“They’re good at hand to hand combat, but you need to teach them proper archery,” Dax grumbled.
I sighed and flicked my wrist, blue tendrils shooting up into the sky, lighting the mist, careful not to call on any of the crater’s wind. Vylkor had seen enough of my powers–had begged for them back in the passage–to recognize them.
“It’s a trick.” Nadya’s voice shrilled through the wilderness, shocking me. “It can’t be her. The Huntress is no coward, she wouldn’t turn her back on battle.”
That singed my pride more than I would have liked.
Dax rolled his eyes. “I told you she’s weird.”
“Nadya, cut it out,” I called out. “It’s me.”
“They even mimicked her voice!” she went on. “Whoever’s there is dangerous.”
I narrowed my eyes. What had Ryker told her and Geryll about Evie’s kidnapping and the replica to make her this suspicious?
Two more arrows flew toward us.
“For the love of–” I gritted my teeth. “Do you really want me to go into excruciating detail about how the wolves hunted us down on the city streets and what we had to do to escape them?”
Silence.
The tip of my arrow caught the few rays of light that dared reach us.
Silence was dangerous.
The longer it stretched, the tighter I held onto the bow’s string.
I’d expected our return to be hard–perhaps shameful–but not deadly.
In the stillness and with the haze playing tricks on my eyes, my other senses sharpened.
Steps.
Coming toward us.
Hesitant.
Through the veil, exactly twenty-five blurry figures emerged. Vylkor leading them, Nadya right behind him. He clutched Ryker’s sword like it already belonged to him.
Something ugly inside of me bristled as I rose carefully.
We’d been gone less than three days.
Vylkor and I stared at each other for much too long, neither backing down.
“You want me to light up the sky again to prove it’s me?” I asked, voice like a whip. “Or do we need some ash and darkness for you to believe?”
Everything was a struggle, even proving my identity–and I was tired of it.
Vylkor’s good eye twitched, but he lowered his weapon.
I angled my bow at the ground and stepped forward, Dax behind me, still tense, armed, and ready for an attack. Nadya hadn’t lowered her ax, either. These two were more alike than they wanted to admit.
“What are you doing back?” Vylkor asked me with a bite, as if I was trespassing.
And that annoyed me.
No.
