My hands braced on my hips. “Are you following me?”
The bird tucked its fringed feathers tighter, unblinking, entirely unfazed. It’s judgment clear as first light.
One hand snapped toward the man sprawled at my feet. “Doyouknow what happened to him?” The owl only blinked. Once. Twice. “Hm. I’ll take that as a no.”
My attention dropped back to the corpse, or half-corpse, half-cursed, mess. My head was silent.NoCallum.Which meant only a handful of moments had passed.
Which, if I were generous, was impressive on my part.
Or, gods forbid, maybe they’d stumbled onto another half-dead prophet with riddles carved into their tongue.
Fingers crossed it wasn’t that, because what the hel was I supposed to do witheventhisbody?
The beat of footsteps tugged my attention away, toward where the scent of charred wood drifted in. My spine stiffened, just as three figures broke from the tree line.
Callum, Rook and Ford.
Their stares cut straight past me, to the ground beyond, to the body I hadn’t quite figured out how to hide.
I shifted sideways, a slow, casual sweep into their line of sight.
“You’re here!” I called, too bright. “I was just…”
Ford’s grin broke like the sun. “Bad. Ass.”
Callum glared at him. “Do not encourage her.”
But Ford only flashed me a quick thumbs up, reckless as ever. My smirk rose, though I tried to veil it with the back of my hand.
Tried, andfailed.
Callum’s fingers smoothed a nonexistent crease on his tunic. “You told me you’d let me know if you were in danger.”
I scoffed, folding my arms. “I was not in any danger, I assure you.” My thumb jerked over my shoulder to the body cooling behind me. “Hardly a fair fight on this guy’s end.”
He crept forward, almost as if I might strike him down too.
I spoke low to him. “Youtold me to let the Viper out, don’t forget.”
His stare was heavy, then broke, sliding away for a moment, as if the weight was too much to hold.
Maybe he hadn’t meant it. Maybe he had forgotten what it was, whatIwas. The man had been ready tokillme; Ihadto kill him. He was already dead, already cursed anyway.
Still, guilt fought me when Callum’s eyes landed on me again, nearly condemning, then lowered to my clutched hand where blood seeped through its cracks.
My palm opened slowly, the stone arrowhead gleaming there. “I had to mist my dagger,” I murmured. “And the weapons we recovered.”
His brows furrowed, lines cutting deep, as he reached for the stone. “Where did you get that?”
I ripped my hand back before I could stop myself, too fast, too defensive. His arm stilled mid-air, fingers curling in.
“Sorry,” I blurted. “I found this here, actually, in the forest a few months ago. I’ve kept it on me as…a lucky charm of sorts.”
He shifted, the muscle in his jaw twitching. “Why?”
Before I could speak, Rook’s whisper came, quite amused. “A lucky charm indeed.”
I winked, my lips curving slow.
