Page 104 of Slaying the Shadow Prince
Talemir’s horse was gone too, she realised.
It was another blow.
In fact, there was no trace of him, like he had never been here at all. If only the ache in her chest allowed her to believe it.
Wilder mounted and Drue gaped up at him, shaking her head. ‘You’re just like all the Warswords. Once again you abandon the people of Naarva when we need you most.’
The warrior’s nostrils flared, and he pierced her with a furious glare. ‘I would never.’
‘Then where the fuck are you going?’ Adrienne chimed in, her knuckles white around the grip of her sword.
‘I’m going to get him back,’ Wilder ground out. ‘We can’t win this without him.’
‘Watch us,’ Drue spat.
But Wilder’s horse reared, towering above them all, before launching into a gallop across the plains.
The rangers watched him go.
‘Fucking Warswords,’ Adrienne muttered.
But Drue didn’t have the heart to echo the sentiment. Hers lay bruised and broken at the pit of her stomach.
The Naarvian forcescamped on the edge of the eerie forest while Drue and Adrienne tried to regroup.
In the privacy of Adrienne’s tent, Drue put her head in her hands, her body heavy with grief and exhaustion.
‘What the fuck happened back there?’ Adrienne asked her quietly.
‘You saw what happened, Adri.’
‘What I saw didn’t resemble the whole truth of the matter…’
Drue loosed a breath. ‘He wanted to kill them all.’
Adrienne waited.
Drue heaved a sob. ‘And he was right, wasn’t he? Itwould havebeen a mercy.’
Adrienne slid an arm around her, drawing her close. ‘That is not for a mere ranger to decide. But I understood where he was coming from.’
‘So I robbed them of mercy? Of relief?’
‘I can’t answer that,’ Adrienne replied.
Hot tears burned Drue’s eyes and she could no longer keep them back. For so long she had clamped down on that side of herself, the side that could break down and be remade anew. Now, the tears fell, and she sobbed against her friend.
‘So they’re all truly lost? After everything we have done to get here… Gus and the others are gone?’
Adrienne’s tears dripped onto her shoulder. ‘I think so…’ she whispered.
They stayed like that for a time, quietly crying together. Another brother lost to the shadows.
At last, Drue wiped her puffy eyes and broke away from Adrienne to blow her nose. Exhaustion latched onto every bone. ‘What now?’ she heard herself ask, her voice small.
‘I don’t know.’ Adrienne was still hunched over, resting her elbows on her thighs, her head bowed. It was always to her that everyone looked, always her that everyone expected answers from, even when she herself was in the throes of grief.
‘Perhaps a strategic retreat?’ Drue offered. ‘We live to fight another day? We save our strength and our numbers for then?’
