They reached a crossroads, where blue lights glowed, just like the ones she’d seen in the village of Nyxholt. Up close, Ash could clearly see runic slits marking the waist-high iron post, its hexagonal sides emitting a vivid, pulsing glow.
“Attor?” she gasped. “Those blue lights, what are they?”
“Siphoning wards.” His expression grew grim. “Every pulse means the spell has found new blood. Usually a child, or a female in heat.”
She stumbled. “What?”
He pulled her into the shadows of a nearby building as something noisy trundled closer. “Quiet. Watch.”
A caged cart rattled past, pulled by hairy creatures resembling small woolly mammoths and steered by two hulking figures wrapped in gray cloaks, their hoods covering their heads. She froze, staring into the steel cage.
Dear Lord!Two children were huddled together, their broken sobs flaying her like blades.
“Attor—” She grasped his arm. “We have to do something.”
“Indeed. But not now,” Race said quietly from behind her. Her despair renewed as his palm settled between her shoulder blades. With his hood low, she couldn’t see his face. “Go and rest. I’ll be back once I’m done. Then we’ll talk.”
“There’s nothing to say.” She moved away from him, struggling to keep her composure in place, and managed a cool look. “I’m merely dropping off this backpack. It’s proving rather cumbersome. Then I’m going with Attor so we can find someone who knows about the guard schedule.”
A shard of moonlight caught his tight jaw. Clearly, he wasn’t happy.
Well, that made two of them.
He slid the pack off her shoulders and passed it to Attor without breaking eye contact, as if daring her to say something.
Well, he can sod that.Now she finally understood his blow-hot-and-cold manner with her.God!So many millennia had passed, and thisVaesarrastill mattered to him.
“Stash it,” he ordered Attor. “Meet us at the Cinder-Kiln.”
“Aye, sire.”
“All I want is that rotation list.” Ash spun on her heel. Before she even took a step, he grasped her arm and snapped, “You can’t just storm off?—”
“Who are we looking for?” She pulled free, dragged on the calm she desperately needed, and scanned the street—far easier than looking at him. “Not the guards, I suppose. They would grow suspicious.”
“Anyone who still has hope in their eyes.”
At his flat words, the sobs from the children in the cart scraped her mind, their pain and terror threatening to overwhelm her.
Her throat burned, but she nodded.
Farther ahead, her gaze lit on two massive males lounging by a corner brazier. They appeared rather intimidating, but there weren’t many people around to ask.
Ash aimed herself toward them. “Maybe those shifters?—”
“Ash, wait?—”
“We need that timing,” she cut him off. “I think I have a better chance with them.”
“Would you just listen for one damn second?” he gritted out. “What you heard?—”
“Oh, you don’t have to explain anything, really.” She dismissed it, her gaze sliding past him to the street. “When I’m back on Earth, our paths won’t cross. You’ll be free to chase your past?—”
“Our damn paths will cross!” A frustrated growl erupted. He grasped her arm and moved her out of the way of a few passersby. “Have you forgotten so quickly what you are?”
She tugged free, her back hitting the building wall behind them. “Oh, right. A bloody psionic and a target.” Her laugh was short, humorless. Sparks prickled along her fingers, and she balled them into fists. “Ah, that’s why you’re so…what’s the word? Yes,gung ho, about sticking to me like a shadow?—”
“Ash, stop.”
