face and groans.
“She’s a woman. Of course she does.” Reece grabs the sword we took from one of the dead soldiers outside the gates. “I’m going after her.”
Halim crosses the room, stands in front of Reece, and pulls out a heavy-handled knife. “If you’re going, I’m going with you.”
Reece looks around the room accusingly. “Where’d he get another knife?”
Halim snorts and tucks it back from where he pulled it. “I’m not dumb enough to only carry one.”
A heavy sigh escapes Reece and he puts a hand on the boy’s head. “You’re staying here with Wyatt.”
That babysitter announcement gets Wyatt’s full attention. “Dude! You can’t expect—”
“You’re staying here,” Reece says, making it clear he won’t tolerate an argument. “You have a job to do.”
“You’re more important.” The break in Wyatt’s voice reminds me he only recently found Reece, and it’s obvious he’s not yet willing to let his brother go and maybe lose him again.
Reece turns Halim around and pushes him back toward the table. “I’m one guy, Wyatt. You have the opportunity to protect hundreds of thousands and make a real difference.”
Wyatt’s not ready to let it go. “You can’t go alone. You need backup.”
I have no problem stepping forward. “I’ll be his backup. I’m done staying put.” I’ve given Leo as much time as I’m willing to give.
“You can’t, cross.”
“And for all we know, Signe can’t either. But if she’s right, I want to be there.” Maybe there’s something I can do. There’s got to be.
Wyatt shoves all the other maps away and slaps down the map of Teag that shows where the enemy has retreated to. We have to go around a huge contingent, but Halim shows us one of his shortcuts, and if we’re quick and quiet enough, we should be able to sneak by.
Hadrain clears his throat. “Faldon mentioned you now have his power. Whenever he needed me, he would send up a fireball.” He moves his finger from the manor house to the bridge. “It’s far, but send it out at the right angle and we should see it.” We all stare at one another. We’re as prepared as we can be.
Reece and I resupply the bags Signe gave us at the caves and secure them over our shoulders. Under heavy guard, we make our way to the gates. Once outside the fortified walls, Reece and I find the bodies are being cleared, mostly burned after they’re stripped of anything valuable. The smell of death has me choking. Reece grabs a couple rags from somewhere and hands me one, and we tie them across our faces.
I see two men toss another body onto one of the huge funeral pyres, and I wince as the flames lick at the dead man’s flesh. The sight of so many bodies being reduced to ash is disturbing. “Burning them in the open like this seems wrong.”
“People dying for no reason is wrong, and from what Signe has told me, most of these men didn’t have a choice. Their leaders ordered their deaths. How I see it, letting good men rot in the open is worse.”
I still don’t understand why the
Reece stares at me, his eyes narrowing against the billow of smoke and ash. “Sounds like you’ve been hanging around Wyatt too much, but I don’t disagree.”
We run through the area and into the forest. When we’re far enough away from the funeral pyres, I take off my makeshift mask and stuff it into my pocket. All around us, there isn’t a patch of earth that isn’t charred, trampled, or ripped up.
Reece rips his off and breaks out in a sweat. “What was she thinking going off by herself?”
“I don’t think she did. Did you see Bodog?”
“No.” He sighs. “I don’t know if I’m glad about that or more worried.”
“He’s probably taken her underground, which is a lot safer than what we’re doing.”
Reece seems to chew on that as he stows his mask, though his body is still taut and ready for a fight.
There’s nothing we can do but keep moving and hope we find Signe before anyone else does. We travel deeper into the forest, and it’s not long before we hear the enemy. We aren’t even a mile from the manor and its defenses, and by the size of the encampment, you wouldn’t know they took heavy losses.
“If we take Halim’s shortcut and shoot over there,” I point toward the right where the woods grow thicker, “they shouldn’t know we’re even here.”
We take Halim’s shortcut, and almost make it completely around the enemy camp when we hear a loud, definite snap like twigs breaking under a foot. We slow and I make a full turn, unable to determine from which direction the sound came.
Reece stops next to me. “I don’t see anything. It could’ve been an animal.”
He barely gets the words out when a succession of arrows fly toward us. We hit the ground. When the area clears, I look at Reece, who’s got an arrow sticking out of his shoulder. With a throaty growl, he yanks it free and tosses it into the bushes.
“You okay?” I ask, amazed at how calmly he’s acting.
He pulls his hand away from his shoulder, where a hole the size of a nickel seeps blood. “I’m not dead. Well…not yet.”
I motion him my way, and as we zigzag through the woods, we hear footsteps behind us. We dive behind a cluster of trees and Reece winces. “I think it’s safe to say we’re not as clever as we thought.”
Heat builds in my bones, and I step out, sending fireballs into the men following us. I blast a huge tree and it explodes, sending chips of wood in every direction and fire into the air. I dive back behind the trees and hunker down next to Reece as arrows zip past. He looks from me to my hands. “Do your grandparents know you can do that?”
“Sort of, now hold on.” I grab him and send us up into the trees for cover. Arrows follow us. I hear the enemy calling to one another as they run toward the disaster I’ve caused. We have to leave before they organize themselves.
“Trust me?” I ask Reece.
He winces and nods past the pain. His shoulder is bleeding profusely, and it wouldn’t surprise me if it gets infected.
“Relax and let me do all the work.” The limb we’re situated on inches back, and when there’s enough tension, we shoot forward to the next tree. We land and are pitched immediately to the next tree and the next and the next.
At a safe distance, we drop back to the ground. Reece catches his breath, and all the color drains from his face. I’m not sure he knows he’s collapsed and is rocking back and forth as he holds his shoulder. Blood seeps past his fingers and stains the left side of his T-shirt a deep red.
“Dude.” I kneel in front of him and help him lie back. His eyes are glazed with pain and his breathing is shallow. “This is bad. I can help, but it’s not going to be pleasant.”
He grunts, closes his eyes, and stretches his T-shirt over his shoulder to expose the wound. I take that as an okay. The hole is ragged, sliced deeply into his muscle. I position myself in a way that braces my legs and weight on his body to keep him still. Then, just like I etched my name in the swing on grandma’s porch, I slowly run my finger along the wound, searing it as best I can.
The smell of burning flesh and blood permeates the air. Reece stiffens. His eyes roll back in his head. For a split second, I think he’s going to pass out. I pull away and he lets out a low deep growl.
I tear off his sleeve and make a rough bandage out of the stretchy cloth. “Can you keep going?”
“Yes.”
His short answer tells me two things. He’s tough and he’s determined. I pull him to his feet and we take off. Everywhere we turn there is some form of destruction. Fallen trees, razed homes, scorched fields.
Jason’s been busy acting out his dysfunctional issues.
When we finally approach the bridge, the area is crawling with soldiers.
I pull Reece down and he sags against a tree, his head in his hands. “Should have seen this coming, but I