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But I was still burning, the warmth calling to me, urging me to slip into its embrace.

Chapter 9

“There is nothing I want more in this eternal existence than to spend it by your side. But we’re only in this place because of something sinister. It cannot stay this way, my love.”

I heard a muffled sob, as if the person it came from was trying to hold it in. “He’s going to go after her.” Katia.

I opened my eyes only to be greeted with a vast empty darkness that pinned me down.

“We can’t be sure it’s him.” Rhedros’ voice was softer now, no longer a seething hiss like it had been at the Outpost.

I heard Katia’s breathing quicken and I tried to turn my head to look for her. Nothing. Where were they? Where was I? “I know it is.”

“Then I’ll find him and destroy him.”

“Hello?” I whispered, my voice hoarse and scratchy in my throat.

Katia and Rhedros both gasped, the sound echoing through the darkness that surrounded me.

“She’s waking up.” That was neither Katia nor Rhedros’ voice. The words were far away, dampened and distant like I was underwater and someone was whispering from the surface.

“Fucking Saints, Whit! Would you give her some space?” Nell. That was Nell. But where were Katia and Rhedros? I opened my mouth, trying to say the words, but all that came out was air.

Cloudy daylight suddenly set my eyes watering as three silhouetted forms crouched above me. I blinked furiously, my eyelids gritty, my mouth dry as the Keepers of the Saints slipped away. My hands lifted in front of my face, knowing I’d find no blisters where there should be dozens.

“Petra?” The ram’s head took shape above me, the metal glinting in the gray light as Miles stared down at me. “Petra? Can you hear me?”

The tone of his voice, the softness behind it… Irritation set in, and I wanted to rip that damned mask off his head now more than ever. My head dropped to the side, and I realized I was on the bank of a small pond, the surface rippling in more than one place, as if someone had just been skipping rocks. I was thirsty, I realized. So fucking thirsty. “Water,” I croaked.

In an instant Nell had a waterskin to my lips, her dark eyes surveying my face. “You’re a fuckin’ badass, you know that?” Nell laughed.

I smacked my lips, my tongue feeling odd in my mouth. “I’m learning that,” I muttered, earning a soft laugh from Nell. “What happened?”

“You melted some faces, we fled, and you passed out,” Whit explained. “You’ve been sleeping for two days.”

Shit. “Where are we?”

“Half a day’s hike into the Rhedrosian Mountains,” Miles answered, gesturing to the dense forest and mountain slopes that loomed above us. A small fire burned next to the pond, a rabbit roasting over it on a makeshift spit. “As far as we could carry you before we needed to rest. We wanted you to sleep.” I noticed his hand was on my shoulder, thumb stroking small circles, the feeling once again unsettling. As if he felt my attention on the gesture, he pulled his hand away, placing it on the hilt of his sword.

“We’re a few days’ hike from Aera. We’ll need to gather more supplies.” I remembered them mentioning Aera in the tent, a small town to the north of Taitha and the Rhedrosian Mountains.

“They’re going to come after us, no?” I asked, trying to prop myself up on my elbows.

The three soldiers looked at one another. “They should have already come after us, yes,” Nell answered. “We can only assume Summercut and the rest were able to hold them off, but we can’t assume they aren’t on our trail. Kauvras will figure out you escaped sooner or later.”

I nodded, letting my body drop back to the ground. The three soldiers looked expectantly at me. “You all followed me out here?”

Nell’s eyes narrowed. “Of course we did. We believe in you. We’re going to follow you wherever you lead us.”

“Like shadows,” Whit added with a grin. “Well, shadows with swords.”

“Shadows with swords?” Nell scoffed. “That’s not intimidating at all. We’re like…a penumbra.The Penumbra.”

Whit raised a brow. “What does that even mean?”

“A better word for shadow. We’ll be your Penumbra. Me, Whit, and Landgrave.”

“Do not rope me into this,” Miles growled.