Page 35 of Trial of Three
“Kora’s scent and a marker for the others,” Tye whispers, unabashedly drawing the rusty sword from my sash and keeping it for himself. “We’ve done this before a time or two, Lilac Girl. Get ready to move.”
Pushing past me, Shade’s wolf scouts ahead, his lithe form slinking through the eerily empty streets. Tye and I follow, our progress made of short hops from the back of one building to another, stepping lightly on the dull gray paving stones. The air smells like dirt, coal—a mining town—with something disturbing just under the surface. A faint whiff of rot carrying on the breeze. Tye’s sharp face is tense, his clear green eyes surveying every shadow, every seemingly abandoned building. Every time we stop, while Shade trots on to get a scent, Tye builds that small marker of his. Twice, his strong arms flatten me to the ground, his preternatural senses aware of the prowling sclices—or whatever else is here.
The third time he pulls me down—this time behind a tall wooden fence at the back of a building, closer to the qoru’s saloon than I’d like—I discover River and Coal waiting there already. The moment I see them, something releases in my chest, some tightness I’ve been carrying ever since we were all separated. I touch them compulsively, River’s hard shoulder, Coal’s warm chest. They’re here. We’re all here, together, where we should always be.
“Any problems?” River asks, his eyes—like Coal’s—drilling into me, checking every bit of flesh. “Besides the fact that we are now officially violating Blaze’s neutrality and should be executed?”
“The Light is crawling with the Night Guard and the Gloom has at least one qoru,” Tye says softly. “Our package is likely alive, being held for feeding.”
My stomach turns but I force my spine to straighten. This is good news, I remind myself. It’s the reason we came. I point to a building two doors down from us, its back alley a jumble of ale barrels, wooden pallets, and empty sacks. “I saw the qoru entering the saloon, there,” I say, trying to sound as steady as the males. “Do you think it was heading to dinner?”
River nods. “Let us ruin its appetite. Leralynn, you—” River pauses, his gray eyes piercing mine before he finishes his sentence.
Don’t leave me behind. Don’t leave me alone. Don’t leave me behind. Don’t leave me alone.
“You stay between Coal and Tye as we move, understand?” River says.
I nod, ridiculous relief mixing with the fear.
Coal reaches for me, his metallic musk filled with calm strength as he brushes his hands along my clothes, tucking in loose pieces of fabric and muffling a belt buckle that I hadn’t realized made noise. That done, he performs a similar inspection of Tye and River, though no adjustments are required in their case. I know him well enough by now to see the tension riding under his gaze. He’s not as calm as he lets on—he never is.
“I checked out that building on my way here,” Coal says as he works. “There is a back window suitable for entry. If there is a qoru here, he’ll want to be beneath ground. Even in the Gloom, that is their preferred habitat, especially for feeding.”
Right. Of course. Glorious.
Following Coal, we move stealthily toward the saloon and line up outside a back window similar to the one I climbed through earlier, though this one is fortunately without bars. With Shade at the front of the stack and Tye bringing up the rear, the males push close enough to feel each other. A team. A unit. Despite my unease, a trickle of excitement runs through me, twining with a bewildering sense of belonging. We aren’t in the practice arena any longer, but the residue of training must be clinging to me somehow. Maybe even enough to do some good.
A hard hand squeezes my shoulder and it takes me a moment to realize that Tye intends for me to pass the squeeze forward. I obediently press Coal’s bicep in my palm. He passes it on to River. With one more heartbeat, we move in.
24
Lera
Shade enters first, his body a streak of gray as he flies through the air with muscled, lupine grace. A moment later, a short yip sounds and River drops through the window, followed by Coal. Tye hands me down to Coal without a word, then climbs inside with a controlled grace that I remember well from the practice arena.
Looking around, I see further evidence that we’ve entered a saloon. The cellar around us is filled with barrels and grain sacks, tap handles and chairs too broken to be of use in the main room upstairs, and stacks of firewood and cleaning supplies. A staircase leads up to an opening in the ceiling, currently covered with a hinged door.
I frown, realizing that the room we stand in is much too small to be the full basement of the large building above—and yet, bar the pull-down exit by the ceiling, I see no doors or corridors leading from the space.
Shade’s nose points toward the far wall, hackles up, tail swaying like a pendulum. Right, left. Right, left. The wolf’s upper lip curls back to show glistening canines, which manage to reflect what passes for sunlight here.
“Trapdoor,” Tye whispers into my ear. “And our package likely behind it.”
Before we can move forward to confirm Shade’s prediction, theclick, click, clickof steps echoes from above us, the hinges of the ceiling door screeching their discontent. My heart stops. The door begins to open. My body wants to freeze but instinct has me ducking and sliding silently behind the piled grain sacks instead.
The others are there already, as calm as if sitting in our suite’s common room. Coal gives me a nod then finds River’s face, his hands flashing in quick motions, one of which draws a line across his throat.
River shakes his head.
“It’s past time,” a hissing voice says, the scent of rotten flesh throwing me back into Coal’s memories. A small shake comes over my body as theclick, click, clickstarts up again, skittering down the steps. The qoru. Here. Even having seen one of them on the street, the knowledge that I’m sharing this building with one makes bile rise into my throat. Through a small crack between the grain sacks, I catch mottled gray legs heading for the wall that Shade just alerted us to. A second pair of legs. A third.
A long-fingered gray hand reaches for what must be a latch, because a moment later a whole slab of stone wall slides away on soundless hinges. One, two, three sets of legs disappear into the new opening.
A brief moment passes.
“Now.” River’s quiet order has the males moving right before Kora’s screams confirm our suspicions. Shade, Coal, and River vault over the grain sacks and rush silently for the door, Tye staying back to cover me.
When Tye’s hand grips my shoulder, I realize his magic is awake and engaged. Ready. A phantom thread of magic wakes inside me as well, crawling through my veins like a stretching tiger, the sensation leaving me both more secure and more vulnerable.Don’t touch it,I repeat to myself firmly.No bonfires in a cellar. Leave the tiger alone.
