Page 96 of Crownless King

Panic speared through me like an arrow. I had no chance against them in the open, so I bolted into the dark woods.

I crashed through the underbrush and ducked under the low-hanging tree branches. The sound of the branches breaking and twigs cracking behind me meant the guards had landed and now pursued me on foot, too. They must’ve seen that flying over the tall trees was useless. It was impossible to see me under the canopies in the dusk.

As a result, they lost the advantage of flight over me. But even on foot, they were faster. The sound of their footfalls grew closer by the second.

I couldn’t outrun them. I had to do something else. And fast.

Taking a sharp turn to the left, I took the direction parallel to the path around the field. A clearing was just behind the next several trees. The guards wouldn’t see it yet, but I knew it was there. I’d helped Bavius gather branches to put them in that very spot.

Pumping my arms harder, I forced my legs to move faster. My life depended on this. Aithen’s life, too.

My lungs burned, fighting for every breath. My feet hurt, sliding in the wet, old leaves that covered the ground. But I pushed on. The moment I passed the last tree before the clearing, I held my breath and jumped.

I landed short. My foot shoved through the branches covering the hole in the ground. But I threw my body forward, crashing chest-first onto the solid ground on the very edge of the concealed pit.

The guards weren’t as lucky. Not anticipating the trap, the first one ran right into it. The dry branches cracked, giving in under his weight. The old leaves that Bavius and I had used to cover up the branches over the deep hole in the ground flew up and were caught by the wind, twirling over the clearing.

The first of my pursuers screamed, falling through. His screams turned into a gurgling noise as the sharp vertical spikes embedded into the bottom of the pit pierced through his chest and lungs.

His fall gave a warning to the second guard, though. He snapped his wings open just in time. Frantically beating the air with them, he rose over the trap pit. I crawled backwards, away from the pit, but the guard saw me, aiming the crossbow at my chest.

My insides turned to ice, as if life had already been drained from my body.

A shadow dropped from the sky. Quick and silent. Her leathery wings opened softly just before Sauria shoved her feet into the man’s back with force. The unexpected blow stole his balance. He lurched forward, crashing down into the pit.

Sauria landed softly next to me, looking unperturbed by the gurgling screams of the dying fae in the pit. She cradled Aithen in her arms.

“Now, girl.” She looked at me sternly. “What did you get yourself into this time?”

It all had happened so fast, I felt dizzy sitting up. My body was shaking. Even with the immediate danger now gone, relief was slow to come.

“Give him to me.” I stretched my arms out for my son.

She handed me the baby. I grabbed him greedily and pressed him to my chest, kissing his soft dark curls.

“Ma. Ma. Ma,” Aithen chanted, promptly getting hold of a strand of my hair.

I said a quick prayer to all the gods I knew for getting a chance to hold him again, both of us safe and sound.

“Sauria, I can’t believe you just killed a man while holding my baby in your arms.” My voice came out dry and raspy. My chest still burned with every breath I gasped for.

Sauria shoved her hood off, then propped her hands onto her hips.

“And I don’t believe I got here just in time to kill him for you,” she retorted. “What the fuck did you do to get them to hunt you? I left you to feed the king and his people, not to make them chase you through the woods.”

“I doubt these were the king’s people.” I shook my head. “Their uniforms are fake. They’re just a disguise to allow them to get closer to the king and fool those in charge of his security.”

Sauria stepped to the edge of the trap pit and glanced down at the two men skewered by the wooden spikes.

“Who are they then?”

I sighed. “Assassins, I believe. I overheard them talking about the king’s death.”

She looked around the pit, clicking her tongue appreciatively. “Bavius did a good job on his traps. He used theebonweed on the spikes. Once the vital organs are pierced, there is no escaping death, be it an animal or a fae.”

“Or a human,”I added in my head.

A shudder ran down my body at the thought of how narrowly I’d escaped the fate of the guards.

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