sometimes feel sorry for trees because they can’t uproot themselves and move. No time for that, now, though. I throw another stone, and another, and the goblins finally take notice of me. Three of them turn, snarling, hulking beasts with gray hides, animal eyes, and grins that split their grotesque faces from ear to ear. They rush toward me on cloven hooves.
“No!” Roane roars, “Stay back!”
Too late.
I back away down the street. I can’t see any more stones to throw, but there is Olm’s book where I left it. Quickly, I grab and lift it.
“Finally, you’re back,” Olm says, sounding breathless, “I honestly thought you’d abandoned me here?—”
“Shush.” I weigh the book in my hand. “The raven was right, you’re heavy.”
“Thanks. I have a lot of backstory.”
“You’re also a magical book,” I muse, “so practically indestructible.”
“What? No. What are you going to do? You wouldn’t throw me like?—!”
“A perfect weapon.”
“No, that’s not true! I’m actually very vulnerable inside, easy to offend?—”
“Gods, Olm, shut up!” I throw the book at the closest goblin and it hits the creature square on the head. “Yeah!”
Eiras always said I had good aim. He knows from experience, as I’ve often practiced on him during our many arguments growing up.
The goblin falls back—but that leaves two of the enraged brutes glowering. They fall on me before I can draw breath to scream, and a fire tears through my side. Gasping, I shove and kick at them, a thunder cracking inside my head, telling me I’m about to die when all I want is to live?—
The weight of the goblins is torn off me, and then Roane’s face fills my vision, blood-spattered, his eyes dark with anger as he demands, “Did you come here to become the bane of my existence?”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
OPEN YOUR EYES
ADELINE
“That was quite the melodramatic question,” I grouse as we resume walking down the street with all the goblin corpses littering it. I hesitate beside one that seems to be melting into the cobbles. A small symbol is branded into the creature’s neck in the form of a jagged line.
Unless it’s a scar?
Roane doesn’t wait for me, big surprise, and I scramble after him. I need to stop getting distracted, but honestly, can’t he just slow down for a moment?
The end of the skirmish is a blur. Somehow, Roane and his unlikely companions manage to finish off the goblins. I have impressions of him spinning around, his scimitars tracing shining lines in the air, black blood spraying, and then…
Then the book was dropped back into my lap by a blood-spattered lioness and a hand grabbed mine, hauling me to my feet. That was Roane, pulling me after him without a word.
Other than his melodramatic question, that is.
This street feels endless. Cold slices through me, gnawing on my bones. I try to keep up with the trio but after a while, I find my steps slowing despite my resolve.
