Page 23 of Fae Exile

If after all he’d done for me, after he’d finally escaped the queen, he’d gone and died ... I was going to murder every last one of the horrid, tittering monsters. I was going to?—

A bellow, like those I’d heard thousands of times echoing down the Nightguard Mountains to our camp, erupted into the night but faded quickly.

A relieved sigh morphed into a hysterical laugh when Saffron whined in response to Xeno’s dragon call.

“Is Saffron really okay?” I asked in what I hoped was still Pru’s general direction.

“He’s scared, Mistress, very scared.” Pru’s voice was back to its usual rough squeak. “But wherever he’s hurt, he’ll heal.”

A growl rumbled through my chest. The urge to decimate the entire monster population was strong.

I rolled my neck and pushed up onto a hip, blinking down at the golden glow that seeped off my bare forearms and hands. It blurred my view as it beamed off the tip of my nose.

“How long will the protection last?” We were in the midst of our enemies, who were as utterly black as the nighttime forest, too many shiny eyes blinking blankly in my direction.

“No idea, lassie,” Roan said. “But glad for it just the same, that I am.” He groaned and flopped his squat legs out in front ofhim, his muddy boots coming into view. “Woulda been a fuckin’ awful way to go, that. One of ‘em barbs was tryin’ to wrap all ‘round my bollocks.”

Reed bent to retrieve his blades and dragged himself up onto a log. With a rip of his flesh that made me grimace, he unfastened a tentacle from where it had suctioned to his hand. Then he leaned toward the sputtering fire, which was little more than embers now, and blew on it while poking at the brightest of the coals, dragging them near unburned kindling.

The fire might not have protected us from the squid-like monsters, but they were far from the only things in the Wilds that wanted to kill us.

When I cracked my neck, my ear on one side touched something slimy and still warm. Reluctantly, I slid my fingers to grip the piece of creature arm where it had latched on to my skin, and before giving myself time to dread it I yanked the barbs out at an angle that would minimize damage. Already, I had more cuts and lashes than I wanted to count, most beneath a layer of grime that wouldn’t be fun to scrub off.

“Whatever you’re doing, Elowyn, keep it up,” Reed said as he coaxed a small flame to life.

“I’m not doing anything. Not anymore. You heard what I did. That was it.”

“We’d better move soon,” Finnian said, standing and brushing himself off as if also taking stock of his injuries.

“Did the horses make it?” I asked, needing to know but fearful of what the answer might be.

Reed sighed and strained to see off into the forest, beyond where the dim glow of the burgeoning fire reached. “Can’t make out,” he said. “But they’d better’ve. Those horses are finer company than most people I know.”

“When the people you know are at the queen’s court, that’s a pretty low standard.”

“No doubt,” he said as Roan rolled to his feet with a pained moan.

The dwarf whistled sharply. “Rompa-Romp,” he called into the night, loudly enough to slice through the incessantch-ch-ingI wanted never to hear again in my entire life. When no creature responded, he whistled again. “Come on, boy, answer me.”

Only the constant chirring accompanied the now crackling fire as it grew.

“No, not Rompa-Romp,” Roan cried. “I raised that pony from the time he was wee.”

“I’m so sorry, Roan,” I said, assuming Bolt was gone too. No reassuring whinnies or neighs arrived to deliver hope. The wound through my heart ached more.

Roan nodded stiffly, his mouth a tight line behind his bushy mustache and beard.

Testing my legs, I clamped on to a portion of a fallen log that wasn’t coated in monster entrails and dragged myself up. Once I was certain my legs would hold, I skirted the fire to reach Pru and Saffron. Before I was close enough, the dragonling jumped off the goblin’s back, the momentum pushing her down, fluttered his wings just enough so he wouldn’t plummet, and then scrabbled into my arms, uncaring that I was still glowing and covered in cuts.

Pressing my lips together to keep the yelps of pain from slipping out, I cradled him against my chest and wrapped my arms around his back. In response, his wings curled over my torso, clutching me with heart-breaking desperation.

Though the monsters that surrounded us didn’t seem capable of remorse, I glared at them for scaring Saffron when the little guy was already a shadow of his former, mischievous self.

“Stay still,” I commanded them, wondering if it were smart to end them all while they were sitting targets, or if that wouldmake me no better than the queen. “Don’t move a single damn arm or I’ll kill every single one of you.”

Their grating call continued undisturbed.

Her big eyes studying our many enemies, Pru took a tentative step toward me.

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