Page 74 of A Hunt Bound in Blood
There was a distinct hint of sulphur in the air, and it didn’t smell like the dragons. Whoever wants you dead is willing to sacrifice a lot of other lives to make it happen.
Bipedal prints and the stench of sulphur. Karhasan was beautiful in many ways, but the taint of volcanic ash was not one of them. It had taken me months to rid my hair of the smell. More and more, everything pointed to my siblings, and Thorn was right: Sending the mutts over the mountain directly through dragon territory was asking them to die on this mission. If they made it across, we’d need to be prepared for them when we left this tunnel. If we made good time, we could stay ahead of them, find the amulet, get to the ship, and leave the threat behind us.
If we didn’t… well, they wouldn’t take us by surprise again.
“You’re thinking about what Thorn said?”
I startled at Glory’s question, not having realized she’d folded up the map and tucked it into the roughened pack hanging off her shoulder.
I debated lying, not wanting to worry her, but she was stuck out here with me. Whatever threat I faced, she faced it too. “I am. About what we might find when we leave the mountain. How we might fight back. I wish we had another one of Tersey’s vials to throw, just in case.”
Glory raised an eyebrow. “If you’d allowed me to analyze it before you threw it, maybe I could have recreated it. But you were too worried I’d blow us up.”
I chuckled. “My failure to have more faith in you might prove to be our downfall. I take full responsibility.”
The teasing gleam in her eyes faded. “What are our options, then? There were so many of them. That blast must have decimated their numbers, but they’ll still be a strong enemy against just the two of us. And what if they gather more on the other side?”
“I think we need to assume that’ll be the case.”
“Are they so willing to die for an amulet that might not even help them?”
“If their attack has anything to do with the amulet.” I should have raised my suspicions with her before now, but I hadn’t thought it mattered. Whatever their motivations, they were after us and we needed to fight them back. But with the scouts’ findings lending credence to my worries, it was only fair Glory knew where my thoughts had gone. We both needed to be ready for whatever was coming. “Thorn found evidence that makes me believe my siblings are behind this. The odds of the mutts randomly hearing about our search for the amulet are small, but word reaching Karhasan? That’s far more likely. If my siblings learned something about my deal with Evaniel, they’d want to get rid of me before his promises came through.”
Glory’s eyes widened. “That’s why the mutts targeted you in that fight. I’d thought it was because you’re… you know, larger, and they thought you were the greater danger. But they just didn’t care about me.”
She said it as though it was the answer to a question that had been bothering her, but all it did was fill me with more guilt. “I’m sorry. You have enough stresses and challenges carrying out this mission. I’m supposed to be helping to make things easier for you, not bringing blood and destruction down on your head.”
“No, no, that’s not what—I mean, it’s not ideal, obviously. The shifters wouldn’t have come after us if these mutts weren’t on our heels, but hey, if not for the mutts, we wouldn’t have found Thorn, right? We’d be climbing the peaks trying to avoid being spotted by a dragon.”
“It did turn out to be a lucky break.”
For so many reasons. The memory of her body writhing under mine, her hands in my hair, around my horns, her moans, her taste—everything had been worth the terror of the hours that had come before.
Glory’s cheeks flushed, and she averted her gaze as she hastened her step. “Is this the first time they’ve come after you? Your siblings, I mean.”
I lengthened my stride to keep up with her, trying and failing to set all thought of her naked body aside. “The first time in a few years. When I left Karhasan, they sent all manner of creature after me. Vampire, mage, human…” When she arched a brow, I nodded. “Yeah, you can imagine how that one ended. None of them walked away. I’m not a violent demon by nature, but I’m not one to be pushed around, either. Or to show weakness. Eventually they got the hint, and when it became clear I was making a life for myself in Golthwaine, they left me alone. I thought they might forget about me and get too caught up in staking their claim to the throne, but they might have kept their ears open. Now, at the first real opportunity I have of reclaiming my title, someone’s trying to kill me. The timing is too precise to be a coincidence.”
“I’m sorry.”
The sincerity of her sympathy squeezed my heart, and I flashed her a smile. “They won’t win. They’ll learn that soon enough.” Without thinking, I reached for her hand and tugged her towards me. It was only when her fingers curled around mine that I knew I’d been searching for an anchor in my whirling concern. “That being said, I hate that you have to be dragged into it.”
She leaned her shoulder against mine as if searching for similar grounding. “You wouldn’t have made the deal with Evaniel if I hadn’t discovered Tersey’s journals, so who’s really at fault here?” She grinned. “Want to place bets on whose decisions kill us first?”
She was aiming for a joke, but I couldn’t meet her on it. Not when she looked so incredibly vulnerable smiling as she was, her hazel eyes full of fear and guilt.
“Considering how the Fates have played us so far, I’d lay odds on a different bet entirely.” I’d bet that, despite our odds, whoever was coming after us was in for a serious fight.
Our journey under the mountain was more monotonous than any other section of our travels so far. With no outside light and the same rough-hewn, grey-brown rock lining every edge of our path, there was nothing to do but walk and think. Halfway through the first day, we had no choice but to learn more about each other. We covered parts of my childhood and parts of Glory’s. She told me what it was like working for Evaniel, mostly confirming my opinion that he was a harsh leader and an unpleasant human being, and I told her what being a prince of Karhasan entailed.
There was more laughter about both subjects than I might have anticipated. While experiencing life in my homeland, I hadn’t appreciated how ridiculous much of it might sound to outsiders. It had been a life of rules and regulations, schedules, expectations. So much so that I’d forgotten how many childhood experiences I’d lost by existing in a king’s world.
In turn, Glory warmed and broke my heart with stories of her parents. Her father had been a kind man who’d doted on his wife and daughter, and his loss had changed their lives in ways they’d never recovered from.
Yet despite everything we’d both been through, we were here. Wounded in our own ways, but coping. Surviving. I hoped that, in time, Glory might thrive as much as I was.
Though after all our talking and all of her questions, I had to wonder if thriving was really the word for what I’d been doing with my life. Sure, I’d gained wealth, experience, a reputation, but the more Glory pressed me about why I’d opted to go the route I had, the weaker my answers sounded.
“For the adventure,” I told her on our second day. “The ride. I never feel more alive than when I’m throwing myself into the unknown.”