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It was a tight fit with two of them, and she wound her arms around him, and he her, so they were tight up against each other.

“Gus? You here?”

It was Nena.

Had she seen them?

Or maybe she had caught a brief glimpse of them as they stepped off the track and down the path, and thought it must be Gus.

She stood, looking around, stared at the bell for a little while, and then backed away.

As she left, she was muttering under her breath.

“Wait,” Theo whispered to Melodie as she started to pull away. “She might have triggered the web.”

She gave a nod in response and they stood together in silence.

Eventually, Theo decided Nena must have come over the fence and bypassed the web. It was a lucky break.

But he gave it just a minute more before he reluctantly stepped away.

“All right?” he asked her, still in a whisper.

She pushed her forehead into his chest for a moment, looking down, then tipped her head to look at him. Gave a nod.

There was a lot he wanted to ask her, because there was all kinds of things going on behind those eyes of hers, but now was most definitely not the time and place.

“Let’s get back to the inn and get Gus,” he said. “And put an end to this.”

CHAPTER 20

Ava was worried about Rafe.

She was worried about quite a few of the older warriors who rode with her in the tight group.

She glanced over at Luc, but he was focused ahead, face grim, feelings held close and tightly controlled.

She reached out, even as their horses galloped over uneven ground, and brushed her fingers lightly down his upper arm.

He turned his head, his gaze meeting hers, and she saw the rage burning in his eyes. It matched her own, but unlike in some—like Rafe—it was a clear rage.

Rafe worried her because this kidnap, this abduction, had him spiraling back to memories of the Chosen camps, and a few of his fellow officers along with him.

She flicked her gaze ahead, to where Rafe rode in front, and back to Luc, and he gave a nod, urging his mount ahead; allowing the advantage of rank as others let him through.

He caught up with his second-in-command, and forced his pace to slow.

Ava noticed a sigh of relief ripple through the unit at the slacking off of what had been an almost impossible pace.

Suddenly, from up ahead, someone called out a hail, and the whole riding party went stone-faced and ready for trouble, before the call came again, and from the suddenly relaxed postures, Ava guessed it was the correct hail from one of their own.

Luc and Rafe slowed their mounts to a walk, and then finally to a stop. They had cut across from Ta-lin to take the road north that ran some of the way along the Bartolo River, and the horses moved straight to the banks to drink, their sides heaving.

Both men dismounted as four soldiers came into view, looking like they’d be riding hard themselves. At the sight of their commander and his second-in-command, they snapped to attention and pulled up on the reins, then eased themselves from their saddles.

Ava thought they would have slid off, groaning, if they’d been alone.

They were clearly known to some of the soldiers in the group, because as everyone dismounted, there were greetings and some back-slapping, which made Ava think they’d been trained in Fernwell and Ta-lin.