Page 40 of The Traitor Queen (The Bridge Kingdom 2)

He refused to budge.

“Aren, there are no ships. No boats,” she hissed. “It was just a ruse. There are fresh horses waiting in the trees a short distance from here.”

He didn’t want to go with her. Didn’t want to be anywhere near her, not just because of what she’d done, but because he didn’t trust his instincts around her. “To take us where?”

“To the meeting point where we have supplies.” She turned to look back down the pathway toward the city, betraying her nerves. “We have to hurry.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you, Lara. I’m going back to Ithicana.” Because he could do it alone. Could keep to the coast until he was able to steal a vessel, then make his way back home.

“Don’t be a fool.” There was anger in her voice now. “Weeks of preparation were put into this plan, and you intend to throw that all away.”

“I don’t trust you,” he snapped. “Or your plans. I told you I never wanted to see your face again. That I’d kill you. You’re lucky I don’t toss you off this cliff.”

“Just try it, you ungrateful prick,” Bronwyn snarled, but Lara waved a calming hand in her direction.

“I don’t blame you for not trusting me,” she said. “But perhaps put your faith in your sister. In your grandmother. In Jor. In every Ithicanian who has invested everything in this plan. Trust them.”

Indecision crept into his gut, and Aren glared at her. For all the good it would do in the dark.

“When I showed up at Eranahl, theonlyreason Ahnna allowed me to live was because she knew that I was Ithicana’s best chance of getting you back. And she was very clear that once you were free and returned home, she’d kill me if I ever stepped foot in Ithicana again. For once, can you please showsomeof her pragmatism.”

How in the hell had Lara made it to Eranahl?was the first thought that struck him, but he pushed it away. “Fine.”

“Climb, you idiots,” Cresta said from where she stood watching the path back to Vencia. “They’re almost on us.”

Gritting his teeth, Aren clambered up the cliffside, finding handholds by feel alone in the darkness. Below, boots hammered up the pathway, the soldiers in swift pursuit after having discovered their dead comrades.

Faster.

“They’re climbing!”

The shout filtered upward, and a second later, bowstrings twanged, arrows bouncing off the cliffside.

Aren grimaced as one sank into the rocky ground inches from his hand, another glancing off the heel of his boot.

But they were almost there.

Then a cry of pain filled his ears.

“Bronwyn!” Lara gasped, and Aren looked past his feet to see a figure sliding down the cliff, catching herself perhaps fifteen feet below him.

“Go!” Bronwyn called. “Get him out of here!”

“I’m not leaving you!”

Aren heard Lara begin a downward climb, and he hesitated.

“No!” Bronwyn’s voice was shrill. “If they catch or kill you and Aren, that means Father wins. It means he gets away with everything he did to us. Everything he made us do.Please,Lara. You need to keep fighting.”

Lara stopped moving beneath him, and Aren could sense her making a decision. He knew in his heart what it was.

But he was through with people dying for him.

“Get to the top and cover me,” he hissed to Cresta, then he started downward.

Lara reached for his arm as he passed, but he batted it aside. “Get your ass to the top and make every shot count.”

It took him seconds to reach Bronwyn, her breath rasping with pain. “Where?”

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