Page 48 of The Freedom You Seek

The others—my men, as I dubbed them—were more skilled and far superior, at least to my untrained eye, but the attackers outnumbered us by far. Still, it calmed me down to see how much more deadly my men were, and the threat of me throwing up from nausea slowly ceased.

“Stay down!” Thain hissed as I peeked up to get a better view of the fight.

Suddenly, my world tilted, and moments later, I hit the ground hard. At the edge of my vision, I noticed Thain was lying on the ground, and his face was contorted with pain.

My back hurt, I had a throbbing shoulder, and it felt as if a sharp stone had pierced my left arm, but apart from that, I was uninjured. The nausea returned with a vengeance, and I heaved once before I could rein myself in.

“Shit,” Thain cursed and threw himself over me. He was heavy, and the impact wasn’t gentle—the little air inside of my lungs was forced out by his stunt—but I was thankful for his protection.

I was too terrified to protest that Thain was using his body to shield me as three of the attackers advanced on us, and I clutched his tunic so tightly that my hands were shaking.

Thain attempted to keep his face straight, but I could hear the wince he was suppressing, and something warm and wet dripped down on me. “Are you hurt?”

“Don’t worry about me! We have to be clever now.”

Blood. It was his blood dripping on me, and I screamed. I yelled for Antas, for Fig, for Ireas, which was certainly not the clever thing Thain had meant. But I wasn’t rational. We needed backup. Where were my men?

“Shh, darling, here goes nothing. On my sign, you’ll run as fast as you can. Don’t look back. Find the others. I’ll buy you time. I fear I can’t do anything else anymore.” Thain’s voice was strained, but in the back of my mind I registered that he’d issued his orders so loud that the mercenaries must have picked it up too.

Since I didn’t want them to overhear even more, I toned my voice down to a whisper, which sounded more like hissing. “No, Thain. I can’t leave you alone! You might get killed!”

“Sweet thing, do as I say, please. You have to be safe.”

“Hand over the woman, and you might keep your life,” one of the mercenaries commanded. His tone made my skin crawl, and I shuddered.

“I’ll give you something all right.” Thain rolled off me and lifted himself up to his knees, still shielding my body with his, all in the blink of an eye. His reflexes were faster than I’d ever seen before. Our eyes met for a second, and he silently urged me to flee. Or did he?

I hastily stood up, and my head spun as dizziness and a sudden loss of all energy consumed me. In my attempt to stop the world from turning, I stumbled and landed back on the ground. Had I hit my head harder than I thought?

My vision doubled, and I fought against fainting. I couldn’t run like that—I didn’t even make another attempt to rise to my feet. The only sound I could hear was blood rushing to my ears.

The surrounding air turned uncomfortably hot, and it was as if something sucked out the meager rest of my energy.

Pulling myself to my hands and knees, I panted as an insufferable heat threatened to burn me from the inside out. With my last remaining strength, I raised my head by a few inches, just in time for me to see our attackers igniting into flames—Thain must have wielded his magic!

Feeling cautiously relieved and unable to stay conscious any longer, I surrendered as I drifted into peaceful oblivion.

Upon waking, I discovered someone had placed me in my bedroll, and the night sky stretched above me. I must have been out for hours.

Back at home, I’d always made fun of women who fainted at the slightest strain, and now I’d suffered more blackouts in a few weeks than ever before in my life. It was embarrassing, for sure.

Exhausted and drained, I briefly yearned to go back to sleep, but the recollection of the confrontation with Perran Feroy’s mercenaries came rushing back into my mind. I jerked up and met Antas’ eyes looking down at me.

“You’re awake. Finally. How are you?”

“Not important. How are the others?”

“They’re all here except Dion, who has not returned from his excursion yet. He should arrive soon, though. Ireas’ arrow wound is deep but not worrisome enough for you to be concerned, and we’ve done our best to treat Thain’s injuries. He got seriously hurt but will recover sooner rather than later. Despite his own wounds, Ireas insisted on treating him, and the effect was almost immediate. Fig and I haven’t gotten a single scratch. And before you ask, none of the mercenaries survived.”

A sense of relief washed over me, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. “But?”

Antas was worried and downright flustered, an expression I’d never seen on the man for whom the wordstoicmust have been invented. “You’re aware that Thain and Dion don’t get along, of course.”

I nodded, thinking back to the stories Thain had told me earlier, and I wondered how their animosity was connectedwith Antas showing nerves. I briefly feared Dion might have betrayed us, but that wasn’t true, right? It couldn’t be.

“Well, with the ambush and—something elsein mind, there’s a good chance Dion will escalate when he hears about it. There are things you don’t understand yet, and I promise you an explanation, but only after we are sure that Dion won’t hurt Thain.”

“You think he’s such an unstable asshole that he’ll attack Thain for real? And for what? Not liking someone is one thing, but fearing that they’ll harm a companion is something else entirely.” Shock settled over me. I wasn’t aware the men thought Dion was completely unhinged and still didn’t intervene.