18

A Life for a Life

With more apprehension than I want to admit to, I circle the outside of the debris field in widening rings, searching. As I pass an ash-colored, long-dead body of a felled tree, a groan reaches me from the other side.

Male. Velvet and iron.

Carefully, I skirt the log. As I round the far end, a swath of black moves underneath a low, orange-leafed bush.

Reven.

My first instinct is to run to him. Help him. I even take a few hurried steps, only to stumble to a halt. This is it. My best chance to get away. I don’t know why he’s lying here, but I should take the girl and run. If she’s from here, maybe she knows the fastest way for me to get home.

I half turn away, but another groan stops me again. I know that sound. Pain.

Movement brings my head around to find him struggling to push to his hands and knees, muscles visibly shaking, his head hanging between his arms like he can’t find the strength to lift it.

I remain rooted to where I stand. Undecided.

His entire body quivers as he tries to force himself up, then he collapses to the ground. From where I stand, I can see the marks on his wrists, which glow like his palms, and the light in both places snuffs out. His eyes roll back at the same time. Out cold.

I close my own eyes, squeeze them shut as I fight with myself. He kidnapped me, dammit. And what I saw last night scared me half to death. I should leave him here to rot and save my own life. Get back to Tabra before Eidolon has a chance to hurt her.

Only, Reven has been protecting me this whole trip. And he just saved me and a girl neither of us knows. He wants my help saving Tyndra, not torture or some twisted plan like I’d assumed. He has people depending on him, same as I do. Lying there, face down in the damp foliage, unmoving and limp, he looks so vulnerable.

An image of the death worm swallowing him whole fills my head. Or the basan spewing its cold fire over his body. Awful things might happen if I abandon him.

“Um…” The girl stops beside me. “Who is that?”

Sandrats. “Someone who needs my help.”

Her gaze darts between me and Reven. “Did he do that to the soldiers?”

“Yes.”

She scoots back a few feet, abhorrence written all over her face. “He’s the Shadowraith.”

The word slaps at me.

The Shadowraith.

The demon-forsaken Shadowraith who steals people from their homes. That’s who took me? The heavens really do have it in for me.

I drop my head back, staring at the sky but not seeing it.

It would explain a lot. I watched the man absorb shadows, for goddess’s sake, and that was before that terrifying display of power in the clearing. The Hag would thwack me in the head with her wooden walking stick if she knew I’d been so clueless. So would Cain, and Omma, and even Tabra. If I hadn’t been so focused on Eidolon, I would have figured it out sooner.

The question is, does that change my mind about leaving him here defenseless?

I sigh. No, it does not. “I need to get him somewhere safe.”

The girl stares at me like I’ve just decapitated an innocent kitten. Then backs up a step. “I’d…better get home.”

“Is it close?”

She pauses, then shakes her head.

Damn. A shelter without a territorial, ice-breathing bird in it would have been nice.

She takes another step.

“Wait. What’s your name?”

She eyes me. “Niri.”

“My name is…Tabra.” Hells, I almost said Meren. I gesture at her bag. “What were you doing when the soldiers found you?”

“I was gathering food for my family.” She makes a face. “But then the soldiers came, and one of them grabbed my other sack. It had all my kills.”

I wrinkle my nose. “I don’t suppose you know how to kill a full-grown basan?”

She perks up at that. “I was hunting a basan. It keeps stealing our goats.”

What are the odds? Despite everything, I huff a laugh, rubbing at my eyes. “I know where you can find it.” I can’t believe I’m about to suggest what I am. “I’ll help you kill it if you help me drag him”—I hitch a thumb at Reven—“to its nest afterward.”

I need that tree for shelter.

She shoots Reven another look, clearly questioning why I want to help the Shadowraith, but then shrugs.

“Basans are easy to kill once you find them.” She pulls what looks like a muddy apple out of the satchel slung across her bony shoulders and holds it up. “They can’t resist goat meat. But if they eat a rock big enough, it lodges in their throat. When they try to use their fire, they explode.”

Gross. “So that’s a rock covered in goat meat?”

She grins.

Right. “In that case, follow me.”

An hour later, thanks to her goat-covered rock trick, the fire rooster is dead. I don’t think I’ll ever unsee the way its head exploded off its neck. Like a teapot gathering steam, but instead of whistling, its eyes bulged, and then bam, brains, blood, and feathers everywhere.

Mental note to not have to kill one of those ever again.

Niri and I backtrack to the clearing, strap Reven to a pallet she helps me make, and drag him to the tree. After we get him situated, she stuffs the dead basan body in her sack, chattering about how thrilled her family will be. Dinner and no more lost goats.

“You could come with me,” she offers. “It would be…safer.” She glances at Reven behind me.

I bet it would be. Though Reven would find me again. I know it. “Thank you, but I’ll be okay.” I hope.

She nods. “You’re older than me and seem capable enough, but a word of advice…?”

At this point, I’d probably even listen to Omma. “Sure.”

“My family has a saying—a monster’s power lies in our fear of him.” She glances at Reven and swallows. “But a Shadowraith seems like a monster worth fearing. Are you sure you don’t want to come with me?”

I am probably making the biggest mistake of my life right now.

But I’m not changing my mind.

“I’m sure,” I say.

She nods, then glances at the sky. “I’d better go, or I’ll be late.”

With an abruptness that is almost jarring, Niri disappears into the woods, leaving me alone with Reven. I glance over my shoulder at where his boots stick out of the tree. For a woman who wanted to beat him over the head with something heavy, things have definitely changed.

I blow out a long breath. “No, no. You stay here and rest,” I tell his unconscious form sarcastically. “I’ll go get us some water—”

I cut off with a frown. I don’t have access to Reven’s water satchel. No way to get the water and carry it back. I drag myself into the tree stump and flop on the ground beside him with a groan. I’m wiped, and I don’t have water.

“Water sounds like a start,” Reven rumbles at my side in a slurred voice.

With a jerk, I pop up on my elbows to find him awake, if still visibly groggy, hardly able to prop both eyes open.

“That was…something,” I say. The sharpness of my own relief makes my words harsher than I intend.

He takes a deep, shuddering breath. “You wanted me to abandon you both? Or just her?”

“Neither.” I roll my eyes. “But if this is what happens…”

He grunts. “Yeah. Usually it’s not this bad.”

I want to ask what usually happens, only Reven is definitely waking up, because he flexes against his constraints before swinging a bleary-eyed glare my way.

“Release me.”

A command. Seriously?

“I’m not sure if I should,” I muse. “You kidnapped me. This is my chance to get away, now that I won’t have the image of a death worm making a meal of you on my conscience.”

I wait for a brooding comeback, but Reven blinks. “We aren’t in that clearing?”

“No. We’re back in the tree.” I wave, because surely, he can see this for himself.

His gaze doesn’t stray from me, and his eyebrows slowly raise.

I know what he’s asking. “Don’t get excited. I’m headed for the nearest temple. You can do what you want after I’m gone.”

“You could have left me,” he says. The way his voice goes quiet does funny things to my insides. Just like before.

I shove the reaction down deep. “I should have.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“No one deserves to die that way.” I look away, done with talking about this.

“What way?”

I don’t look at him and almost don’t answer, but his unmoving form is compelling as always. I sigh. “Without being able to defend yourself.”

A silence descends between us, and I don’t allow myself to so much as glance in his direction, because I don’t want to care what he thinks about that. I shouldn’t care. He’s awake now. I’m sure he’ll be able to get himself out of the bindings holding him to the pallet even if there’s no hint of shadow around him at the moment. I need to get home.

“I never expected to be surprised by you.” The words feather over me.

His expression is almost…impressed is the only word that comes to mind. Impressed and something else. Something more intent. An answering sensation, a glow of pride like I did something worthy of praise, sparks in the center of my chest. A reaction that goes beyond baffling because I shouldn’t give two dried figs about his opinion of me.

I shove to my feet.

“Don’t go.” A plea. An entreaty whispered in that velvet voice of his. That lover’s voice.

But it’s the urgency edging the words that keeps me there. “Why shouldn’t I?”

He takes a deep breath. The first time I’ve ever seen him hesitant. “Come with me to where I was taking you. See what I need you to see, and then decide if you’ll help us or not. I won’t make you stay. I’ll even get you home safely afterward. All you have to do is ask.”

I turn, frowning, to stare into storm-tossed eyes that are fixed on my face, like he’s willing me with a desperation that goes deeper than himself.

Why am I even considering trusting this creature who took me against my will and dragged me through this hell? One who has faces buried inside him—we still haven’t talked about that. One, however, who also risked his life to save me and an unknown girl from the woods and who is trying to do something about his sinking lands.

At the same time, Tabra weighs on me. What if she’s already dead? Would I feel it if she was?

I think through my options. If we were supposed to get to Reven’s destination today, it’s close. “Can you get me home faster that way than taking me to the nearest portal?”

“Yes.”

“Okay.” The agreement slips from my lips. “I’ll stay just long enough to see it.”

I can’t believe I agreed.

I think I must’ve shocked Reven, too, because he opens his mouth, then closes it, an undefinable emotion in his expression. “Good,” is all he says.

The man was desperate enough to kidnap a queen and all he can come up with is good? “Yeah.”

He lifts a single eyebrow. “Now are you going to untie me?”