Page 57 of Warrior Princess Assassin (Braided Fate #1)

I cough again, then grab his arm and pull, and he follows me around the hut.

The woman has even less space now. She’s younger than I thought, probably not more than thirteen or fourteen.

She’s sobbing, pressed up against the wall of the building, sparks raining around her from the roof.

Her friend has made it to her side, but the edges of her skirts are singed and dark with soot.

Both their faces are bright red and awash with sweat, their clothes damp and flecked with charred spots.

“Please,” I say to Ky, my voice cracking with panic. “Please help them.”

He sketches a sigil, and it pulls a patch of fire right off the ground, leaving scorched, dry grass in its wake. I gasp. “But you—I thought—”

“Walk at my back, Princess,” he says, cutting me off. I don’t understand how his voice can be so cool and commanding while everything inside me feels as hot and agitated as the flames. “But you must stay close.”

As he says the words, fire surges into the area he just cleared. He crushes the flame from his palm and summons more from the ground, opening another path. As soon as we step into it, fire begins to crowd into the space he cleared.

Stay close . Got it.

My breathing roars in my ears as he begins to walk.

Flames are already beginning to swoop into the space, so I match my footsteps to his.

Step by step, he summons a handful of fire, then crushes it away—but there’s always more ready to burn and replace what he’s taken.

It’s like trying to watch someone empty the ocean with a bucket.

A desperate thought occurs to me. When I sat with him and practiced a sigil, the air glowed for a moment. Can I do that again? Can I help ?

I touch a hand to his back, then move my fingers in the pattern he practiced. As before, a faint glow appears in the air, but nothing more.

But it’s something . I try again, and this time the sigil glows brighter, hovering in the air. The tiniest lick of flame flares just at the edge, and I gasp.

Ky glances back over his shoulder. “No!” he says, his tone sharp with warning.

He sounds so severe that I almost flinch back—before I realize I’m stepping into rejuvenated flames.

Ky catches my arm before I can. Sweat coats his forehead, too. “You’re unpracticed,” he says. “You could hurt more than you could help.”

That’s sobering, and I curl my hand into a fist, then nod.

He turns back, swiping another handful of fire so we can proceed.

Sweat slicks my back by the time we reach the girls.

The first has slid down to sit against the hut, and her eyes are heavy lidded.

Thick smoke surrounds us, making it hard to breathe, and it’s grown difficult to see in the hazy shadows.

A spark lands on the girl’s skirt again, but this time she doesn’t move to do anything about it.

“Ky!” I say sharply, but he’s already moving his hand, drawing the tiny spark away.

The other girl looks up at us through the scorching flames, and she cringes back.

They hate outsiders.

“It’s all right,” I say to her. “We’re going to help you.”

Ky reaches down to pick up the girl on the ground, scooping her into his arms. “Keep her close, Princess.”

The other girl is sobbing, but I pull her close to me, then put a hand on the leather of his armor again.

When my hand brushes against a rivet in his armor, it burns my palm.

We move through the flames as slowly as we began, fire reaching for us with every step.

The girl’s breath hitches against me, but I tug her close, keeping her between me and the king.

“You’ll be all right,” I murmur. “You’ll be all right.”

As I say the words, I really don’t know if any of us will be all right. The air has grown so thick with smoke, and I can’t remember the last time I took a deep breath. When I blink, I see nothing but flames. We seem to be surrounded by blazing arcs of red and yellow. Has the fire grown higher?

But then something cold splashes against me, shocking my awareness.

We’ve made it to the edge of the flames, and the soldiers and the Suross people have reached us with their buckets.

The king is passing the girl to one of the men who’ve come forward, and an older woman takes the second girl from me.

She clings to the other woman, gasping through her sobs.

Ky’s soldiers throw their buckets on the flames as well, cutting a line through the fires and making a pattern. It takes me a moment to realize that they’re soaking a circle, keeping the fire from spreading.

The king notices my attention, and he says, “We have a lot of experience stopping fires, Princess.”

I shiver and nod. Water has gone into my boots and soaked half my trousers. But I look to the girls, who are still clutching the people who must be their family. “Are they all right?”

“They will be.”

I look around. “What about Asher? Where’s Charlotte? Are they all right?”

Garrett is carrying a bucket toward the flames, and he nods as he tosses it wide. “Stripes is filling buckets at the stream. Your lady is helping. We got them to set up a chain.”

“Princess.” Ky nods past me, to one of his soldiers. “You and Lady Charlotte should return to the hill with Nikko—”

One of the older women puts a hand on his arm, cutting him off. “ You ,” she says, and her accent is thicker than his. “You will take your soldiers and leave .”

He instantly bristles. “We came to help—”

“I told the first one,” she says. “I told him soldiers are not welcome here. And yet you came. And now look at what you’ve done.”

I glance past her at those sobbing girls. They’re all watching Ky and the other soldiers suspiciously.

The king inhales a sharp breath, and I remember what Nikko said earlier. They hate everyone.

But Ky also said they were his people. If I’ve learned anything on this journey, I know how much that means to him.

“We helped you,” he’s saying tightly. “We didn’t do this—”

“But we’ll leave,” I say quickly. His soldiers seem to have the flames more under control, as they’re throwing buckets at the mud huts now. Ky looks at me in surprise, and I drop my voice. “We’re frightening them.”

He seems struck by that, because he falls back a step.

He casts a gaze around at the Suross people, some of whom are soaking wet and shivering, some of whom are exchanging anxious glances.

There’s a sense of otherness to them, and I understand why Ky leaves them alone.

I suddenly realize they have no weapons at all.

I wonder if they know who he is, or if it’s just the mere presence of soldiers that they find unsettling. He hasn’t even announced himself, but the older woman who was arguing with him looks ready to cower if he draws a blade.

I put a hand on his arm and tug him back another step. “Go,” I say quietly. “Gather your men. I’ll find Charlotte and head back to the crest of the hill.” I give the woman a gentle nod. “Forgive us. We just wanted to help.”

She says nothing. Her gaze stays wary and hard.

I give Ky’s arm one more tug, then move away. At my side, I hear him sigh, but he begins giving orders to his men.

As I head toward the stream, I look for Charlotte and Asher.

I don’t see my lady, but I eventually spot Asher at a distance, responding to the king’s calls.

He must sense my focus, because he looks over, and when he spots me, his eyebrows go up.

He’s too far to shout, but he mouths two words to me. All good?

The question gives me an unexpected burst of warmth. Despite everything, he and I are all right. I nod quickly and move on.

As I move toward the stream, I pass several other huts like the one that burned beside the girls.

They’re very small, not much bigger than the space we shared after Asher and I kidnapped the king.

Ky said these people are nomads, and I wonder if the huts are so crudely constructed so the Suross can move at will, whenever they need to go.

Near the stream, I spot Charlotte just as I move to pass a final hut.

It’s set a little ways off from the others, well out of the path of the flames.

As I walk by, a noise catches my attention, something soft and low, like a whisper or moan.

Is someone else hurt? My steps hesitate, and I peer into the shadowed doorway.

Without warning, a hand latches on to my wrist, and I’m jerked into the shadows of the hut. It’s so fast and unexpected that I don’t make a sound—but then my instincts flare, and I fight .

When I swing a hand back, the man grunts, but he’s easily as big as Ky, and he wrenches my arm back so hard that I cry out. I inhale sharply to scream for the king and his soldiers, but cold steel finds my throat. The man clamps a hand over my mouth. I freeze.

Asher did this once before, and it was terrifying.

This time, it’s worse.

“Quiet,” says the man. “I’ve got you.” His accent is different from the king and his men. Is he part of the Suross? Or have I been caught by another Hunter?

My heart is in my throat, my thoughts narrowing down to nothing more than that blade. The man’s breath is against my cheek, and he smells like leather and soot. From the pressure at my back, it seems like he’s wearing armor, too.

I don’t want to whimper, but I do.

Did Charlotte see him grab me? What about Ky and his soldiers? Asher? A full minute ticks by, and I hear voices outside, but no one close. I pry at the man’s arm, but he’s too big, too strong. Another whimper squeaks out of my throat.

Is he waiting? Am I bait?

Am I leverage ?

Desperately, I try to sketch a sigil—but Ky is nowhere close, and nothing happens. The man redoubles his grip. He’s pinned my head back against his shoulder, so I can barely struggle. His hand is so tight over my mouth that I can’t even part my lips to bite him.

A cool wind rushes through my thoughts, and I think of the way I sparred with Ky. For a few minutes, I felt so strong, so powerful.

I’m not. I’m helpless.