Page 42

“I am life, and I am death,” she muttered before she lunged. “And I will free this Mavka from your tortures!”

Emerie’s eyes widened. She crouched low enough so she could bash the woman’s hand upward to evade it before rolling to the side.

The woman wearing a white cloak of feathers, a dirt-stained white dress, and no shoes, swiftly turned to her. There was a dangerous, calculating glint in her eyes.

“Wait! Just hold up a second.” She put her hands up, one still holding her dagger, in a surrendering position. “I’m also trying to free him.”

That dangerous edge to her dark-brown eyes softened. She didn’t look away from Emerie, untrusting and still ready to attack.

“It’s why I’m here.” She pointed to the currently bound guard who had awoken at some point and was screaming against his mouth gag.

The woman looked Emerie up and down. “Why are you helping him?”

“No reason.” She shook her head. “There’s no ulterior motive. Just his release.”

“It is true,”Ingram agreed, who had enough room to shake his chains more.

The keen gaze of the mystery woman flicked to the already cut bits of rope around his knees before coming back to Emerie.

“Fine.” Then she nodded in the direction of the door. “I can do the rest.”

This was her opportunity to back out of this, knowing someone was on his side – even if it wasn’t her. But with a guard who had witnessed everything, the many others who had seen her walking this way, plus those at the armoury... she’d be the first suspect.

There was also one other problem.

“I know the best way out of here,” Emerie stated. “Zagros Fortress is like a labyrinth to those that don’t know it, and he’ll never make it through the front doors. I know a side door that leads to the yard and then another door that leads to the forest.”

Had they not shown her the night she’d captured this very Duskwalker, she wouldn’t have known about them.

“We will be fine,” the woman answered. “Those we come across will not get in our way.”

“He promised me he wouldn’t hurt anyone on purpose,” Emerie pleaded.

“Their deaths are deserved after what they’ve been doing to him.”

“I know.” Emerie’s features twisted with a wince. “But I’m offering a better chance of his escape. One that may not have to end in bloodshed. You’re human, you should understand.”

“Human?” the woman mused. “That I am not.” Then she turned to the Duskwalker. “What do you want?”

Ingram’s head tilted just enough to show he was looking between them. He seemed just as surprised as she was that the woman had asked him.

“I made a promise...”he hedged, then his orbs shifted to a bright orange.“I don’t wish to break it. She is also the only one who has been kind to me here.”

With a sigh, eyeing Emerie from the corner of her eye, she nodded. “If that’s what you want.”

She pulled out an iron key from inside her cloak. It was only now that Emerie realised the woman had been wielding an obsidian dagger as well.

She gasped and took a step forward. “Where did you get that key? That should have been impossible to steal.”

The woman knelt down to unlock the metal shackles around his ankles. An additional defence in case he managed to get free of his rope bindings.

“Your leader may have hidden this away in a safe, but she wore the keys for it on her person. Once I figured out where both the keys and safe were, it was effortless.” Then she grumbled to herself as she said, “But it took me far too long to find the safe. Did they hurt you further?”

“Yes.”

Her eyes narrowed and her lips flattened at that, as did Emerie’s.

Emerie cut away the rest of the rope binding him, thankful she wouldn’t have to use her hammer and the tip of her blade to remove the locking pins of his chains. She actually hadn’t known if it would work, but she’d also been hoping he could just yank them free from the wall.