I didn’t realize I’d beenthatstarved for some kind words.
Something in Ilse’s eyes made me believe she understood what just happened, and I was grateful when she turned away to pretend to fidget with something while I gained control over my senses.
“I—” I started as soon as I wasn’t worried my voice would break.
A branch snapped in the dark forest.
“Who’s here with you?” I demanded, my cheeks warming.
Her eyes flew wide. “I’m… Iwasalone.”
There was nothing in her face that indicated she was lying. Besides, it wasn’t like the karls could have known where I would show up after jumping into the lake.Could they?
And what would have been the point of pulling me up from the water?
To watch you suffer.
I shook my shoulders. This girl didn’t seem to have a cruel streak.
I hoped.
“Who’s there?” Ilse called.
The woods remained silent. Still. But I felt eyes on us. As I moved backward, they followed, an eerie awareness slithering up my back. Breathing reached my ears. Breathing like someone preparing themselves for something.
“Get ready,” I said through my teeth, hoping this wasn’t a coordinated ambush, because I’d look really fucking stupid then. But as the girl threw me one of the daggers hanging around her waist, I pushed that thought from my mind.
Leaves crunched, and Ilse shot me a look as three men burst from the bushes.
I only had time to take in the first one—a dark-haired man with a long beard and tattoos that did not belong to anyone from Skagerik—before they were on us. Ilse’s back pressed against my own when they circled us, and as one of the men lunged, she sliced a deep gash into his shoulder, eliciting a violent tirade of what sounded like curses in a foreign tongue.
“Who are you?” Ilse hissed.
The men screamed something back, one of them pointing to me. The man in the front pounced, and Ilse cried out when he landed a blow to her shoulder that made my teeth slam together as she crashed into me.
“What the fuck do you want?” Ilse said as she lifted her hands again. “We haven’t done anything to you!”
“I don’t think they understand.” I kicked out with a leg to stop another’s advance.
The men were unarmed, but there was a fury in their faces that made my skin pebble. They were not here to capture—they were out to kill. As one of them screamed something, and the other two instantly responded to it, my blood chilled.
“Watch out,” I cried. But it was too late. Two of them went for Ilse, and while she managed to lodge her knife into one of their shoulders, the other took her down.
As I tried to get to her, the third man got into my path. His teeth glinted menacingly as he sidestepped to stop me from overtaking him.
I squeezed the hilt of the dagger as I lifted it.
“Elvara!”
Ivren’s voice breaking through the dark distracted me for a precious second, and the man coming for me landed a sharp jab to my throat. Stumbling backward, I struggled for air for the second time tonight, but as the man pinning Ilse to the ground got hold of her blade, I reacted instantly.
I threw my dagger with all the strength I had left, and it foundits mark in the man’s throat. Ilse shoved him off as blood sprayed her shirt, and when the second man tried to go for her, Ivren got hold of his collar.
Pulling him against his chest, the heir wound his arm around the man’s neck and squeezed, refusing to budge an inch even as the man bucked and kicked to get away.
Viljan landed a hard blow to the one who’d managed to strike me, and before I had time to call out, Viljan snapped his neck, the crunch from its shattering rushing through me.
“Don’t kill him!” I screamed to Ivren.
