Page 31 of Invocation

“Psst,” someone hissed.

They both looked toward the sound. Zara had appeared at the end of the alley, ducking against a wall. Her wide eyes were not quite focused on them.

“Come. This way,” she whispered, then fled around the corner.

Aruna hesitated, then followed Zara with Novikke in tow. She was relying on him to hold her up by that point. Blood continued to drip down her arms, leaving drops on the ground. She was overcome with weakness. Her legs dragged beneath her.

Zara had waited for them around the corner. When she saw them following, she hurried down another few side streets, somehow never coming into range of the people searching for them.

They rounded a corner, and someone was waiting there for them. Novikke flinched, then realized it was only Avan’s wife.

Avan’s ill-tempered wife, who hated them.

Aruna jerked to a stop, raising his sword with one arm and holding Novikke with the other. “Kashava, if you—”

“Quiet,” she hissed, scowling. “Unless you want them to find you.” She opened a narrow back door of the building beside them and gestured for them to go inside.

Aruna paused, his sword hovering in front of him, before relenting and slipping through the door. Novikke tripped on the step inside, and Aruna caught her. The sensation of falling continued even after his arms were wrapped around her.

“Novikke,” she heard him say, “you’re going to be all right.”

She tried desperately to hold on to him, to stay conscious, to warn him she was about to pass out—but all she could do was fall as darkness closed around her.

???

She awoke again with a weak jerk, remembering what had happened in a panicked rush. The first thing she did was reach out, even before she’d opened her eyes.

“Novikke?”

A hand clasped hers. Aruna’s face appeared above her. She’d been here before. When she’d first met him on the road and Zaiur had knocked her unconscious, she’d awoken to his face above her.

But this time he wasn’t the Serious One frowning down at her. He wore his fear and relief on his face for her to see.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

She took inventory of her pains. There was not much—not as much as she’d expected. A dull throbbing in her arm and chest. A dizzy, out-of-sorts feeling.

“Yes,” she said. She blinked up at him. “Are you?”

He bent and kissed her. His hand brushed across her temple and behind her ear as he lifted her face to meet his. She made a small, surprised sound, then raised an arm to drape it haphazardly over him, drawing him closer. Hadn’t they agreed not to do this anymore? Suddenly she didn’t care.

Someone gasped.

Aruna paused, then reluctantly pulled away. Zara sat on her knees beside him, her jaw hanging open. She snapped it shut when Novikke looked over at her. She held a small bottle of something in one hand.

Novikke’s eyes were drawn to Aruna’s rolled up sleeve. A long, deep, bright red cut adorned his forearm. Zaiur’s sword lay beside him. She narrowed her eyes at him. He’d cut himself to heal her.

“We can’t keep doing this,” she said dryly.

He looked at her for a long moment, dark amusement and fondness swimming in his eyes in a way that made her chest feel warm.

Zara motioned for him to offer his arm, and he obeyed. She dripped wound sealer over it. Evidently, however Aruna had behaved while she’d been unconscious had been enough to convince Zara to trust him.

“Don’t try to get up yet,” he said when Novikke propped herself on her elbows. He frowned a little. “I should never have brought you here.”

“No, you shouldn’t have,” said Kashava. She sat atop a wooden box nearby, elbows resting on her knees.

They were in a dark, dusty room that was apparently used for storage. The only light came from Novikke’s mage torch on the ground beside her. There were no windows.

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