Saoirse walked alongside her brother, steadying him whenever he stumbled. Raevina stayed close to Talon, taking turns carrying Ellie. The female from Fiadh tried to display an air of confidence, but even she had sweat trickling down the sides of her face. Arianna and Gavin were the only two alert enough to watch their surroundings. The rest were simply too exhausted.
She’d offered to carry Ellie multiple times, Gavin had as well, but Talon was reluctant to relinquish his hold on her to anyone other than Raevina.
Arianna clenched her jaw, resisting the urge to rub her temples. The headache was constant now, especially with the way she kept reaching for those trapped shards in her mind. Something was off. She could feel it. It was like a void existed in her mind. A gaping hole those shards would fit into perfectly if only she could figure out how to release them.
But there was something else. A sinister presence that kept those shards at bay and beckoned her to do things she would never normally consider. Somewhere in the midst of running from the spiders, she’d found the separation. Maybe it was when The Demon rescued Ellie. Maybe it was when he’d taken a bite meant for her. He couldn’t be the evil being her mind was trying to convince her he was. It wasn’t possible. There were too many contradictions.
They continued, trudging forward one slow step at a time in silence, each praying nothing else would find them in the darkness. Arianna wasn’t even sure if they were capable of running at this point.
Stars finally peeked through the clouds above just as pinkish morning rays illuminated the horizon. Arianna breathed a sigh of relief. Most reports detailed the Dark Fae only moving after sundown. Things could always change, especially where Vairik was concerned, but she’d take any little consolation she could get.
The Demon mustered enough strength to march ahead. She’d overheard him mention something to Talon about scouting for a place to rest. Her friend normally could have done it faster, but it didn’t look like he or Raevina possessed the strength for a shift right now.
Arianna watched The Demon crest a hill, and something in the back of her mind pulled at the familiarity of the place, even if she couldn’t pinpoint why. The Demon stilled just ahead. Talon straightened at the change. Adrenaline pulsed through her tired body, and ice coated her fingertips.Shit, they couldn’t handle another fight right now. She glanced over the surrounding area. Could they make a run for it?
The Demon turned toward them slowly. Not them. Her.
Arianna swallowed hard, afraid of what she might find when she walked over that hill herself. Raevina was there first,surveying the landscape without much interest. Gavin followed, again, unbothered and slightly confused at The Demon’s reaction.
Then Zylah stood at the top. She paused for a long second before turning to look at Arianna as well. Arianna remained beside Talon, just in case she needed to protect Ellie. But when she finally glimpsed what was on the other side of the hill, her entire body startled, as if someone had just jolted her awake.
The last time she’d been here—how long had it been now, months?—Arianna remembered hundreds of tents all lined in neat rows, surrounding various structures that dotted the space, likely from a village that had resided there before militant forces had taken over. The rear and sides had been barricaded with a thick forest. To the front, the part they stared at now, there’d once been a deep moat with jagged spikes rising up from stagnant water. A fence line had guarded the camp with sentinels stationed at every post.
Now it looked like a ghost of its former self.
The tents that had once stood as menacing obstacles to her freedom were gone. A few scraps of fabric were all that remained, but even those were in tatters, shifting slightly with the gentle breeze. Cabins still dotted the grassy terrain, but most had crumbled into wooden piles, blackened enough to tell her they’d been set on fire. Certainly not salvageable. Arianna remembered the muddy paths from when Zylah had first taken her to the mess hall. Those paths had been reclaimed by the grassy plains.
Arianna saw Talon glance at her from the corner of his eye, but it wasn’t just her who had suffered here. Zylah had been in captivity long before Arianna had shown up.
The pain of it all was written all over the half-breed’s face.
The Demon trudged down the hill first and used his magic to cover a section in packed earth where the bridge hadonce stood. It lay on its side now, half rotted in what remained of the stagnant water.
Zylah, to Arianna’s surprise, was the second to follow. She’d been staying close to Saoirse, but now she pointedly didn’t look in her direction. An ache grew in Arianna’s chest. She hadn’t learned even half the ways her friend had suffered in this camp.
Zylah had mentioned not asking questions back then, but perhaps now Arianna could prod, just to give the female someone to talk to.
Maybe it would help.
Maybe it wouldn’t.
Arianna moved next, and the others quickly followed. This was the very place she’d supposedly met The Demon. The location where she’d saved his life and developed a relationship with him. But her only memories here were of screaming Fae and the cracks of whips. The scent of metal and fire in the air. The fear.
The entire camp was eerily quiet as they ambled around the graves of the past. Arianna wondered how many bodies had been left here, forgotten after the attack from Móirín. She tried not to look too closely at anything hidden in the grass, afraid she might find a body. A slave. The woman who had been running with her hair on fire.
The Demon kept moving, clearly with a destination in mind. This was his camp after all; perhaps there were supplies he’d hidden somewhere in the event of a siege.
Simmering anger pulsed through her again, though it was far quieter than before. No one else seemed concerned about letting this creature out of their sight. Why? What if he had traps laid here? What if this was the place he’d turn on them? What if Vairik had been waiting here all along?
Fear trickled down her spine at the thought. If he turned them over to Vairik, her sister—Arianna’s head jerked to Ellie, taking in her slight frame. She hadn’t put on any weight. There hadn’t been enough time yet. Even her skin was still ashen.
“Arianna?” Of course Talon would be concerned. Of course he’d be the first to notice something was off. And why wouldn’t he? She’d told him all about her time in captivity. She’d detailed—Arianna gripped the side of her head again and doubled over, pain rocking through her body.
Images flitted past like leaves in the wind, there one moment and gone the next. Why couldn’t she bring any of them into focus? Why couldn’t she see past the days she’d spent with Zylah? Where had she been exactly? On this side of the camp or the other?
Arianna was heaving when she sensed The Demon’s presence. He’d pulled her hair back before she could stop him, holding the strands so the bile from her empty stomach wouldn’t coat them. Thankfully, he didn’t touch her skin directly. She was certain that would have made her feel far, far worse. Funny how this creature did more for her now than the female who’d had her strapped to a table.
Arianna tilted her head and stepped away from him, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. Her eyes watered, but Arianna still looked up at him through blurry vision. She almost hated the concern etched all over his beautiful face.
