“No one hunts in the Black Woods.”
“They do if they’re hungry enough. The woods weren’t always so bad.” She thought of the way the alders had answered her when she called. “There are still good parts.”
He hummed, not accepting it but not rejecting it either. He gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze. “You should get some sleep. We need you to heal.”
For the first time since she was a child, since before the people of Jarn had soured, before her mother was branded, she reached out past the darkness surrounding her and cast up a prayer, hoping for the first time in so very long that there was a God there who could answer it. She felt something…some sense of connection, a feeling that maybe everything would be all right in the end. Her mother was safe in Sulen. Casrian was alive. He would come for her.
Asher’s hand disappeared from her shoulder.
The ache in her head faded. Exhaustion made her limbs heavy. Her body warmed and even the watchful darkness seemed to shift its attention away from her.
She slept.
34
Casrian had always liked Emrys. He’d come from a shipping family. Sailors all the way back as far as anyone could remember, but Emrys had turned his back on the sea. He was a little rough around the edges compared to most who attended the Academy, but he was a good witch hunter, a thorough investigator, a smart strategist, and a deadly fighter. He was a good man to have at your back.
Emrys had only been a few years behind him at the Academy, but he’d already built a strong reputation for himself and his patrol. Casrian had sponsored him before the council for his appointment to captain. The respect between them was strong and mutual, but at the moment, he was having trouble resisting the urge to strangle the man.
“What do you mean you brought Rowan back here with you? I sent her to escort Sol out of the fucking woods.”
Emrys crossed his arms over his chest. “We found her dragging an unconscious witch hunter through the rot with a familiar nearby.”
“She was helping him,” Casrian said. “She’s the reason Sol was still alive in the first place.”
“That’s not what it looked like,” Emrys said evenly. “I couldn’t take the chance that she was a witch, and I had no time to secure her elsewhere. She herself stressed the urgency of the situation. What happened here?”
A shitty day is what had happened. Running a hand through his hair, Casrian gave him the quick version of events.
“The terrain is difficult from this direction. We should have backtracked to the river. We ran into several familiars along the way. Lost another horse. It took hours before we hit upon one of the old roads and that was choked with brambles. It’s been nothing but one thing after another.”
“Did you find the witch?” Emrys asked. “We heard she was cornered.”
Casrian shook his head in disgust. “It was an illusion. A cast voice and a shadow spell. We lost her. She’s probably retreated to the fort. That thing’s no longer human. It’s a nested demon. The roots are deep. It’s strong. It won’t leave this place easily.”
Before they could discuss it further, the soldier Emrys had sent to fetch Rowan returned alongside a battered young private who needed a medic to take a look at the gash in his thigh.
Emrys’s eyes narrowed dangerously. “Where’s the witch?”
“She’s not a witch,” Casrian bit off, looking past the men for Rowan.
She had to be terrified, being accused of witchcraft after everything her mother went through. After the things he’d said to her.
She wasn’t there.
He turned to the young private. Shaking with pain, he still drew himself up to deliver his report to Emrys.
“We were attacked by a familiar,” he said. “My horse was cut from beneath me. Hers bolted.”
“Where is she now?” Casrian demanded sharply.
The young man glanced his way and shook his head helplessly. “I don’t know, sir. She ran away from the river, straight into the woods. She was heading east last I saw her.”
“Away from the fort at least,” Emrys muttered.
She was alone in the woods after what sounded like a hellish day. Alone. In a dark woods. With a witch on the loose.
“We’ll send Kenet to check her trail,” Daris said reassuringly. “He’s the best tracker in the service. Once we kill the witch, we’ll find Rowan. She’s smart and resourceful. You brought her here because she knows the woods.”
