None of us could find anything to say as we watched the end of the branch, waiting for it to reheat. Keane poked around a bit, looking for another one that would do the trick, but he had no luck. I had a feeling that despite his dislike of Ethan, and despite his tough-guy facade, Keane was going to have a hard time with this. At least with me, he hadn’t had to look me in the face while he was hurting me.
“I should do it,” I whispered, because this was all my bright idea in the first place. And because I was the one the Erlking was after.
“No,” Ethan and Keane answered in unison. They shared a glance that had none of their usual animosity.
“You’ve been through enough,” Ethan said. “Let someone else do the hard thing just this once.”
It felt like cowardice, letting Keane take all of this on his shoulders. I could tell by the haunted look in his eyes that this was bothering him way more than he was willing to say. But the boys were nothing if not stubborn, and they had both made up their minds.
I think watching Keane burn Ethan’s face was worse even than having my own mark destroyed. Ethan barely made a sound, but I almost screamed for him. And then to see that horrible burn on his face where the stag tattoo had once been …
“I’d rather have the burn than the mark,” Ethan said, noticing my stare. “And if it makes you feel any better, I think it worked. I can’t feel my connection to the Erlking anymore.”
“We can’t untie you,” Keane said, and I thought he was aiming his words more at me than at Ethan. “If this didn’t work, the Erlking would make you tell us it did so we’ll let down our guard.”
Ethan nodded grimly. “That’s true. You shouldn’t untie me, and you should always have someone on guard, if for no other reason than that we aren’t sure the marks will stay inactive. The Erlking’s magic is like nothing else I’ve ever seen, and it’s possible they’ll start working again when we heal.”
Oh, fabulous!
Logic told us that even if we had successfully destroyed the Erlking’s marks, he would still be making his way toward our last known location. Which meant we had to move. The pain in my burned shoulder made me want to curl up in a little ball and moan in misery, but we didn’t have time for that.
We did the best we could to rub out all traces of our camp, but I didn’t think it would fool anyone. Certainly not an immortal hunter like the Erlking.
After a long argument that we couldn’t afford, we decided to head for the road. It was unlikely people would be searching for us on the road in the dead of night, and we’d be able to move a lot faster—and leave a much less obvious trail—on the road than in the woods. Plus dragging around a guy whose hands were tied in the deepest dark of the woods was slowing us down way too much, and every time Ethan stumbled or fell, he left another link in the trail the Erlking would follow. Keane glared every time, no doubt suspecting that Ethan was doing it on purpose. Maybe he was, but if so, it meant the Erlking was still controlling him through the mark, in which case the Erlking knew where we were anyway.
Kimber’s sense of direction didn’t fail us, and we found the road within about fifteen minutes of breaking camp. We watched from the bushes for a while, but there was no sign of activity in either direction, so we left cover.
The road wasn’t exactly smooth, its surface pitted by hoof marks and the ruts left by wagon wheels, but it was a whole lot smoother than the woods. Smooth enough that we were able to travel at a slow jog, at least for a while. My workout sessions with Keane had given me pretty decent stamina, but there was only so long I could keep up with full-blooded Fae. Even Kimber in her cute wedge heels ran better than I did, and we eventually had to slow to a fast walk.
We stayed on the road for several hours, tense and jumpy and sure we would hear the thunder of hooves chasing us down at any moment, but no one except us was out and about at this time of night. Well before dawn, we ducked back into the woods. There was no way of knowing how far off those standing stones were, but the Green Lady said we’d probably find them sometime today, so we didn’t dare take a chance that we’d run right past the stream that would lead us to them.
Fighting our way through the underbrush was grueling work, and more than once, a stray branch poked at my burn and made me whimper in pain.
The sun was just beginning to rise when we heard the distinctive burble of water in the distance. We were lucky the day was quiet and still, or we might have missed it, because it was farther from the road than we’d imagined. Our hearts all rose at having successfully found the landmark, and our footsteps quickened as we began to follow the stream’s meandering course.
With my sense of direction, I had no idea when the stream’s course veered away from the road, but by the time the sun was high in the sky, Kimber informed us we were now traveling west, instead of continuing south like the road. Unfortunately, we had no clue how far we still had to go before we found the standing stones, and we were all terrified that we would somehow miss them. The Green Lady had told us the stream would lead us to them, but she hadn’t told us what to look for.
It turned out we needn’t have worried about missing them. After we’d been following the stream a few hours, it widened out until it was almost broad enough to call a river. A very rocky river, interrupted by frequent outcroppings and sandbars. It was on one of those sandbars that we found the standing stones.
This circle was much smaller than the one we’d traveled through with the prince’s caravan. There were six stones, each only about six feet high, and we would have to wade through the water to get to them. Luckily, the water didn’t look too deep, though the current was dangerously swift.
We stood on the banks of the stream and stared at those stones, our impossible escape route that now seemed possible. Home was so close …
And yet, we were still hours from nightfall, when the stones would be naturally active, and we didn’t dare let our most powerful magic user call magic.
“I can work them,” Ethan said quietly, and I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who was sorely tempted to take him up on it.
“Are you
Ethan didn’t answer, and we all knew what that meant.
“We can’t risk it,” Keane said. “Even if we were willing to risk letting you call magic—which I, for one, am not—you’d get us all killed if the spell failed.”
“I know that,” Ethan said irritably. “It just sucks to be this close to getting home and not be able to take that final step.”
“Yeah, it sucks, but that’s the way it is,” I said, though I felt as frustrated and anxious as Ethan did. “Let’s find somewhere to hole up for a few hours. Preferably somewhere out of sight of the stones. They aren’t exactly conveniently located, but that doesn’t mean we’re the only people who’d ever use them.”
No one found any flaws in my suggestion, so we wandered down the banks of the stream until we found a sheltered embankment where we could wait out the rest of the day. We were all exhausted, and determined to spend as many of the remaining hours of daylight sleeping as possible.
“I’ll take the first watch,” I told the others, though I had to stifle a yawn as I forced the words out. Tired as I was, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to sleep if I tried. Now that I was sitting down and not fighting my way through the brush, I was much more aware of the searing burn, and it might well be enough to keep me up. The thought that I might fall asleep and accidentally roll over onto that shoulder was enough to make me break out in a cold sweat.
Kimber and Keane shared a look I couldn’t interpret.
“I’ll stay up with you,” Kimber said.
I shook my head. “Get some rest. I promise I’m not going to fall asleep on duty or anything.”
There was another of those looks between Kimber and Keane, like they were communicating silently.
“That’s not what we’re worried about,” Kimber finally said.
I heaved a sigh of exasperation, because this evasion was so not what I was in the mood for. “Then what
“They’re worried about me,” Ethan answered for them. “If one of them is on watch and I start to call magic, they’ll feel it and be able to stop me. You won’t.”
