Page 48 of The Arrow and the Alder

A lder had never seen so many depraved. They descended like a cloud of claws and teeth. His kin screamed and blood rained—from kith and depraved alike—while depraved raked at them all, trying to tear them apart.

“To me!” Alder bellowed over the din, fighting to keep order. He fired arrow after arrow, dodging claws from the seat of his horse. Depraved fell, but it seemed that for every one he shot down, two more appeared to take its place.

Damned oversized bats.

His uncle charged ahead, wielding his blade like the war hero he was, though Serinbor kept beside Alder, firing off shots. Despite the complications between them, battle drew them into a familiar rhythm. Anticipating one another’s movements, seamlessly filling in gaps, working as one mind.

It had always been that way with Serinbor.

They’d once been an unstoppable pair, until their aims and philosophies diverted. That aim was singular now, and as Alder leaned back—as Serinbor stabbed his blade in the space Alder created, impaling one of the witch’s guards—Alder couldn’t help but think how much he’d missed his friend.

Except…

“You cut off one of my buttons,” Alder said as he watched the guard drop to the ground, dead.

“Better your button than your head,” Serinbor said. “I’m still angry, you know.”

“I know.”

“And—” Serinbor ducked as a depraved dove, and Alder fired a shot. The depraved flapped and screamed and crashed into another guard. “I still think you’re an arrogant bastard.”

“And you’re a self-righteous ass.”

Serinbor met Alder’s gaze, a smirk on his face, which Alder returned.

“What changed?” Alder asked.

Serinbor whirled around and plunged his sword through the belly of another guard. The guard collapsed, and Serinbor looked at Alder as he pulled his sword free. “Josephine. I like her. And I want to believe that she’s right about you.”

Alder held Serinbor’s gaze, and his chest felt suddenly tight.

A nearby explosion brought him back to the present. “We need to get closer.” Alder nodded ahead.

Serinbor gave him an actual smile before he bowed grandly. “After you, milady.”

Alder chuckled then pushed his horse forward while Serinbor covered him with his sword, until—finally—he caught sight of Süldar’s gate.

A shiver rolled through his body, momentarily paralyzing him with old fear.

“ Marks !” Serinbor yelled his old nickname—the one Serinbor himself had given him—as a depraved dropped from the sky and landed right beside Alder with an arrow sticking out of its skull.

He caught Serinbor’s gaze and nodded a quick thanks.

“Are you all right?” Serinbor asked, searching as if he suspected there was more to Alder’s sudden paralysis, and Alder wondered how much Josephine had said to Serinbor while he’d been away.

Alder clenched the reins and nodded once. “I’m going to the gate.”

But Alder didn’t make it far before Massie’s bone-masked riders filed through, followed by none other than Massie himself.

Alder felt a rush of fury, and he yelled as he charged forward. Serinbor called out to him, but Alder did not stop, his sights set on the kith high lord.

The man who had destroyed his life and slaughtered his family.

Alder hardly noticed the battle surrounding him. He hardly registered cutting down the depraved in his path, but the next thing he knew, he was right before Massie, feinting right but veering left and knocking Massie out of his saddle with the butt of his sword.

Massie cried out as he fell and tumbled, and he thrust forth his palm. He saw the enchantment Massie tried to throw, but it washed right over Alder as the little moonstone ring tingled upon Alder’s chest.

Oh, how he loved that woman.

Massie’s features warped with fury as he staggered to his feet and searched for his blade.

Alder considered running right over him, but he dismounted instead. He didn’t want to give his horse the honor.

Instead, Alder yelled and ran at Massie.

Massie tried to throw another enchantment, but like the first, it washed over Alder as he collided with the man who had betrayed his mother.

The two fell to the ground in a tangle, but Alder snatched the advantage first, grabbing Massie by the shoulders and slamming his own head against Massie’s. Massie crumpled, and Alder reached for the lapels of his overcoat, but Massie was fast.

He hadn’t become Queen Navarra’s high lord for nothing.

Massie grabbed a rock and slammed it across Alder’s jaw, and Alder saw stars.

He fell back as Massie scrambled out from under his hold, out of reach, and Massie found his sword just as Serinbor rushed him with a yell.

They were a clash of swords, giving Alder time to gather himself and retrieve his bow. Alder set the arrow and pulled back just as Massie knocked the sword from Serinbor’s grip, catching it mid-air. Massie’s lips curled as he gazed upon a weaponless Serinbor. “I’ll admit, I’m surprised to see you still trailing the Weald Prince like a shadow. I was certain you’d learned your less?—”

Alder released the arrow, and it sank into Massie’s thigh.

Massie hissed and staggered forward.

“Where is she, you bastard?” Alder demanded.

Massie smiled through bloodstained teeth. Serinbor tried to get nearer, but Massie whirled both swords. “You’re too late. You are…always too late. Too late for your people. Too late for the queen. You should have heard her screams?—”

Alder fired another arrow, right above the first. “I asked you a question, snake.”

Massie hissed through his teeth. “You’ll never reach her in time?—”

Alder fired a third arrow, which went right through Massie’s hand.

This time, Massie howled and dropped both swords to cradle his impaled hand.

“I can do this all day,” Alder said lowly as the battle raged all around them.

A scream cut through the din and reached Alder’s ears, echoing from one of the fortress’s towers. Serinbor met his gaze, fear mirrored in his, and a flush of heat enveloped Alder, disorienting him with its intensity. At first, he worried a depraved had raked its claws over his back, but then he realized it was her pain that he was feeling through the connection they shared.

Josephine .

“You see?” Massie continued staggering forward with blood trickling down his leg and hand. “It’s too late. You cannot possibly…save her, just as you failed…to save them.”