And suddenly the fire in my blood turned to ice.
If I moved, they would shoot, and it wouldn’t be me who paid the price. It would be Ace. Maybe even Nala. My immortality couldn’t shield them, and the thought of watching either die made my hands tremble.
“If you come peacefully, you won’t be harmed,” the leader broke the silence. “We have orders to try to keep you alive.”
“You have orders?” My eyebrows rose. It didn’t feel like this guy would take orders from anyone. His lips quirked up at the corners. “Everyone takes orders from someone, love, even you.”'
“Debatable,” Ace muttered behind me. If he stood closer, I would’ve elbowed him in the gut.
“How does this work?” I asked, trying to peer around the group. “Where are the whips and chains?”
Ace grumbled behind me.
The leader swayed back on his heels. “Do you want whips and chains?”
“Don’t answer that, Mouse,” Ace growled.
The leader raised his eyebrows and waited.
“No,” I said. “I don’t want whips and chains.”
“Pity,” he said. Amusement glinted in his dark gaze.
Ace growled some more.
I didn’t like standing between these two. “So, we just follow you to an undisclosed location?”
“That’s generally how it works when you’re the captured party,” the leader said. “If you fail to comply, attack us, try to run away or any combination of those things, one of us will shoot you.”
“Lovely,” I said.
“My name is Darius. This is Grog.” He nodded at the tall hunter. He jerked his chin at the hunter with red hair. “This is Teo, and those two…” He waved at the remaining two hunters. “Are Raner and Roy.”
“Very courteous of you to make introductions.” I glanced at my bow and quiver. Darius had already taken them. He ran a hand along the iridescent fletching with a flicker of curiosity before handing it off to Teo. Raner stepped forward and plucked Ace’s bow and arrows from the floor.
“I want you to know the names of the people who will shoot you if you try to escape.” Darius smiled widely, but it did little to put me at ease.
“Here I was thinking you wanted to ensure we spoke your final rites correctly when we leave you for dead.”
“A bit inappropriate to issue baseless threats when we have you surrounded,” he said. “Now, step forward. Time to leave this place.”
We were herded out of the cabin. The door creaked as Raner flung it open, and cold air bit at my skin. Nala whimpered beside me, her paws dragging through the dirt with every step, too weak to resist, too proud to collapse. My heart clenched at the sound.
Hecate hadn’t healed her or if she had, the cure was taking time to make any noticeable improvements.
The hunters were smart about exiting the cabin and removed any possibility of a strategic escape. Raner and Rory took the lead, their matching strides eerily in sync. Once they exited, they turned and trained their arrows on us while we moved into the more open space. They didn’t smile and their expressions remained hard.
The others followed behind us, fanning out after they stepped away from the cabin. They kept a safe distance away, eliminating the possibility of either of us using close proximity to attack.
Teo kept to the left, his red hair catching the fractured sunlight. He kept glancing toward Nala with something that might’ve been pity. Grog loomed like a shadow to my right, the scar on his face catching in the golden sunlight. He wasn’t pointing an arrow at us, but his hand never strayed far from the hilt of his blade.
“We need to remove all your additional weapons,” Darius stated. “Don’t try anything. Teo has excellent aim.”
He only named only one of the archers, when three still pointed arrows at us. Interesting. Did that mean the other two were crap with a bow?
I logged the information for later.
Ace didn’t say a word as Darius stepped forward and started removing all his daggers and knives. Ace glared at him, jaw set, his gaze piercing, while fury radiated off him like heat. When Darius yanked Ace’s last dagger free from its sheath, Ace’s shoulders tensed, and for a heartbeat, he looked poised to strike. But he glanced at me instead.
