I reached up to double-check Kieran’s cloak. “Absolutely. Who doesn’t love a little midnight stroll?”
“The woods are great this time of year,” Draven added, kneeling down to make sure the sheaths for my daggers were buckled to his satisfaction.
“Can’t beat the weather either,” Alaric said dryly as the crash of rainfall sounded from where Taivan had clearly opened another door.
“Definitely nothing else I’d rather be doing right now,” Roth grumbled from beneaththreecloaks. Apparently, their older brothers were very concerned about the cold. At one point, they’d been eying my cloak, clearly thinking about snagging it to give to their younger sibling, but Roth had snarled in their faces and they’d stomped away.
I might have offeredRothie Bearmy cloak after that, and they might have threatened something along the lines ofyou’ll get the edging of your lifetime when this is over.
Kieran booped me on the nose before darting up after Taivan and Desmond. Roth and Alaric both sighed before following, leaving me alone with Draven, who was still fiddling with the buckles on my thigh.
I chewed on my bottom lip. Vail was a good tracker, but the storm might make it more difficult for him to figure out where we’d gone. I could sense where he was through the bond we shared, but I wasn’t sure if he could do it too. Draven and I had done some testing with our bond; he could sense where I was just as I could him, and he was also able to tug on it to summon me.
But Draven and I were both part Fae. What if that impacted whatever this connection was and Vail couldn’t do the same? Not to mention the fact that the bond between us was stretched so thin . . .
My eyes dropped down to Draven. No. I couldn’t ask that of him, and it was stupid to even think it. Vail had made his decision, and he wasn’t my?—
“Yes.” Draven rose, his dark blue eyes twinkling with amusement. “I’ll go find your Marshal.”
“He’s not my anything.” I frowned and quickly scanned Draven. Like me, he’d loaded up on weapons. No whip, but he had two swords strapped to his back and half a dozen daggers hidden on his person. His black-and-silver hair was braidedback, disappearing beneath his long black cloak. “And I didn’t ask you a question.”
“You thought it.” He kissed my forehead. “It’s okay to worry about him. Love’s complicated.”
“I’m only worried because Vail could be useful, and if he gets himself caught, we’ll lose a valuable asset,” I hissed.
Draven just gave me an infuriatingly patient look. “Of course.”
I thought about stabbing him, but the way he was grinning at me now suggested he’d like it.
Stupid, hot prince.
Kieran was. . . not pleased about Draven splitting off to retrieve Vail. I didn’t blame him; I would have preferred for us all to stay together too. The fact that it was my fault Vail had gone off on his own only added to my guilt. I mean, I had every right to be angry with him, but he had helped us escape. It didn’t mean I’d be inviting him back into my bed anytime soon. Still . . . I could have let him down easier instead of slamming the door in his face.
It’d been satisfying but not entirely mature of me.
Draven had promised that he was used to traveling in the woods at night and that he could use his magic to find Vail.
I’d asked if he could feel Vail through the bond, but he’d said no, that he could only sense me. He was confident he’d be able to track Vail down quickly though, and then he could use his connection to me to find wherever we currently were.
I looked around the dark forest, which felt extra ominous tonight. I hoped Draven found him and dragged his ass back soon. It could just be my general anxiety about being in the wildsat night, but I couldn’t shake the feeling of dread that had been building since we’d left the tunnels.
We’d been traveling for almost an hour, and it was slow going. Severen and Celestina were in the front, Roth’s brothers were guarding our backs, and Adrienne, Emil, and Nyx had met up with us not long ago and were guarding our flanks—Emil to our left, and the other two to my right. It felt good to see the rangers again and to have more backup in case some beastie tried to make a meal out of us.
Several times, one of the rangers or Roth’s kin sensed something and held up a hand for us all to stop. The first time, we’d quietly climbed up into the trees as an enormous horned bear lumbered past us.
Even on all fours, it would have towered over us. The two horns that sprung from the top of its head before jutting forward brushed the leaves. It was the first time I’d ever seen one in person, as the bears preferred the mountains in the far north of Lunaria. The Velesians were used to dealing with them, since their realm bordered the mountain range, but the bears had only recently started coming into the Moroi realm.
Fortunately, they were usually easy to avoid and weren’t as vicious as many of the other predators. As long as you didn’t mess with them.
The second time, Emil had barely been able to give us enough warning as three kùsu had barreled through the trees. Luckily, they had been in hot pursuit of some swamp deer they’d managed to flush out of the brush. My heart had pounded rapidly as Kieran, Alaric, and I held ourselves flat against the trunk of a large tree while the twenty-foot-long insect-like beasts had scuttled past. The sounds of hundreds of legs moving across the forest floor while rain pounded around us would likely give me nightmares for weeks.
If Draven were here, he would have been able to use his earth magic to feel their approach far in advance. I’d tried to use my magic a few times, but I hadn’t been able to consistently sense anything, and most of the time, it was a feeling that there wassomethingthere but nothing more. It still felt odd to even acknowledge that I had magic, considering I couldn’t feel it most of the time.
So far, the only time I’d been able to use my earth magic was when I’d been desperate or angry—usually both. I’d just have to hope that I’d be able to rally it if we were in a near-death situation. No pressure.
In the meantime, I was using my senses like the others were doing to detect danger, which was difficult because of the storm doing its best to drown everything out. It was why we’d had so many close calls; we’d only detected the monsters seconds before they would have found us.
A blinding flash struck a tree fifty feet away from us, and the smell of burning wood filled the air while thunder roared across the sky. Summer thunderstorms were common, but this seemed more violent than normal. Or maybe it was because I normally enjoyed watching the storms from the safety of my room in a stone fortress and not traipsing through mud and undergrowth while dodging all the monsters that prowled the night.
