He presses his forehead against my head and breathes me in like he’s drunk on my scent. I need a bath. Once you start smelling your own dirt, you know it’s time to take action. And now that I have all the pieces of my soul, they can stop edging me with a lack of sausage. This maiden is sausage-starved and ready to gorge on it.
“I can hear you,” Theo mutters with a laugh.
“She didn’t speak, brother,” Nash points out.
“Oh, I know. But she just thought about how we’ve been withholding sausages and now she’s ready to take all of us.”
“That’s paraphrasing and taking quite a few liberties with the use of sausage in my mind.”
“Seriously?” Malachi whines from behind her. “You can hear her?”
“Not everything, just snippets, but specifically when she’s thinking of us.”
“Why would that be?” Hart asks from his lead position.
Theo stiffens, and a whisper of wonder caresses my mind, the word he toys with just out of reach. “I’m not certain,” he settles on. He’s lying. He does know, but he’s confused and not ready to accept it.
“What’s the plan for getting back to the Hallows and the Living Library?” I ask, redirecting the conversation. We’ll need to circle back to this, but I don’t want to push him before he’s ready. It’s been an eventful diurnal. We can space out the shocking revelations.
“We’ll make it to Damsel Village before nightfall,” Hart explains. “Somewhere we know is safe.”
“The real issue will be when we work through the villages around the Hallows,” Nash adds. “Those are the most likely to betempted with a pot of life-changing gold. They hold no allegiance to us and have not been wronged by the Idols in the same way as the So Far Away occupants.”
I perk up. “Will we visit your sister?”
Malachi chuckles. “Yes, and I’m sure she’ll have plenty of questions for the resurrected maiden who stole our hearts.”
We enter the Forbidden Forest once more, and curious eyes follow our path while suspicious shadows weigh up whether we’re friend or foe. The air grows heavier. We’re no longer just passing through; we’re being assessed.
“Do you feel that?” Nash mutters.
Theo’s arms tighten around me. “Yes.”
I feel it too. That prickling sensation between the shoulder blades that says someone, somewhere, is considering doing something idiotic. I should know, as I’m normally the one doing the doing.
The first arrow sails past my head, lifting my hair before it buries itself in the tree trunk ahead with a thunk. Hart jerks the reins, and his horse rears, lips rippling in warning.
“Ambush!” Malachi barks as if we haven’t already figured that out.
A second arrow whistles past my other ear and disappears into a thick bush, taking a lock of my hair with it.
“Well, that’s rude,” I announce.
Theo growls low, making me recall he has a penchant for stealing my hair, and it seems he’s rather possessive over it.
Chaos explodes.
Arrows rain down from the trees like the forest has developed a personal vendetta. But none of them touch us. Strange, we aren’t tiny targets, so either they are terrible shots with the worst luck or they are trying to scare us. Too late, mellows, we have faced and conquered death.
Hart draws his sword in a single, vicious movement.
Nash pivots his horse, creating a circle of protection around me and Theo. My dragon curves his body tighter to mine, an armor made of muscles and fury.
Malachi stands in his stirrups, blade flashing as he knocks an arrow out of the air. He really knows how to handle Excalibur. I’m only a tiny bit jealous of the fact I didn’t display even a little of the elegance he does.
“Stay down!” Theo growls into my ear.
“Down where?” I hiss. “I’m on a horse.”
