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Regulus clutched Adelaide tighter. His heart thudded against his ribs. Every hoof beat as Sieger galloped through the woods sent a jolt through his body. Adelaide’s gelding Zephyr raced behind them. The light from the window in the top of the sorcerer’s accursed tower flashed through the forest, growing fainter as the trees transitioned from dead and blackened to healthy pines and birches.
His tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth as Adelaide’s words echoed in his mind. “He took it. My magic. It’s gone.” Her hair flew in his eyes, his mouth. He pulled the hair away and placed his cheek next to her head, wrapping his hand back over hers. “Gone. He took it.”
As the scene flashed through his mind again, he closed his eyes and tried to will it away but couldn’t. Couldn’t stop the scene replaying. Adelaide falling to her knees before the sorcerer, her head thrown back in a silent scream. Her eyes glazed over, rolling back in her head until almost all that was visible were the whites.
Regulus opened his eyes. My fault. My fault. My fault. The words hammered through his head in time with the pounding of his heart. He should have been right next to her; should have pushed the sorcerer away before he wound his hand around her wrist. He shouldn’t have taken her in the first place. Two years ago he shouldn’t have agreed to serve the sorcerer.
But that was foolishness, and he knew it. Even had he been closer, he might not have been able to stop the sorcerer. And he hated to admit it, but he would make the same choices all over again. Because Dresden and Harold and the others were still alive. Because, even with her magic stolen, Adelaide was still alive. But would she ever forgive him?
They rode until the horses panted, their chests heaving, and necks drenched with sweat. Sieger snorted as he slowed, tired by the fast pace and the weight of two riders. Regulus pulled back on the reins, bringing the stallion to a halt. Zephyr snorted, following Sieger’s lead and stopping as well. Regulus shifted Adelaide forward and dismounted, then picked her up and carried her off the saddle.
“I’m fine.” But her voice sounded weak, and she didn’t fight him.
He set her on a mossy patch of ground under a beech tree. She slumped against the trunk as he knelt in front of her and tossed aside the oversized black sword—the last piece of the Black Knight ensemble the sorcerer had given him. He was free, he didn’t need it now. He pushed her hair out of her face. In the pale moonlight, tears glistened on Adelaide’s cheeks. What could he say? I’m sorry felt hollow. Crass.
She turned away and pressed against the tree trunk, curled in on herself, staring at the ground. Regulus ducked his head, trying to catch her eyes. Etiros, help me. “I’m—”
“Don’t.” She lunged forward and wrapped her arms around him, her fists clenching his shirt and her breath hot on his neck. “Don’t you dare apologize.”
“I don’t know what to do,” he whispered. He pulled her onto his lap and stroked her hair, his fingers brushing against her back.
“Just...” She turned and rested her head on his shoulder. “Don’t let go. Please. Don’t let go.”
“I—”
Zephyr snorted and pawed the ground, startling Regulus. Sieger sniffed the air, then whinnied. Regulus looked around, still stroking Adelaide’s hair. Shadows moved in the trees. He couldn’t tell if it was just the light, a trick of his tired eyes. Or if something actually—a glint of yellow. He stiffened and watched the same spot. There. Two eyes, a dull, reflective yellow-green in the moonlight. They vanished. A growl reverberated nearby. Adelaide jumped away. Sieger reared; Zephyr kicked his back legs. The horses took off. Regulus leapt to his feet and grabbed the oversized sword.
“What is it?” Adelaide whispered as she stood, her dagger glinting in her hand.
Regulus scanned the shadows. His newly non-enhanced muscles strained against the unwieldy sword’s weight. “Not sure.”
More growling and snarling sounded from the darkness on all sides. Adelaide only had a dagger. She hadn’t retrieved her throwing knives from the bear. Why would she need to? She had magic. Had. Regulus gulped back the rising panic. They stood beneath the beech tree, surrounded by unknown creatures. An average woman and an average man. No immortality. No magically enhanced strength or speed. No magic.
Adelaide crouched, her feet spread and planted, her hands raised in front of her face, her dagger in her right hand. A good defensive stance. Protecting her torso and keeping a strong center of balance. Some measure of calm settled over his nerves.
No. Not an average man and woman. Adelaide was anything but average. And there were those who said the name Regulus Hargreaves with equal parts admiration and fear long before he met the sorcerer. He’d killed plenty of men and monsters. And Adelaide had killed a troll. He squared his shoulders and adjusted his own stance, confidence growing. Grant us mercy, Etiros. Give us victory. The same prayer he’d prayed as a mercenary.
The beasts still hadn’t moved from the shadows. As if they were sizing them up, trying to decide if they were worth the trouble. Maybe they would give up—movement to the right drew his attention. Yellow-green eyes flashed low in the darkness. Something shifted forward.
The canine was thin, built like a racing hound, but as tall as Regulus’ middle. Shaggy gray fur hung from its lithe frame, except along its neck and underbelly, which were covered with segmented bone plating. Its black lips pulled back in a snarl over long, yellowed fangs.
“What...” Adelaide breathed.
“Kanadosus,” he murmured. “Pack hunters. Armored underbelly, except for just under its jaw.” He didn’t mention he’d seen three men ripped limb from limb by kanadosi back in his early days as a mercenary, but he recalled their screams.
Two more kanadosi crept out of the brush. Rustling and growling sounded behind them. Adelaide turned. He’d have to trust her to deal with the ones behind him.
The kanadosi growled and surged forward together. One jumped at his chest. He raised his sword and swung at the kanadosus’ neck. The swing was awkward, but the beast fell, its neck half severed. Another kanadosus sunk its teeth into his right arm and he groaned. He hit the pommel on the beast’s head, and it released his arm and fell back with a yelp. He swung but aimed poorly. The blade cut into its shoulder at the base of its neck and lodged fast in the armor plating on its chest. The kanadosus thrashed, and the sword ripped out of Regulus’ grip. Adelaide cried out, and Regulus spun toward her. A kanadosus lay dead between them, another limped away with blood flowing down its shoulder.
But his eyes snapped up to Adelaide, pinned against the tree, a snarling kanadosus clawing and snapping at her. She held the beast at arm’s length, gripping its shoulders. He ran, his heart plummeting as her elbows buckled. She jerked her head away from its bite, her scream chilling. He grabbed the kanadosus and threw it aside as another beast jumped on his back. Its claws dug into him, slicing through his shirt. He staggered and tried to reach up to grab the writhing creature. It bit his left shoulder, and he yelled.
Adelaide ran forward, bending to snatch up her dagger as she went. Regulus ducked as she stabbed at the kanadosus on his back. It collapsed with a strangled whimper. He threw it off his back and looked about wildly. Adelaide stood at the ready, her hands empty. She must not have been able to pull her dagger free. He saw one of the kanadosi disappear into the shadows. The rustling quieted as the remaining kanadosi fled. His pulse hammered in his ears as he scanned the darkness for any sign of movement, any shadow out of place.
Nothing. They were alone with the corpses of kanadosi and no horses. As the adrenaline wore off, he winced, light-headed. He stumbled toward Adelaide, frowning as he pointed at her right arm. Her sleeve hung in tatters, and blood dripped from her hand.
“You’re hurt.” He tripped, and she steadied him. His right arm and left shoulder burned and ached. She frowned.
“Not as badly as you are.” She guided him to the ground. “Hang on.” She fetched her dagger from the jaw of the last kanadosus, limping as she walked.
“Your leg...?”
“My foot.” She sat next to him, cutting strips from her dress. “Just got twisted.” She kept wincing as she worked with her left foot out to the side. The leather of her boot was mangled, but he didn’t see any blood on her foot. Only on her arm. She moved to wrap his arm, but he stopped her.
“You first.”
“It’s just some scratches. You’re bleeding more. I...” Her voice cracked. “Let me do what I still can.”
Guilt pricked him as she tightly bound his forearm. “Thank you.”
She nodded and wrapped wide strips of cloth over his shoulder, across his chest, and under his arm. The pressure made the wounds ache but would help stem the bleeding. When she finished, Regulus wrapped the last strip around her forearm. His tired hands struggled. A cloud drifted over the moon, making it difficult to tell where the cuts began and ended, so he wrapped as much of her arm as he could. The memory of the lights Adelaide had conjured before brought another stab of guilt.
“I’m sorry I didn’t stop him,” he said in a strained whisper. He cleared his throat. “I should have—”
“What, Reg?”
He blinked at her use of his nickname. His hands hovered over the knot he had tied on her wrist as he met her eyes.
“Should have, could have.” She pulled her arm to her torso and looked away. “It doesn’t change anything.”
The bitterness in her voice made him wince. He wanted to ask how to fix this, how to fix them, what she wanted from him. Wanted to beg her for forgiveness. But the words stuck in his throat. Too painful to speak aloud. Too afraid to find out the answer.
“We should look for the horses. And find a place to rest, away from the...” He gestured toward the dead kanadosi.
His heart fell further as she stood without looking at him. He followed her in the direction the horses had bolted, leaving the now difficult-to-wield sword of the Black Knight behind. The horses’ rapid pace had left an obvious trail in the moss, pine needles, and dirt, even in the dim moonlight. They followed the tracks, calling to their horses.
The space Adelaide maintained between them stung more than the bites on his arm and shoulder. Her limp worsened as they walked, but with the way she wouldn’t meet his eyes, he didn’t dare offer to let her lean on him. He was about to suggest they halt their search until morning when a whinny caught his attention. He scanned the woods to his right.
“Sieger?”
“Zephyr?” Adelaide called.
Hoof beats, then Sieger trotted around a tree toward them. Zephyr trailed behind, still tied to Sieger’s saddle. Regulus sighed with relief and caught Sieger’s bridle.
“Hey. There’s my boy.” He patted Sieger’s neck, and his hand came away sticky with sweat. “Sorry you had such a fright.”
He glanced around Sieger’s neck at Adelaide rubbing Zephyr’s forehead. She murmured something he couldn’t hear. He gave her a moment before finding a nearby pine suitable for both tying up the horses and taking shelter. He fetched his knife from the saddlebag, then ducked under the branches where Adelaide had already curled onto her side. With a suppressed sigh, he laid down a couple feet away from her, his knife close at hand. The soft sounds of the horses and the background noise of insects filled the air as he drifted to sleep.
Regulus awoke to find Adelaide curled against him, her injured arm crossed in front of her chest between them, her other arm thrown over his torso. His bandaged right arm wrapped up and around her shoulders. The sun had already risen high into the sky, but in the shade of the pine, the air felt cool. The heat of her body against his, the way she fit against his side, her face tucked into his shoulder, healed him and broke him all at once. His shoulder felt stiff and sore around the bite, and his right arm ached. The longer he lay there, the more aware he became of the stinging in his back from where the wolf’s claws had scratched him. He needed to move. He should move. She probably had drifted next to him in her sleep. But he kept still, treasuring the moment.
Afraid when she woke, she would resent him for what had happened to her.
Afraid to lose her.
