Page 76 of Of Blood and Banes (The Arterian #2)

GOD RELICS

I don’t have time to question why we’re running, but even if I did, the masked faces and drawn weapons I glimpse are enough to catapult me.

We break into a sprint, the frosty ground crunching beneath our boots, the group of heavy footsteps not far behind us.

We aren’t going to be able to outrun them. And I don’t have any weapons.

“I need help!” I call out to Daeja.

“Don’t you always—” she snickers, then recognizes the fear in my voice. “Where are you?”

“South of Everden with Archie! Someone’s after us!”

Archie wraps his hand around my forearm, then drags me to the right unexpectedly. We lurch forward as the ground beneath us dips down into a steep hillside. We aren’t quick enough to stop ourselves from falling.

Archie loses his grip on my arm as the both of us tumble down the slope, each bump slamming into my chest, back, and legs.

I wrap my arms around my head to protect myself until I finally slow to a stop.

When I open my eyes, my back flat on the ground, I stare up at the spinning kaleidoscope of treetops and gray muddled sky.

I drag my head to the left to find Archie slumped forward face-first on the ground, his eyes closed. Approaching footsteps steal my attention up past the hillside.

“Archie!” I whisper, tugging at his shoulder. “Get up! We have to move!”

His eyes drag open, a bruise already blooming at the corner of his eye. “What…”

“Up!” I groan as I pull myself up off the ground and slide my arm underneath his chest.

“Come out!” a man calls in the distance. “There are twelve of us and two of you. You’re severely outmatched. If you come willingly, no one will be hurt. We promise.” The jovial tone chills my blood.

I don’t trust it for a second. They have to be the rebels. Though, I still can’t see anyone up on the edge of the hillside. There’s only a matter of time.

I whip back to Archie, and he’s sluggish to move his hands under his chest.

“I…I can’t feel my foot,” he groans, trying to force himself up, then winces and grips his left leg.

Fuck.

I help flip him onto his back and then clasp hands with his and yank him up. He’s careful not to set his left leg on the ground. But as I turn to look up at the ridge, I see masked figures moving through the trees. Edging closer to overlook the lower part of the forest where we are.

Pulling Archie’s arm over my shoulder to brace his weight against me, I race us toward a thicker grouping of trees crowded with a leafy underbrush. As we trample through the bushes, we both grunt as thorny branches scrape at our legs.

“You’re testing our patience!” one rebel calls.

“I’m going to devour them,” Daeja growls. “Stay hidden. I’ll catch them by surprise from behind.”

“Don’t get too close! They might have dragonblade!”

“Dragonblade will never be enough to stop me.”

“Now’s not the time for arrogance!” I tear Archie to the ground with me behind the cover of a tree. His breath puffs out of him when he lands. Hard.

“Shhh, shhh,” I warn, dragging him to lay with his back against the tree.

He grits his teeth, digging his fingers into his leg like it might dull the pain. When I go to assess his foot, he bats me away. “No. Don’t. If I see it, it’ll only make the pain worse.”

I peek around the tree trunk, scanning the ridge and forest above. But I find no movement. “I think they moved on.”

I’ve spoken too soon. A group of masked people sweep past a cluster of trees, now on the same level as us. Their weapons glimmer in the sunlight. Full-face, black metal masks only expose their eyes.

I shift back behind the trunk, sitting next to Archie and trying to slow my beating heart.

Archie’s eyes widen when he sees my face. “Wha?—”

I slam a finger against his lips. The only hint of someone approaching is the eerie feeling of pressure on my skin.

Pulling off my gloves finger by finger, I tuck them into my belt and press my hands down to the ground.

As I draw magic up through the soil, a breeze picks up my hair and carries it across my face. That liquid heat burning up my arms.

“She’s here! Quick!” someone shouts. “She’s pulling!”

Archie withdraws two daggers from his side and jerks up to his knees. Facing the tree trunk, he slips out from behind the cover to fling one dagger out at the incoming rebels. A scream punctuates his success. It’s a damn good thing I’m with one of the most skilled dagger throwing soldiers.

Gritting my teeth, I pull blue wisps out from the dirt beneath my hands and stagger to my feet.

Barely maintaining my grip on the magic, my knees tremble.

Sweating, I form the ghostly blue wisps into a ball, as Marge had prompted me to all those nights ago.

Spinning it in slow circles until it forms into something familiar.

Dragonfire.

Archie whips behind the cover of the tree trunk, and a split-second later, an axe shaves off a chunk of bark before it sinks into the ground ten feet past us.

“When…I…throw this at them…” I say, panting as I glance at Archie. “I…want you…to run…for Daeja…”

He white-knuckles the dagger in his right hand, while he grabs another strapped to his side with his left. “Not a chance, Kat.”

As if on cue, Daeja’s roar echoes through the trees, followed by a scream. Archie pops out from the tree again and flings both daggers, one after the other. And now, I can hear the drum of their footsteps through the underbrush.

I slide out from the opposite side of the tree, taking the ball of dragonfire, now the width of my shoulders, and just as I’m about to hurl it at them, something strikes me on the side of my head.

Everything snaps to black.

Slowly my senses begin to creep back in. My breath echoes, pain lacing my skull.

“You didn’t kill her, did you?” a feminine voice hisses, followed by something round and pointed prodding my ribs.

“No, my liege,” a gruff voice responds. “Just knocked her out. As you requested.”

“Good. We’ll need answers before we kill her,” that icy, smooth feminine voice responds. “And where is her dragon?”

“We pinned it with nets and dragonblade hooks. It won’t be getting out unless we let it.”

“Do not kill it until I’m done with her. Is that understood?”

“Yes, my liege.”

The cold firmness pressed to my right cheek and underneath my chest tells me I’m lying face down.

I fight to keep my eyes closed and face still, despite my skipping pulse.

When I reach out for my bond with Daeja, it’s like a door is closed between us.

Slowly, I shift my ring finger and sense I’m still wearing the Blood Ring.

They can’t be Arterians in the Dragon Lands, considering they know I’m wearing the ring, and they’re still willing to kill me. Which means they have to be Vitalan rebels.

A tight fist grips my shoulder and flips me onto my back.

I let my head roll lazily, keeping my eyes closed.

Fingers scrape my chest as someone grabs the front of my shirt and lifts me a few inches off the ground.

A tight, hot flash of pain rips in my cheek as someone slaps me.

I can’t fight against the natural hiss that slips out of my mouth, nor my eyes flinging open.

A woman is crouched over me. Her pale hand fisted in my shirt.

She puffs her short cropped black hair out of her face, her calculating blue eyes piercing me.

A sinister grin splits her thin lips as our eyes connect.

I glance to my left, looking for Archie.

He’s face down on the wooden floor, knocked out.

Another slap across my face spins my attention back to the woman.

“Eyes here,” she commands. “I’m going to ask you some questions. If you fail to answer me in a timely manner, your little boyfriend over here dies first. Second strike, and I’ll kill your dragon. Do you understand?”

Biting into my tongue, I fight against the rage boiling up through my chest and screaming to rip out of my mouth. Thinking better of it, I nod, holding her gaze without a lick of fear. She smiles. And it takes everything in me to not smack it off her face.

“First question. Which ring do you bear?”

Tapping the wooden floor with my fingertips to channel my anger into some other movement, I search for the magic underneath us. And find nothing. We must be far away from a ley line.

I focus on my peripheral vision while locked into her eyes. We’re in a dimly-lit room, with daylight spilling through a dusted window on my left. Which means I’ve either been out long enough it’s been a full day or it’s been very brief.

Farther back in the room behind the woman are several guards with their attention trained on us through their masks. The rest of the space looks to be a makeshift gathering room with chairs, a table, a desk with a stack of books on the surface, and a wardrobe.

“Do not have me ask you a second time,” the woman warns.

“The Blood Ring.”

“Good. Where is the Bone Ring?”

I can’t help but laugh. And she tightens her grip on my shirt and shakes me until I quiet.

“King Aaric has it,” I reply.

“Who?”

I blink at such a simple question. How would she not know who King Aaric is? I respond again, in case she didn’t hear me clearly, “King Aaric…”

“And where is he?”

“I’d imagine in his castle back in Arterias. But I’ve never seen him, nor have I ever been to the capital, so I can’t be certain.”

“Daeja…can you hear me?” I call out into the chasm of my mind.

Silence.