Page 58 of House of Embers
He nodded in acknowledgment as if he could read her. She swallowed and turned away from him. Now was not the time.
They moved as one toward the scholar’s tent. Dozan pushed the flap aside as if to sayafter you. She strode forward. The scholar was a pale, wiry Fae. Glasses sat on a pile of books open next to his head as if he had been reading, only to fall asleep midbook. She gestured to the pile of books, and Dozan nodded in understanding.
Wynter removed her shadow blade and stalked toward the man. She put the blade to his throat, her hand over his mouth, before saying, “Scream and you die.”
His eyes popped open in alarm. He blinked at her several times. His hands went up immediately in surrender. “Who…who are you?”
“That doesn’t matter,” she told him. “You’re coming with us.”
“The dragons—”
“Are no longer a problem.”
The Fae gulped. “Can I put on my glasses?”
Dozan thrust them into the male’s hands. He was piling the books into a leather bag, stuffing the papers into the empty spaces.
The scholar’s eyes widened in alarm, and he reached forward. Wynter went to threaten him but stopped when he said, “Don’t handle them like that! Some of those books are pre-Great War. Do you know how delicate they are?”
Dozan glared at the male, but she noted that he was more careful as he finished.
“Get up,” Wynter said.
The scholar scrambled to his feet. “Please don’t hurt me or my books. I’ll do whatever you ask. Just don’t kill me.. Please. I don’t know who you work for, but I don’t want to be involved.”
“Too late,” Wynter hissed. She turned to Dozan. “You have everything?”
“We’re set,” he replied.
Wynter held her hand out to him. He took it easily.
The scholar looked between them warily. “What are you doing? I want to speak to your superior. We can negotiate.”
“Today is your lucky day,” Wynter told him as she grabbed his arm. “We’re going straight there.”
Then, with a deep breath, she burrowed down deep for her shadow magic and jumped them all out at once. She landed back in the copse of trees. Her legs buckled underneath her, and she landed heavily on her hands and knees. Her breathing was ragged as the magic burn threatened her on all sides. Her vision flickered black, and she felt the first touch of shattering glass. She’d done too much. Gone too far.She needed to get back to the mountain and take another potion from Amond. She wouldn’t be able to jump again for hours.
It was when she finally returned to herself that she heard the crunch of leaves under someone’s feet and the crash of bodies. She looked up as her vision cleared to find Dozan had landed on top of the scholar a dozen feet away. The Fae groaned as Dozan took a cord from his pockets and tied the scholar’s hands behind his back.
“You okay?” he asked Wynter.
“Fine,” she said. She slowly came to her feet, picking up the bag of books as she came to his side. “I guess you were right.”
His gaze flicked up at her in surprise. “About?”
“I needed you.”
His smile was blinding. “Good to see you’ve come to your senses.”
She put her hand on his shoulder. “I would have lost him otherwise.”
Dozan rose to his considerable height, planting one foot onto the scholar’s torso to keep him from moving. She was tall, but somehow he still towered over her. “You wouldn’t have had to jump me along with you, so your magic would be stronger.”
She conceded that point. “I may not have killed the other guard.”
He smirked. “You?”
She rolled her eyes. “Fine. I would have done it on my own. Can you not take a compliment?”
