Page 54 of Winter's Edge
Toward the left, the door opened.
Shit. I couldn't be seen.
I skirted right, using Sasha to guide me around the corner and into the large tavern area. All empty.
Swift footsteps thudded toward me.
I sped between the chairs and tables with cards and half-filled glasses strewn about them. None of them were tipped over like the sound I'd heard. Ahead, a set of stairs climbed up to the second level. A long bar stretched along the side wall with mirrored shelves sporting all kinds of liquor.
The footsteps headed right toward me.
I needed to hide, so I made a split decision. I aimed for the stairs since they were closer and made a sharp right turn out of sight a few steps up. As soon as I made the turn, I realized I'd made the wrong fucking decision.
The footsteps followed.
I made mine as light as possible, imagining myself filled with nothing but air and feathers, and then darted across the hall to the first open doorway. It was dark inside, and empty.
The footsteps thudded past and entered another room.
For fuck’s sake, that was too close.I counted to five and then poked my head into the hall. It was either go past the room he was in or go back downstairs. I drifted out into the hallway again to go down when the footsteps rushed out into the hallway again.
My heart lurched into my throat. I dove back into the dark room I’d just come from.
But not before I saw the wall lanterns reflect across the back of a bald head. Not before I saw a hand wrapped in gauze that had turned red.
It was him. It was Lager.
I slapped my hand across my mouth to contain my breaths as I sank back into the dark room. Goose bumps dashed down my back as my whole body turned to icy stone.
"Where?" he shouted.
I just about leaped out of my skin. He was looking for something. Just like me.
Another voice answered him from far away but on this floor somewhere. Feminine, I thought.
Lager thudded back down the hallway toward this room.
Shit. No time to grab an arrow and kill the bastard. Just time enough to duck down behind a desk. The only thing in here. The thing he was probably coming in here to search.
Shit. I should've killed him when I had the chance in the hallway, but I hadn't expected to see him. I'd panicked.
His footsteps stopped in the doorway, anda lantern on the wall grew brighter. I stopped breathing and screwed my eyes closed so my other senses would kick in. He crossed toward the desk, and my ears homed in on which side he was angling toward. The right.
I went left. Still crouched, I matched his speed, my hands seeking the wooden desk, my feet silent even to my own ears. When he stepped behind the desk, I was already pressed against the front of it, smelling a faint waft of his too-sweet honey smell.
He opened a drawer, fished around in it, and slammed it closed. I jumped at the sound and cursed myself. Then he crossed back to the door, and I circled back around the desk so he couldn't see me. Before he made it to the door, I already had an arrow nocked. When I started to pull the string of my bow back, the bullet wound in my shoulder ripped itself open. Slowly. Pain rioted along every nerve. Colors spotted the backs of my eyelids with bursts of agony.
I lowered the bow, realizing he’d already gone. I’d missed my chance. If I wanted out of here, I’d have to ignore the pain, damn it.
A wolf's howl erupted through the entire tavern. Loud and pained, a replica of what I wanted to scream.
Sasha squirmed violently, and I dropped into a crouch again to get her to calm down. Had that been Archer or Grady? But no, they wouldn't be that dumb to announce their presence, their exact location, like that in this town. Unless something was very,verywrong. And it would only get so much worse if the other pack had heard them over the raging fire outside.
We had to get out of here. Right now.
While I made my way to the doorway, I pressed half a dozen kisses to Sasha's head to help calm her, none of which worked. Slowly, I poked both our heads into the hallway to see which way Lager went. If we ran into each other again, I would put an arrow through his eye, my shoulder be damned. He wouldn’t hesitate to do the same. I kept my arrow nocked yet loose as we went right, my eyes open, even though Sasha bounced her gaze every which way down the hallway. Vertigo turned my stomach on its side, but I tried to ignore it.
The hallway turned left ahead, past the room Lager had first gone in. The light was still on inside, so I pressed my back to the wall outside of it and listened for any sounds. My heart tripping at the back of my throat, I turned and used Sasha to see inside, quick as a flash. A worn couch, another desk, and not much else. I tiptoed toward the bend in the hallway and stopped again. Loud voices came from below on the first floor, a whole flurry of them. And somewhere on this floor, I thought I heard a woman shouting.
