Warrior Witch (The Malediction Trilogy #3)(30)

“No,” I gasped, but Chris was already moving, his black horse galloping flat out toward the nearby woods. Clenching my fists, I watched, waiting for the magic to catch up, to slice through both horse and rider. But it fell short.

A string of oaths poured from Roland’s lips, but before he could go after him, Lessa closed her hands over his shoulders. “It’s a trap.” Her eyes panned the surroundings. “Cécile is here, which means Tristan likely is too. They’re trying to draw you out.”

“Tristan?” The anger fell away from Roland’s face, and he rose up on his tiptoes as though the extra few inches would give him the vantage he needed.

“Don’t be a fool,” she snarled. “He just tried to have you killed, can’t you see that?”

Roland’s face fell, but his half-sister ignored him. “Go after the rider,” she ordered the other two trolls. “Bring him back alive – he might have information about their plans.”

Both inclined their head, then they were running. I bit my lip as I watched them disappear down the road. I’d known trolls were fast – had seen the way they moved. But Trollus had kept them contained in more ways than one, so I’d never seen one in an all-out sprint. Chris’s horse wouldn’t outpace them for long.

A hand closed around my arm, and I would’ve yelped, but another covered my mouth. “Shh,” Marc murmured in my ear. “We need to move while they’re distracted.”

Surrounded by illusion, Marc led me through the still forms scattered across the square, not speaking until we were tucked behind another building where the twins were waiting.

“They know I’m here,” I said.

“Oh, was that why Roland was shouting your name?” Vincent crossed his arms. “You weren’t supposed to let them see you.”

Plucking a piece of debris from my ebony locks, I frowned at him. “I didn’t. Lessa’s seen me work that spell before – she put two and two together.” I swiftly explained what happened. “I don’t know what we should do now. We aren’t going to get a second chance.”

“Which is why we’re going after Lessa’s lackeys,” Marc replied. “It may be that they know where Angoulême is hiding, and ultimately, it’s the Duke who Tristan wants us to catch. If your friend Chris survives his little stunt, I’ll have to thank him.”

“For what?” I snapped. “Ruining our plan?”

“Did he? Or did you with that stunt with the guard?” Marc didn’t wait to see his jab land, his cloaked form going to the corner of the building. “They’re starting to search the town. We need to be gone.”

I didn’t argue. If I hadn’t taken that extra step – a step that had been both unnecessary and cruel – Roland would’ve bitten into the candy, spilled the blood, and I would have performed the spell just in time for Chris’s arrow to find its way into his skull. All those corpses in the town square? Their deaths were as much my fault as his. More. I felt sick with guilt and grief. They’d been innocent.

And I knew they wouldn’t be the last.



* * *



Slipping out of the village was no trouble. For one, people, oath-sworn or not, were fleeing in all directions. Two, while Lessa had set her human soldiers to patrolling the town in search of a girl of my description, they were woefully unprepared for dealing with my friends. As was Lessa herself.

“How anyone can believe she’s Ana?s is beyond me,” Victoria muttered for the tenth time. “She doesn’t know a thing about setting up a perimeter or organizing troops or…” The list went on, but I stopped listening, because it didn’t matter if Lessa had a talent for any of these things. All she needed to do was keep Roland in check and corral as many humans into swearing fealty to him as she possibly could, and so far she seemed to be succeeding.

With Vincent carrying me for the sake of speed, we’d reached the tree line some time ago, following the tracks Chris’s horse had left in the snow, as well as the boot prints of the trolls in pursuit.

“Be quiet, Victoria,” Marc said from his position in the lead. “If they were going to catch him, they’d have done it by now and will be coming back this way. I’d rather not give them advance warning of our presence.” Then he stopped.

“Put me down,” I said to Vincent, and once my feet were firmly on the path I made my way over to where Marc stood at a fork.

“Two sets of tracks,” he said. “The trolls split up to follow both trails.”

“I see that.” I pointed to the right. “Chris went that way. His horse is shod, the other isn’t.” I took in the churned up snow and horse dung. “The second rider was waiting here for him. They knew there would be more than one and they wanted to split the trolls up.” I kicked a clump of snow. “Chris never intended to kill Roland with that shot – he knew they’d be shielded. He wanted the trolls to follow him.”

I started down the path Chris had taken, but not before casting a backward glance at my friends. “Keep your wits about you.”

We moved at a more measured pace, Marc in front, Victoria at my arm, and Vincent holding up the rear. All three of them had weapons in their hands, heads turning at the slightest sound, and eyes scanning our surroundings for any sign of motion. Or scanning them as well as they could. The sun was directly overhead, and even though the forest with its thick evergreens blocked most of the brightness, I still caught all three of them wiping their eyes with the back of their hands.