It was past noon when my eyes opened again. The fire had long since burned out. I remained still, lids barely lifted as I assessed my surroundings.
The children were gone. Only the mage and the Shadow sat near the dead fire, methodically tending to their weapons. My gaze gravitated toward him.
His words chased me through the darkness like wolves, snapping at my heels with teeth made of silver and shadow.
“If you’re awake, get up. We’ve got a long way to go.”
Heat crept into my cheeks. His eyes never left his daggers as he sharpened them with slow, deliberate strokes.
The bowman squinted at me, studying my reaction as the flush deepened. The cold sharpness from last night was gone from his face. He greeted me with a warm expression.
“G’morning!”
He looked much younger in daylight. Now that I could see him clearly, he was younger than I was.
I sat up slowly, watching their movements. “Where are the children?”
“Somewhere safe.”
“How do I know you didn’t kill them?”
“Once again,” the bowman said lightly, “if we were going to kill children, why bother rescuing them from a king who would’ve done that anyway?”
He was right.
He was also right when he implied they could have killed me while I slept.
He needed me.
He needed a weapon, just like his father had.
“You’re Daemon Thorne.”
He didn’t respond.
“Got tired of hunting down Fae for your father and decided to try something different, have you?” There was enough venom in my voice to drop a horse.
“Something like that.” He lifted one of his sharpened daggers. It gleamed beneath the bright spill of sunlight filtering through the trees.
The bowman chuckled. I shot him a glare. Our eyes met, and he shifted uncomfortably before looking away, whistling as if suddenly fascinated by the trees.
“Water,” I said.
Daemon flicked his chin toward a leather skin resting atop a moss-covered stone.
“Help yourself.”
Big mistake.
Letting me move freely told me they didn’t know enough about me.
I walked to the pouch and twisted off the cap. I took a long swallow. As the last drop slid down my throat, I hurled the skin at the mage and kicked a spray of dirt into the Shadow’s eyes.
I didn’t wait to see the results.
I ran.
My hands were still bound, but that could be handled later. First, I needed distance.
