Page 74 of A Promise of Peridot
“If I was a goatherd instead, then I’d be afraid of losing one of my goats. There’s always something to fear. That’s the price of doing anything worth doing.”
“That’s...” I smiled as I searched for the words. “Pretty poignant, Studs.”
Studs turned to face me as we rounded a banana tree. “And here you were thinking we were just a bunch of—”
A silver arrowhead flew through Studs’s eye, and warm, red blood splattered my face. Copper landed on my tongue. I spat at the ground over and over in shock—pure, horrifyingshock—as the kind pirate crumpled to the grass beneath us.
Dead.
Ice cut through my veins at the sight.
The single arrow lodged in his skull. His still, slack mouth, mid-sentence.
Shouts of pain pulled my eyes from Studs—
The rest of the men had scattered, running for the mossy hills, the trees, the limestone cliffs—swords drawn, knives at the ready—but the hail of arrows rained down on most of them, wilting the men like roses in heat.
I could barely hear their screams over the ringing in my ears. I whirled into an armored breastplate, and my mind, mybones, shuddered. I knew it like my own leathers. The golden stone detailing, the rust-colored, intricate filigree.
Amber armor.
The soldier grabbed my shoulders and threw me to the ground, mud and pain blurring my vision as my head smacked the grass.
“We have to stop running into each other like this, Arwen.”
The voice registered so strangely in my heart. Like a comfort, warped by twisted, recurring nightmares. His boots strolled toward my face, which was held against the ground by another soldier above me. He crouched until I could see that white-blond hair.
“Halden?”
22
kane
I had been staring at the sealed entrance of Reaper’s Cavern for what felt like hours. Though grief beckoned like a siren, I wouldn’t give in quite yet. Instead, I’d focus on bafflement. On how I could have been so supremely stupid. How I could have let Arwen and Mari both slip through my fingers.
Fedrik moaned as Griffin attempted something with his leg behind me. After a few long, tedious inhales and the stomp of boots behind me, Griffin arrived at my side. I was still confounded by my own horrible, inexcusable decision-making, when he appraised the solid rock alongside me. “How’s the staring going?”
“How’s the prince?”
“He needs help.”
“We have to wait for Arwen. We can’t risk an infirmary. The towns are swarming with Amber soldiers...”
A miserable groan pulled our eyes to the tree that Fedrik leaned against as he tried to adjust his position. Griffin hadn’t been wrong:the prince’s face was nearly gray, his leg tied off with a tourniquet below the knee.
“That leg will be septic soon,” Griffin said. “We should get him back to camp.”
“We can’t. Not yet.”
“You think Iwantto leave them?”
I knew we had to help Fedrik, but I couldn’t move. Couldn’t or wouldn’t, I wasn’t sure. But the solid, cratered stone mass before me was taunting me. And I couldn’t leave, wouldn’tfuckingleave without—
Mari’s voice cut through my thoughts like an arrowhead. “Holy Stones, there you are!”
Thank the Gods—
Griffin moved like a man possessed as he bounded for her. He reached Mari just as she cleared the tree line, only to stall out a foot in front of her. A loaded pause followed as he scratched his arm before saying, in relieved greeting, “Witch.”
