Page 15 of Claws of Death

I hold my breath. “If Erina knows about the rebels, tying me to him by force makes even more sense. This way, he doesn’t need to worry about anyone dethroning him.”

Lady Andraya nods. “The rebels would have a Milevishja queen the way we’ve always hoped for, and he wouldn’t lose his power in the process.”

Pouly gives her that same unreadable glance, but this time, she nods. “It’s the other reason why we waited to get you out of the palace.”

“We needed to be certain you weren’t there out of your free will,” Lady Andraya takes over. “It’s why I tried to talk to you as much as Erina would allow during the banquets.”

I remember each time the lady had assessed me in the throne room. Each look and the subtext I thought I’d imagined. But shehadbeen trying to gauge if I was truly willing to marry Erina.

What had I said?I would have loved to see the ocean again before my wedding day.

And Lady Andraya had understood.

“And once we knew, we made haste,” Pouly concluded the story. “The rest is logistic details that don’t need to concern you anymore. We won’t return to Meer before we can put together an army that will win you back your throne.”

A heavy silence falls over the carriage, Kaira clutching the cloth to her wound with a less pained and more concerned expression on her face, Andraya measuring me with those dark eyes, and Pouly sitting back on the bench, shoulders relaxed as if he’s just shed a weight.

“Thank you.” It’s all I can bring myself to say, and it doesn’t even remotely begin to express my gratitude and the debt I owe them for saving my life—and my sanity.

“The horses have rested enough.” Pouly gently pats me on the forearm before opening the door and sliding out intothe night to resume his spot on the driver’s bench. “Time to leave this place behind us.”

Ayna

By the timewe make it out of the forest, it’s late morning, and when we stop for longer than to tend to our needs or water the horses by a stream and a few hours of rest here and there so they can recover, it’s another five days later. I stretch my arms above my head, grateful for the absence of the persistent nausea that has defined the carriage ride, and glance at Pouly, who’s engaged in a discussion with Andraya. My sensitive ears allow me to hear the entirety of the conversation about supplies, pending weather changes, and the need to lift fresh clothes for each of us so we don’t get detected through our smell two miles againstthe wind.

Tuning them out, I join Kaira, who’s staring out into the flat grasslands stretching in front of us.

“The Plithian Plains.” I don’t know what makes me say it aloud. Perhaps it’s the need to hear it so I believe we truly made it out of Erina’s palace.

Kaira nods, rubbing her side where her wound has been bandaged. Her bruises have developed various shades of purple, yellow, and green, depending on how far back the individual assault reached. “Now we need to find the others.”

The fact that she speaks in her mind makes me wonder if she doesn’t want Pouly and Andraya to hear her, so I form my response in my head, too, projecting the thought at her. “What do you think their plan is?”I gesture at the two rebels who saved us.

“Whatever it is, it involves you on the throne of Tavras with an ugly crown on your head.”The smile on Kaira’s face is as much comfort as it is a mockery of her usually fierce nature. “And before you ask, no, I’ve not suddenly grown soft just because someone stuck a knife between my ribs. I can still kick ass and laugh about it.”

“As if there has ever been any doubt.”We share a sisterly look that allows me to appreciate we’re both alive, free, even if not in the way I’d hoped to be. “We need to run again, don’t we?”I don’t believe I’d be able to if it came to it, so I pray to the Guardians that our saviors will support my wish to find Myron and the rest of my family.

Kaira shrugs, but the exhaustion in her eyes tells a story of everything but the nonchalance she tries so hard to keep up. “Only if they don’t agree that involving your mate and the high fae of Askarea is a good idea.”

When we briefly shared about Erina’s plan to conquer the fairy lands and how Ephegos seems to be pulling the strings, the genuine shock in both Pouly and Andraya’s eyes verified they’d been as clueless as the rest of the kingdom. This is worse than we’d thought. Who knows how long it will take to convince enough people of the truth to fight by our side? And the rebels? They might be loyal to my bloodline, but are they willing to stand with fairies? Creatures of their nightmares? And it’s not like we have magic at our disposal right now to fight our way out should they disagree and decide not to want to let us go.

Swallowing all doubts and concerns, I focus on the one thing that kept me going through all those terrible days in Erina’s palace. But I’m not the only one who had someone out there who kept her fighting, so I pull myself together and respond to Kaira’s thought, “Don’t you have a fae brute you’d like to see again, too?”

A hint of pink tints Kaira’s cheeks, and she brushes her hair back in a surprisingly awkward gesture, giving her the look of a nervous girl rather than a tormented woman. I take that as a yes.

“Well, then it’s time we find out if the rebels are with us or against.”Ignoring the assault of autumn smells floating on the steady breeze, I turn on my heels and head toward Andraya and Pouly, who’ve resorted to tending to the horses.

Much to my surprise, they don’t debate when I tell them I need to find Myron. Instead, they bow their heads like I’ve given an order instead of a request and pull out a map of northern Tavras, where travel routes are marked in interrupted lines.

Another hour and we’re back in the carriage, heading along the side roads where we don’t need to fear running into patrols or merchants.

“If we keep going at that speed, we’ll need to swap out the horses soon,” Andraya notes with a frown, her gaze on the proud animals grazing in the meadows we’re passing by.

“You mean steal them?” Kaira wants to know, a mischievous grin on her lips.

Andraya smirks, the facade of the lady shed entirely over the past days of traveling together, leaving behind a woman of practicalities and pragmatism. “Let’s sayborrow. We’ll leave our own horses as a token until we can return what we take.”

Not that I believe we’d ever get the opportunity to return to the exact same farm to do so. Besides, I’d done my fair share of stealing as a pirate, so what are a few horses?

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