A Kiss of Shadow (Court of Starlight and Darkness #2)(27)

“If they don’t get out of here soon, we need to assume they know we’re in the area and are looking.”

“So we should ambush them,” I said. “I want answers.”

Eve’s jaw hardened. “Me, too.”

“Ambush it is.” Meria peered out into the woods. “I don’t like waiting for an attack anyway.”

I laid my hand on Eve’s shoulder. “But you should wait here.”

“The hell I will.” She scowled. “I’m a lot better. Miserable, but it’s nothing the healer can’t fix when I see her.”

“But—”

She shook her head, her glower cutting me off.

“Fine,” I said. “All of us.”

“They’re going to be confused,” Meria said. “One moment, they could probably hear us running, and the next, there was silence.”

“Let’s wait for them to get farther away, then hide in the trees and attack,” I suggested.

Meria and Eve both grinned.

“I like that plan.” Meria drew her bow and arrows from the ether. “It’ll be perfect.”

My mind raced. “We’ll get into the trees, wait silently, then make a noise to draw them closer to us. But make sure the noise sounds at ground level.”

“We can throw rocks at the ground,” Meria suggested.

“I like it.” I grinned.

“Let’s go.” Eve rose, approaching the barrier that concealed the cave. She stood still, tilting her head to listen. “I don’t hear them.”

We joined her, both listening carefully.

“Neither do I,” Meria said.

I just shook my head.

“Let’s go, then.” Eve let the magical barrier drop, and we hurried into the forest, our footsteps silent.

I could feel the presence of our stalkers, even though I couldn’t see them. They were like a stink on the air, a stain of danger that I couldn’t possibly miss.

“They’re not far off,” I whispered, then cut toward the nearest climbable tree. I grabbed a few rocks off the ground and stuffed them in my shirt, then hauled myself up into the branches, finding it easier than I’d expected.

More unexpected talents.

Too bad the stars weren’t out, or I’d have some magic to call on. As it was, I’d have to wait for the right moment and jump on a dude’s head, and then stab him with my sword.

How was this my life?

Eve and Meria climbed nearby trees, moving with a swiftness and grace that took my breath away. Once they were settled, they looked at me.

I nodded.

We tossed our rocks to the ground. They rustled as they hit the fallen leaves.

We waited.

A few seconds later, figures sprinted through the woods toward the cave where we’d been hiding. There were at least ten of them, half men and half women, all dressed in dark green to blend with the forest.

They were as beautiful as all the other fae I’d seen, but there was something colder about their expressions.

Mercenaries?

I had no idea.

But they moved with an efficient grace that suggested they’d worked together as a team for a long time. There was a pattern to their movements, one we were about to seriously disrupt.

At my left, Meria fired three arrows in quick succession, each finding a home in the chest of one of our pursuers. Two men and a woman. They were still running when they fell, surprise on their faces.

“In the trees,” shouted a man from the back. He was the biggest, with long dark hair and a scar across his face that made him look like a pirate.

To my right, Eve drew two daggers and threw them toward the attackers closest to her tree. The silver metal glinted as it pinwheeled through the air. One after the other, her blades sank into chests. Her victims fell, hitting the ground with identical thuds.

That left only five more.

Meria had more arrows, but they’d already figured out where she was hiding. The five of them gathered beneath her tree, taking cover under the branches. She tried to fire downward, but it was impossible for her to make a hit.

The leader began to climb the tree, a determined grace to his movements that sent ice through me.

He’d kill her as soon as he caught her. She was strong, but there was something downright terrifying about him.

I scrambled down from the tree, my blade clutched in my hand. Eve did the same, running over to the fallen bodies that contained her knives. She yanked them out, and together we approached the circle of mercenaries surrounding Meria’s tree.





Lore



* * *



When the landslide had hit the train, my first thought had been of Sia.

Fear had iced my spine, stolen my breath.

I’d abandoned the car where I’d been questioning the staff about the yellow-eyed man and sprinted back to our private car, desperate to find her. To make sure that she was okay.

The guards that I’d posted were waiting outside her door. When I’d opened it, I’d found the room empty and the window open.

At that moment, I’d thought I’d felt the greatest fear I’d ever known.

I’d been wrong.

It came ten minutes later when I’d finished searching the entire train. She was nowhere to be found. It was nearly enough to take me to my knees.