“See?” Dax huffed, a corner of his lips ticking up as admiration flickered across his face. “This is why you need to be on that throne and nobody else.”
“Stop placating me.” I jerked my chin at him. “If the traitor’s still here, I need your help to find them. Will you still help me?”
Dax opened his mouth–but before any words could come out, his ear twitched.
He went completely still.
Instead of answering, he shoved me away, hard enough that I stumbled a few feet.
In the next breath, an arrow hissed through the air right where I’d stood.
Chapter 36
Allie
Igripped my bow and crouched behind a mound of snow and ice, tense as if the ground itself might decide to betray me next.
Dax ducked and rolled on the opposite side of the path, a dagger ready in each hand.
We exchanged only one glance, before our gazes narrowed at the mist ahead.
Nothing but a hazy, milky sight awaited.
But within it, I heard steps.
Twenty.
No.
Twenty-five souls, walking as cautiously as we hid.
My bow string creaked as I waited, a storm brewing inside of me.
An attack? Already?
They couldn’t have been lying in wait, we hadn’t even known we’d be back.
My lungs tightened. Had the city been attacked and–
“Who goes there? Reveal yourself!” A rough voice echoed through the mist.
A voice I could recognize in my sleep.
I sighed in relief.
Of course Vylkor was taking his duty of protecting the city seriously.
Dax relaxed his grip on the daggers, but he didn’t rise.
I didn’t let go of the bow, either. “It’s me. The Huntress.”
“And her cousin,” Dax yelled and looked at me from the corner of his eyes. “I don’t want to be impaled just because I startled them.”
“The Huntress is off to war,” Vylkor called back.
Another arrow flew above us, but this time I recognized it as a warning.
Above all else, Solkar’s Reach and its people wanted to be left alone.
