Page 48

Samara nodded, but I could tell it still bothered her. Samara liked to be the best at everything. She was one of the most competitive people I’d ever met. It was probably driving her insane that she had a well of magic inside her that she had no idea how to wield.

I frowned at the ground, imagining the tunnels running beneath them, before glancing at Draven. “Could you collapse the tunnels?”

“I thought about it,” he admitted. “But I doubt I could do it all at once. I’d probably have to pick a spot and then expand. It would give them time to escape to the surface.”

“Yeah, let’s not do that.” Kieran kissed Draven’s cheek. “I’d prefer to not be suddenly surrounded by dozens of giant spiders.”

“More like hundreds,” Rynn commented idly, her mind clearly trying to work through other options.

“In the words of Samara responding to that asshole Demetri’s marriage proposal . . .” Kieran grinned at Samara. “Pass.”

She snorted. “He really was the worst.”

My frown deepened. I was happy he was dead—and that she’d killed him—but I’d kind of been looking forward to twisting his head clean off his shoulders, and I hadn’t even gotten to see Samara cut the fucker’s head off.

Didn’t seem fair after I’d had to listen to him run his mouth for weeks.

“So we leave the horses behind and walk through,” Samara said, interrupting my internal griping. “Rynn, Cali, and I all have experience spotting the doors because we visited the badlands often when we were at Drudonia. We can forge a path.”

I almost pointed out that Rynn had fallen into a trap on her way to us, but I bit my tongue. In some ways, the active trapdoors were easier to spot because the trappers kept the areas clear, whereas the abandoned ones were covered by dried up plants and other random debris.

Cali glanced up at the sun and grimaced before giving Roth an appraising look. “Without the horses, we’ll have to run to make it to the temple before nightfall.”

“Your point?” Roth asked flatly. I glanced over my shoulder to find them scowling at Cali and rubbed my hand over my mouth to hide my grin. Cali was only voicing what we were all thinking—Roth’s idea of physical activity was getting a book down from the highest shelf in the library.

And they’d created magical freaking ropes to help them with that . . . amongst other things, I suspected, based on how I’d caught Samara blushing sometimes when Roth’s ropes shifted on their forearms.

“I can carry them if need be,” I offered.

Samara’s jaw practically dropped as she stared at me.

“What?” I asked, shuffling a little on my feet.

“Aww, he wants to feel useful,” Kieran joked. “Let him put all those muscles to use, Rothie Bear.”

Roth and I both glared at the blond courtier, but he just smiled wider. Then one of Roth’s ropes started to unwind from their forearms—likely to choke Kieran—but Samara smoothly cut in.

“Thank you for the offer, Vail.” She walked over to Roth and took their hand, gently wrapping the rope back around their forearm while Roth continued staring daggers at Kieran. “Roth, will you be okay running?”

Bright orange lines bled through Roth’s hazel eyes as their bloodlust rose. “Don’t worry about my stamina, Samara. I can sure as fuck outlast Kieran.”

“That sounds like a fun game,” Kieran murmured.

“I do like games that are a win-win for me.” Samara grinned smugly. “Let’s make it to the temple, and then we can play.”

My mind ever so helpfully conjured up the memory of Samara tied up in that cabin while Draven and I tried to make her scream.

Fuck.

“You okay there, Marshal?” Cali drawled. Her tone was casual, but she still looked at me like prey she was determined to take down.

I’d have to be careful as we made our way through trapper territory. Something told me that if Cali saw an opportunity to accidentally knock me into a trapdoor, she’d take it.

“If we’re going to do this, we should get moving,” I said gruffly, trying to ignore how uncomfortably tight my pants felt right now and willing my hard-on to go away. “Rynn has the best senses out of all of us. She shifts and takes the lead. Cali can scout from overhead. I’ll take the rear guard.”

It was so easy to fall back into ranger mode, I hadn’t even realized I’d done it until I’d given the orders . . . ones I would have given to Adrienne, Emil, and Nyx in different times.

I wouldn’t be doing that again. Two of my rangers were dead, and Nyx . . . I didn’t know what Nyx was.

For a second, the grief and rage I felt were almost crippling. Until I ruthlessly shoved them into the depths of my soul, slammed the door shut, and threw away the key. Dwelling on what had happened wouldn’t help us now. Carmilla would pay. I’d make sure of it.

“It’s a good plan,” Draven said, cutting off Cali, who looked pissed off at being told what to do.

I hadn’t meant to give her orders like that, they’d just slipped out.

“I’ll do my best to sense the spiders if they go on the move, but I likely won’t be able to give much warning if it’s them springing a trap. ”

“Understood.” I nodded at him thankfully—something I never thought I would be doing. “Let’s see to the horses and then get going.”

I strode back to the black mare Samara and I had ridden, took the reins that Kieran wordlessly passed to me, and started untying my bags. Suddenly, Samara was there, holding out her hand.

“I can carry it a?—”

“Or you can stop being difficult and let me carry one of them.” She curled her fingers quickly several times in a very clear hand-it-over gesture. “Crossbow too. I’m a better shot, and you know it.”

I grunted because it was true. Samara was shit with a sword, but she was the best shot I’d ever seen with a bow—or a throwing dagger.

“Aim for dead center between their eyes and fangs. It won’t kill them, but it will mess up their sense of direction.

” I passed her the bag, waited for her to secure it to her back, and then unlatched the crossbow.

She greedily took it from my hands and checked it over quickly before accepting the quiver of bolts from me as well.

Once she was satisfied, she swung the crossbow over her shoulder. “We should take their bridles off so they don’t get caught on anything.”

I nodded and slipped the bridle off the mare, who had stood here patiently this whole time.

House Salvatore was known for breeding and training some of the best horses—I suspected it was where Zosa had originally come from.

How Samara had managed to get her hands on such an incredible horse, I had no idea.

These ones might not be as stunning as Zosa, but I had no doubt they were trained to return home.

With no riders slowing them down, they could make it before the sun set.

Roth passed the reins of the chestnut horse they’d ridden with Draven to Samara, who patted the horse’s head before slipping off its bridle.

A minute later, all three horses were cantering away in the direction of home.

A few rangers had volunteered to stay behind at House Salvatore to keep watch, so they’d be able to let the horses in—if they made it.

There were no guarantees in Lunaria. Although I suspected the horses were going to have a better trip than us.

I pulled my sword free and jerked my head towards where Rynn waited for us in her wolf form. “Let’s get on with it.”

Alaric and Kieran both pulled swords similar to mine free and started walking. They both trained regularly with my rangers and were pretty good. Roth’s ropes unwound a little from their forearms and dangled at their sides as they followed after the other two.

A low, husky laugh spilt from Samara’s lips as Draven whispered something in her ear before pulling the whip coiled at his side free. I still thought a whip was a stupid weapon, even if the prince did wield it well.

By the time we reached Rynn, Cali had taken to the sky above us, and we fell into a single file line. Draven had sped up to be at the front behind Rynn, with me at the end. Nobody spoke as Rynn found us a path through the traps. First one mile. Then another.

An hour ticked by, and I was still spotting trapdoors. How fucking big was this colony?

I spotted some hoof tracks here and there from the deer who cut through the badlands to avoid all the predators that roamed the forests. The trappers were converging where the prey was.

Lucky us.

More than once, Rynn made us backtrack to find an alternate route.

I trusted her judgment, but the fourth time she did it, I couldn’t stop myself from glancing up at the sun that was rapidly moving across the sky.

We still had at least two hours until sunset, but we were also a solid five miles from the temple, if not more.

If we didn’t get out of trapper territory soon, we would be in serious trouble.

“Wait,” Draven said harshly. Everyone froze. “Something’s coming. A lot of somethings.”

Cali shot higher into the sky.

“It’s a deer herd,” she called out. “And unless they alter their course . . . they’re going to run straight into us.”

“Fuck,” I growled. “Can you scare them in a different direction?”

“Doubtful.” Cali darted down to hover above the ground a few feet away from us. “There are too many of them. I’d be lucky to get half to switch direction.”

“So let’s use it to our advantage,” Samara said quickly. “The trappers will converge on the deer. We wait until they do, then we run like hell.”

“The deer are going to trample anything in their path,” I argued. “Or impale it.”

A crazy light flared in Samara’s eyes, and she grinned at Cali. “Remember that time we got drunk on your twentieth birthday?”

The Furie laughed darkly. “Hard to forget waking up naked in a tree covered in sticky berry juice and wearing your panties as a hat.”

“Did you three ever study at Drudonia?” Alaric gave Samara an incredulous look.

“Cali definitely didn’t,” Roth muttered.