“Cora—” Stepping in, he reached out.
She backed away and held her hand out. “Don’t.”
Ronin shook his head again and closed the distance.
She ducked under his arm and struck out, jabbing at his solar plexes. Her fist slammed into his armour and pain shot down her arm.
Goddammit. She marched back toward their bags, shaking her hand.
“Cora!”
“It’s time to light the signal,” she growled over her shoulder. It was time to focus on surviving instead of ripping off bandages from old wounds.
20
“You can have data without information, but you cannot have information without data.”
Daniel Keys Moran
The night wind wound around the old trunks and teased Cora’s hair. Her mind drifted as she stared into the forest and waited for Ava to arrive. Her mother’s screams echoed in her memory. She struggled to remember Mom’s face, but she could always recall the fear in her voice when she told Cora to run, and how she’d clutched her dagger and turned away from Cora to face the humans.
It happened nine years ago. Cora had turned sixteen a few days before the humans ambushed them. She’d raced through the house with Mother to find a way out, a window or balcony they could launch from to fly away. The nearest accessible window was on the second floor but had bars across it. Meant for protection, those same bars acted as a prison instead. Cora had fumbled with the key. She’d nearly dropped it. When she finally swung the iron barred gate away from the window, it was too late for her mother. It had almost been too late for her as well.
Cora raised her hand to the scar running down her face. If only she’d been faster. If only she hadn’t hesitated or fumbled.
Branches snapped and cracked on the path. Cora squeezed her eyes shut for a brief moment, willing her eyes to stop stinging and for the hollow feeling in her chest to go away.
Ronin studied her from a few feet away, his hand drifting to his sword hilt. They’d removed their bandages and Ronin’s splint, forcing their wings into the folded position. Ava might not be an enemy, but she wasn’t exactly a friend, either. Cora didn’t know what Ava would do with the information if she found out about their injuries.
“What are you doing?” she hissed.
“You said she’d come alone.”
“She is alone.”
Ronin frowned and turned toward the path, flinching at each crunching step. “Doesn’t sound like it.”
Cora’s mouth twitched. Ava’s graceful nighttime forest walks hadn’t improved. Cora wouldn’t have it any other way. The loud stomping allowed her to locate her human contact at every point of her way up the path.
Ava panted through the forest and made it over the final steps. She leaned over and rested her hands on her knees. “Have I told you how much I hate this meeting place?”
“Only every time we meet.”
Ava wheezed out a laugh and straightened. Her attention snagged on Ronin. Her whole body tensed, but her gaze continued moving, raking over his body.
“Hello, handsome.” Ava relaxed with the fluidity of a woman who wanted to do naughty things with someone else.
Cora squashed the urge to grab Ronin or verbally warn Ava away. Completely irrational. Cora had no claim to Ronin, nor did she want one. Instead, she swallowed and forced her expression to remain neutral.
Ava’s eyebrows shot up into her hairline before she turned to Cora. “With men looking like this.” She waved her hand at Ronin as if he couldn’t hear or see her. “Why would you ever leave to come here?”
Ronin grunted and somehow straightened more. Did he just push his chest out a little? Dear lord, his ego was big enough.
Cora snorted. “Trust me, if you knew this one, you’d want to get away, too.”
Ava grinned but didn’t take her gaze off Ronin. “Do you have a message for me?”
Cora slipped the sealed message Ronin had written earlier from her pocket and held it out. Ava plucked the folded paper from her hand, read the label, and frowned. “The Eyrie?”
Cora nodded. “Via the Waystation Access Point.”
“The Wap?” Ava’s frown deepened. “Why don’t you take it back yourself?”
Cora resisted the urge to flutter her damaged wings. They had the lack of light and Ava’s poor eyesight on their side, but if she started asking questions and studied them closer, she’d figure it out.
“Time,” Cora said.
Ava’s lip curled. “You don’t have time? Are you staying in Iom for a bit?”
“It has something to do with timing.” She shrugged. “I don’t know the contents or the motivations of the sender. I was equally confused. My guess is they want the message to arrive delayed and to appear to have come from Iom.”
Ava’s shoulders relaxed, she pocketed the message and withdrew another one. This one had a black seal Cora had seen before. Most of the messages she’d returned to the Eyrie lately had the same markings.
“Your timing is impeccable.” Ava held out the message. “I have one for you, too.”
Cora took the message and slid the sealed paper into one of her pockets. If she refused to take it, Ava would wonder why.
Ava folded her arms and waited.
Cora copied the motion.
“Well?”
“Well, what?” Cora asked.
“Aren’t you going to show off and leap from the cliff, now?”
Cora smiled, hoping it covered her unease. She normally left first. Showing up with Ronin already broke her habits. Ava couldn’t become suspicious or her questions might place Cora and Ronin in even more danger.
Ronin stepped in close and draped a lazy arm over her shoulders. Pain shot through her wing. This couldn’t be comfortable for Ronin either. Cora shifted a little to ease the pressure, leaning into Ronin’s body. Her vest opened and the silver butt of her newly acquired dagger popped out.
Ava’s gaze dropped down.
“We thought we’d change things up. There’s been a lot of hunters along the coast lately.” He glanced at Cora. The heat in his gaze nearly knocked her breath away. It said he wanted to see her naked and sent all sorts of ideas racing through her mind. His gaze also left little doubt to any onlooker what his intentions were.
Great.
Now Cora’s credibility as a top-notch messenger would be forever tainted. She was that girl who brought her boyfriend along on missions to bang.
Ugh.
Should she be worried about her professionalism right now? Though important, living through this botched mission held the highest priority.
Double ugh.
Cora leaned in and use the motion to readjust her vest and hide the dagger hilt.
Ava hooted with laughter. “Well, I’ll leave you love birds alone to change things up.” The humour fled from her face. “Just…just be careful, okay? We’ve had two hunting parties go missing. There have been rumours of a beast tearing travellers apart between here and Milling.”
The unicorn.
Both the hunting parties hailed from Alara. Ava undoubtedly knew them.
Cora shouldn’t ask. Don’t ask. “Were you close to any of them?”
Why did she ask?
Ava looked down at her hands. “My fiancé was in one of the parties.”
Cora’s stomach sunk. Which one? The unicorn party or the one Ronin and Cora had taken out after they shot her from the sky?
“It was an arranged marriage. He was older and cruel, but my family counted on the union.”
“Are you okay?”
Ava stopped twisting her fingers together and met Cora’s gaze with her own. “I don’t know, yet. I don’t know what to feel.” She attempted a smile, but it was more of a grimace. “I’ll leave you guys, now.”
They waited until Ava’s thrashing through the forest grew distant before picking their own way through the trees on the path leading south. Though Cora knew she shouldn’t feel guilty for the hunters’ death, it still ate at her gut alon
gside the unease over the journey ahead.
Ronin turned to Cora, his mouth twisted down. “Do you trust her?”
“Of course not. She’s human.”
Ronin cocked his head. “You seemed friendly.”
“Friendly and friends are two different things. Despite what you might think, I’m not an asshole. I like Ava. I think she tolerates me for the sake of our business transactions and the fishing tips I give her. If she had to choose between sheltering me and helping her people, though, I would be plucked and strung up in the town square in a heartbeat.”
The moon shone from above, dappling leaves and the underbrush with its silvery glitter, but true darkness waited in the shadows.
“They’re not all bad,” Ronin said.
“I didn’t say they were. But it’s dangerous to forget where a person’s allegiance lies, and I’ll never forget what they did to my mother. Nor should you. If it makes you feel better, I also trust very few sapavians.”
His eyebrows shot up, the question clearly playing with his mind and teasing his tongue. She would answer him truthfully and he wouldn’t like what she had to say.
Don’t ask.
Ronin jerked his chin toward her pocket. “What’s the message?”
Cora shrugged.
“Really? I’m the heir of the Eyrie. Open it.”
She shook her head. “It’s not for you. I’ll deliver it to the intended recipient when we return.”
“You’re not going to read it?” His eyebrows rose.
That’s right. Not even for you. She folded her arms. “I’m a professional messenger. I take my job seriously. I don’t snoop and read other people’s messages.”
“Fine.” He paused walking long enough to hold up his hands in mock defence. He could order her to open the message, technically, but he had to have reason for such an invasive action. An important reason. Not just curiosity. “She saw your dagger’s hilt.”
“You caught that, too?”
He nodded.
They turned in unison and made their way down the other trail. They’d place the splint back on Ronin’s wing once they made it far enough away. With any luck, if Ava raised an alarm, they’d assume Cora and Ronin flew away from the meeting place. Ava was perceptive. She picked up cues and kept a poker face, but the night was dim, and they’d kept their movements minimal. Hopefully, the human hadn’t deduced their injuries.
Hopefully.
A lot of their plans hinged on that concept. A word and feeling Cora had no time or patience for.
“I can hear your mind clanking over there. Can you think quieter? We’re trying for stealth,” Ronin whispered the last word and theatrically tip-toed over exposed tree roots.
Would it be too much to ask for him to trip right now?
“Oh, no. Not the snarl.” He resumed walking and heavy silence settled between them.
She wanted to curse him, but any anger she possessed this morning had drained away. She didn’t have the energy to be snarky right now. She just wanted a soft bed and a full night’s sleep. Proper food. She’d get neither. They needed to make it to one of Cora’s hideaways. There was one prepped just south of the town and it would take all night and all her patience to get there.
21
“I have found out that there ain’t no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them.”
Mark Twain
“If you ask me if we’re almost there one more time, I’m going to break your other wing,” Cora growled.
“Harsh.” Ronin’s wings tensed as if they had a mind of their own and didn’t appreciate her threat.
At least some part of her companion realized her words weren’t completely idle. She was hot, hungry, thirsty, tired, and injured. She didn’t even care for a soft bed now. She just wanted to flop down somewhere, close her eyes and pretend none of her problems existed. The moss on the side of the road looked really good right now.
“How much longer?” Ronin asked.
She glared, not appreciating his new wording to ask the exact same thing. “Seven hours.”
“But you said seven hours last time I asked,” he gruffed. “And the time before that.”
My, my, my, the prince’s tone bordered on a whine. “And it will remain seven hours until it is not.”
“I’ve been tramping through the forest and on this road all night,” Ronin growled. “We’re out of food and we’re out of time. The sun is rising, and travellers will be out soon. We need to get off the road.”
“We will,” she said.
“Soon.”
“We will.”
He glowered.
“While very impressive, your brooding looks will not make this process any faster. It will only serve to irritate me further. By all means, keep pushing. You might like to remember I’m your best chance for survival and getting home alive.”
“And you might want to remember I’m the future king of the Eyrie. You’re my subject and if I don’t make it back alive, neither will you.”
They stopped and glared at one another. A fly buzzed around her ear and she swatted at it without breaking eye contact.
Ronin grunted and turned back to the road. “And I don’t brood.”
“You do, too.” She focused on placing one weary step in front of the other. The roar of a nearby waterfall urged her forward. “Do you remember Gabriel?”
“He’s the captain of my personal guard.” Ronin kicked a rock and scowled. “Of course, I do.”
“Okay, well, look what happened at the aerial trials.”
Ronin’s lip curled up to show his teeth. “What about them?”
“You were so angry he scored better than you in the final event, you stood to the side, folded your arms and glowered at anyone who dared to come near.”
“I did no such thing. I am the paragon of diplomatic poise.”
Cora bit back a laugh. “My father sent me to check whether some mage infiltrated the Eyrie to create a storm cloud just for you.”
“You’re making this up.”
“The last part, yes. But I still had to check to see if you were poisoned or under someone’s control.”
Ronin scowled.
“You wouldn’t talk to Gabriel for a month. He was your best friend,” she said.
“I’m the crown prince of the Eyrie. Second best isn’t an option. I didn’t talk to anyone during that month. My priorities changed. I focused on training so I would perform better. Gabriel beating me was a wake-up call.”
Cora tried to hide her smile and failed. “So, you made Gabriel your captain?”
“Of course. If I can’t be the best, I need to surround myself with the best.”
“I’m surprised he let you out on your own.”
“He didn’t know.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “He’s the captain of your personal guard. How does he not know about this trip?”
“Caleb got injured on the last salmon run, so I gave Gabriel time off. Besides, no one knew. We kept my trip top secret. Only my family and yours know about this mission.”
They followed the curve of the road, the trees to their left thinned out to reveal the ocean while the path led to a wood bridge spanning a chasm. A swift flowing river rushed under the bridge, spraying out into a spectacular waterfall to the raging ocean over a hundred feet below. The Edge of Iom.
This section of the mainland ended in a sheer cliff drop off and was a welcome sight after a long night of walking.
“Gabriel and Caleb?” Cora picked up her pace. “I always thought Gabriel had a thing for Jerome.”
“Oh, he did.” Ronin grimaced. “That ended.”
“Ended how?”
“Spectacularly.”
Huh. She hadn’t heard a thing about the relationship. Then again, she’d distanced herself from the royal court as much as possible after they made it clear she was unwelcome. “I never liked Jerome, anyway.”
“I remember.”
And he would
. Jerome called her an ugly turkey when they were in school because she didn’t agree with him. Ronin had overheard and ended up coming to her defence, punching Jerome below the belt. That pretty much sealed the deal on her childhood crush—as far as adolescent Coraline Cormorant was concerned, the heir of the Eyrie could do no wrong and the sun rose and fell on his shiny perfect hair and beautiful face.
Whooo boy.
She had it bad.
“You’d left for training on Ostei.” Ronin interrupted her walk down memory lane. “I’m sure you would’ve heard about Gabriel and Jerome otherwise.”
Cora almost stopped walking. Sheer adrenaline and the knowledge that if she stopped now, she wouldn’t start again kept her going. Exactly how close did Ronin keep tabs on her? The training she’d left for on Ostei, the first of the Wayfair Stations, was over five years ago. He acted so indifferent yet kept track of her movements around the Eyrie. Or did he track all of Father’s messengers?
“Are we—” he started.
She held her hand up. “Don’t.”
He snapped his mouth shut.
“We’re here.”
Ronin’s frown was almost comical. Whose brain clanked around now, huh?
“Cora?”
“Yes, Your Majesty?”
He faltered and scowled. “There’s nothing here except a cliff, a waterfall and a bridge.”
“That’s what you and every human sees from the road.” Cora walked off the path to the cliff’s edge. The early morning sun broke across the horizon and cascaded Cora in golden light. She brushed aside the bushes that thrived in the sea air and nutrient poor soil.
“Those stone berries aren’t going to tide us over for long,” Ronin growled, his voice devoid of any patience.
“You sound nervous.” She glanced at him over her shoulder. “Does His Majesty fear for his life?”
“That’s not my proper title and you know it.”
She ignored him and gripped the two bars embedded into the rock. His scowl brought a smile to her lips. She pushed off the rock and swung in the air over the side of the cliff.
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