Page 29 of An Honored Vow

“Gerarda.” I pasted a smile on my face that I hoped was natural enough to avoid suspicion.

She pocketed her knife and stood. “I doubt we’ll need two armfuls to make it through the night.”

I raised a brow and looked down at her small frame. “Your arms aren’t long enough to carry a full load, are they?”

Gerarda jumped into the air from a standstill. She flipped over my head and grasped my shoulders, using the momentum to pull me to the ground as she landed on her feet.

“They’re long enough to do that.” She smirked and held out her hand to pull me up.

I grabbed for it, but she pulled it back with lightning speed and her smirk grew. A chorus of laughter covered my grumbling as I marched out of the cave. I didn’t say anything to Gerarda, but she was on me as soon as we stepped out of earshot.

“You’re a terrible liar.”

I raised a brow.

Gerarda leaned against one of the Elder birches that hadn’t been burned in the fight with thewaateyshirak. “You wanted to get me alone.” She nodded in the direction of the cave. “You’re notthateasy to take down. You let it happen.”

I lifted my chin.

Gerarda flipped a thin blade through her fingers. “Why?”

I took a deep breath. “I need you to get Gwyn and Fyrel back to Aralinth. Wait until morning to leave and take your time getting back.”

The knife stopped. “You’re not staying?”

I swallowed and shook my head.

Gerarda’s eyes narrowed until they were thin blades across her face, too sharp and too willing to cut. “What is so important that you need to risk another encounter with theshirakto make it there before we do?”

“You know why.”

Gerarda shrugged. “I don’t see—”

“You’re not a fool.” I took a few more steps from the cave and lowered my voice so only the trees would hear us. “You know exactlywhat crossed through Elaran’s mind when she saw Gwyn’s eyes and hands.”

Gerarda pointed her knife at my belly. “El is not a threat!”

I held a hand up to Gerarda’s lips to silence her. “She thought it just as you did. Just as I did. Because that is what we are trained to do.” Gerarda’s shoulders relaxed, and she lowered the knife. “But Gwyn is young. Young and naïve enough to run into the woods with half a plan and no care for the consequences. She has no idea the fights that will be drawn over this. The tensions and the opinions—I will not let desperate people turn that young girl into a pawn for this war.”

Gerarda leaned back. “What’s your plan? Go back and get Feron to make a glamour for her to keep the truth a secret?” She huffed a laugh. “Such secrets festered so well the last time.”

My heart raced. Even though part of me wanted to grab Gwyn and hide her away until this war was over, I knew that wasn’t possible. Gwyn would never hide, and she deserved to fight as much as the rest of us if she wanted.

But she didn’t need to be an experiment to be poked and prodded, pushed beyond her limits.

That I could prevent.

“This is a matter for the Elders to decide. I need time to gather them all, and then you can sneak Gwyn into the city. Late afternoon while people are still resting.”

Gerarda’s mouth turned into a sympathetic frown. “What if the Elders do not care? What if they are more than happy to turn Halflings into soldiers to get rid of the Crown for good?”

I looked down at my hands. The same ones that had taken so many lives. I remembered every one, every decision I had to make to not save someone in hopes of saving two on the morrow. Thosedecisions had marked me in so many other ways than the scars along my body.

This felt the same. This new power festered under my skin, not as a gift but as a curse. Instead of running a blade through the Halflings myself, anyone I turned into a Fae would be reborn with a sword in their hand and a target on their back when the battles broke out. It would be someone else’s sword that took their last breath, but my hand would hold the blade either way.

I took a staggering breath and leaned into the tree to hold my weight. “I don’t know,” I said.

And for the first time, Gerarda looked scared too.

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