Until a cold shadow falls over us. Glancing up, I find a huge bird winging through the bright afternoon sky. A harpy. Great. Just fucking fantastic.
Best not to panic his Highness. I say nothing except, “Climb faster.”
“You’re certain—there wasn’t—an easier—way to—the top?” Alistair pants and grunts each syllable.
“There is, if you wanted to spend days wandering around this cursed place. I didn’t think that was what you had in mind.” I take care to speak smoothly, giving as little outward indication as possible of the fact that my arms are burning and my calves cramping. “Get in. Get the girl. Get out. Wasn’t that the plan?”
The prince’s pained wheeze is the only response.
Minutes later, we haul ourselves over the stone parapet. I let my red-faced friend gasp his way back to standing from a hunched-over droop while I untie the ropes, coil them, and put them back into our small pack. We have enough supplies for three, maybe four days. Rations. Water. Ropes. Bandages—what we haven’t burned for torch wicks.
“Keep moving.” I toss him the pack. Alistair’s lip curls, but he knows better than to fuck with me. I won’t hesitate to drag his ass out of here, and then he’ll look like a fool. His pride won’t let him back down. He tosses the strap over his shoulder and parks his free hand on the hilt of his sword.
“The view is magnificent,” he says a few minutes later.
“Hadn’t noticed. I’m not here as a tourist.”
“You need to let yourself enjoy life a little, Kill.”
I ignore him, listening for the scuffling sound that’s trailed us this far. It was buried under the chimeras’ slinking footfalls for a while. Now I’m sure: there’s something else stalking us. Not large—but that doesn’t mean it’s any less deadly.
Despite the warm afternoon sunlight beating down on my black armor, a chill skitters up my spine.
We follow the curve of the steep pathway around a blind corner, where one look at the enormous nest on a protrusion of rock has me flattening my palm against Alistair’s chest.
“What is it?”
“Shh.” I poke my head around the corner, checking to ensure the huge raptors haven’t seen us. “New plan.”
“What’s going on, Kill?”
I fist his wilted white ruffled shirt and drag his face close to mine. “Harpies. If you can’t be quiet, I’ll fucking feed you to them. Understand?”
He shoves me off, lifting his chin.
“All you had to do was say so.” Tugging his clothes straight, he starts back down the trail. “Let’s try this way.”
Back into another thicket of thorns. We’re quiet for a while. Every few whacks, I pause to listen for the scuffling sound.
It’s gone.
I take down a thick curtain of vines and come face-to-skull with the desiccated body of a knight.
3
Killian
Alistair’s startled cry pierces the silence.
“Keep it together, Highness.” I poke the metal-encased corpse with the head of my axe blade. “What’s dead can’t hurt you.”
“It’s not that.”
Liar.
“Look.” He points to the path ahead, where there are white rocks placed in the shape of an arrow. “Something’sfollowingus, Killian, and that something left a message directing us to go that way.” I despise this place, long since abandoned to the beasts of legend and lore. Festering with foul magic. I loathe magic. Humans aren’t meant to mess with it. Curse the fae gods for not stripping it out of every corner of the realm when they departed for the sky.
Curse them for abandoning their beasts.
