by W. J. May
“There have been a few...” she answered coyly.
That produced a reaction. He might have been trying to distract her before, but it was clear from his sudden shift in tone that he was far more interested in the conversation than he’d let on.
“Oh, really.” For a moment, she was half-convinced he was going to double back and join her, if only to interrogate her more thoroughly. “Do tell.”
She bit down on her lip with a smile, cautiously navigating a dangerous foothold. “Let me give you a lesson in manners, Dylan Aires: a lady never tells.”
There was a moment of silence. One in which both parties silently wondered what to say.
“Yeah...tell me anyway.”
Katerina couldn’t help but laugh. Direct as always. A man as straightforward and candid as Dylan would never make it in a royal court.
“Well, first there was Henry, the Duke of Allouve.”
“...sounds like a prick.”
“Then there was Alexi, Crown Prince of the Northern Realm.”
“...I always thought he was a woman.”
“But the one who was most persistent would have to be Matthew Lansbury, a knight in my father’s kingdom. We grew up together.”
“Lansbury...” There was a thoughtful pause as Dylan tried to place the name. “You mean from Esterworth Castle? Carl Lansbury’s son?”
For the fourth time, Katerina glanced down. This time with a bit of a frown.
“How did you know that?”
There was an infinitesimal pause before that abrasive wall came back up.
“I’m not a peasant, you know. Some of us make it a point to keep up with the ins and outs of the monarchy. Especially when they’re usually the people trying to kill us...”
Nice try. But you’re not throwing me off that easily.
“I’m serious,” she insisted. “How would you know that?”
“Why would you want to date his son—that’s the real question.”
“Who said I did? I said he’s been persistent, that’s all.” By now, she had stopped and was staring down at him with a glare. He was staring right back up, just as defiant. “And just for the record, you’ve been persistent, too.”
His eyebrows lifted slowly, with a self-assuredness she couldn’t believe.
“You think this is persistent, what I’ve been doing? You think I’ve been giving this my all?”
Despite her precarious situation, she kept her cool. A feat she probably wouldn’t have been able to do before she left the castle. “I think you keep kissing me with no provocation, then shifting into a dog and refusing to talk about it.”
“...a wolf.”
“Whatever.”
He took a second to collect himself, ignoring the fact that he was dangling fifty feet above the ground, his lips twisted up into an arrogant smirk. “Honey, when I get persistent...IF I get persistent...you’ll be the first to know.”
A rush of blood heated her cheeks, but she kept her expression perfectly neutral. “Why does that sound like a threat?”
He laughed shortly, turning back to the rocks. “Because over half the people in this kingdom want to kill you right now. My guess is that everything sounds like a threat.”
Why, that little—
“Do you really have to do that?!” she demanded furiously, lowering herself down another foot and wedging her foot into the slick granite. “Do you really have to say it like that?”
He looked up in surprise, accustomed only to a rougher kind of play. “Like what?”
“Oh, for bloody sake, Dylan!” She finally lost her temper, kicking a handful of loose pebbles down at his face. “I’m clinging to the side of a cliff, like some arthritic mountain goat who got severely lost, and you try to cheer me up by saying—”
“I’m not trying to cheer you up,” he interrupted fiercely, blinking bits of stone and dust from his eyes. “It’s not my job to cheer you up. It’s my job to keep you safe, and to tell you the truth. Two things that have been severely lacking in your life as of late.”
“Oh, that’s great. Make fun of me.” She rolled her eyes, trying her best to secure a foothold that was a few inches beyond her reach. “The royal army turned against me—ha, ha, ha. My brother sent his giant dogs into the woods to kill me—ha, ha, ha!”
Dylan was unamused by her banter, and he kept his attention focused only on her hands. “Don’t try to stretch for that; find something closer.”
It went in one ear and out the other. She reached her arm precariously across the rock. “You want to know something? At least Kailas is upfront about it,” she continued, thinking about it for the first time. “He wants the throne, so he has to kill me. It’s pretty straightforward.”
“Kat, I’m serious—”
“Unlike you,” she was almost there now, her fingers gripping against the wet stone, “the truth-telling ranger who’s actually lied to me consistently since the moment we met—”
It happened before she realized it. Before she even had time to gasp. One second, she was holding onto the cliff like the others. The next, she was falling through the air.
The last thing she saw was the sky streaking out in front of her. A golden sunset stained with burnt crimson. Like blood dripping over a crown. The last sunset she’d ever see.
Chapter 8
It’s funny, the things that come back to you in the end.
As she was falling, Katerina had a sudden memory of her first horse. A stallion so tall she’d had to walk up a stack of portable steps just to get on top of him. A second later, the face of her old piano teacher flashed before her eyes. A kind woman who’d slipped her secret sweets and candies whenever her governess wasn’t looking. Then it was her mother.
This one was harder. No matter how many times she tried to picture the queen’s exquisite face, she could never make it clear. She had a thousand memories, of course, but they tended to focus on a particular smell, a fleeting touch. The woman herself was always blurred.
But not today. Today, Katerina saw her in perfect clarity.
Fiery red hair. Stunning grey eyes. And a flawless, ivory-skinned face. A face that seemed destined to wear a crown. A face that looked remarkably like her own.
Funny, how those things come back to you. A moment before you’ll never see them again.
“KAT!”
Her arms came up in slow motion. Her eyes fluttered shut. For a moment, all she felt was the wind in her hair and the cold chill of the mountain as she plummeted into the mist.
Then a hand caught her by the wrist. Snapping the bone in half.
A scream that was equal parts shock and pain ripped through her teeth as her body swung suddenly through the air, crashing into the jagged rocks once again. There was a moment where everything was lost to disorientation, and by the time she opened her eyes a strong arm had wrapped around her waist. Dylan was pinning her body to the mountain, using nothing but his own.
“Are you all right?!” he gasped, still reeling from the sight of it. “Katerina, are you all right?!”
She blinked a few times, very slowly. Her breath billowed out in a frosty cloud, and without thinking about it she pressed her forehead painfully against the rough stone.
“Honey, talk to me! Tell me that you’re all right!”
She could feel his heart pounding through his shirt. His arms were shaking from the stress of the climb and the weight of holding them both, but she didn’t worry for a second that she would fall. That fear was over. He had her now. She was safe.
“I’m all right,” she whispered. He called me honey again.
“Say it again,” he demanded. A part of him was dying to look her over and see for himself, but he was unable to move even an inch lest they both fall. “Kat, say it again. Convince me.”
She wanted to reassure him. She really did. But she was in a daze. With her mother’s face still twinkling before her eyes she twisted her head against the rock, staring at him in wonder. “You...you saved my life.”
“You saved my life,” she said again, trying to reaffirm it to herself. He didn’t respond. He simply clung onto her in shock. Trying to slow things down. Trying to catch his breath. “Again.”
For a moment, all was silent. Then a tentative voice echoed up from the abyss.
“Actually...not so much.”
For the second time, Katerina stifled a little shriek. Dylan’s arm tightened around her in alarm before the two of them twisted around, staring, dumbstruck, at the ground below.
With an almost comedic synchronicity, Cassiel and Tanya lifted their hands in an apologetic wave. The evening breeze was blowing the mist away, and it was suddenly easy to see that they were within easy jumping distance of the ground. Dangling off the cliff just a few feet above their friends’ heads. Friends who were doing their very best not to smile.
Dylan’s entire body wilted with a quiet curse as he pressed his face into the stone. “You’ve got to be bloody kidding me...”
“What was that?” Cassiel called cheerfully. His composure had lasted all of two seconds, and now he was grinning ear to ear. “It’s crazy that I couldn’t hear you, because you’re actually really close to the ground.”
Without another word, Dylan released his vise-like grip on Katerina. She landed lightly upon the forest floor, clutching her wrist and flushing seven shades of scarlet. Dylan landed beside her a second later, wearing a vicious scowl and refusing to look anyone in the eye.
“Not a word,” he growled, knocking the fae hard in the shoulder as he swept past him into the trees. “Not a single word.”
“Oh, I’d say the chances of that are pretty slim.”
As for Tanya, it was taking everything she had not to recreate the epic moment right there on the spot. Only her broken leg kept her temporarily grounded. That, and the dark look of warning Katerina gave her the second she opened her mouth. In the end, she merely gestured to the trail.
“Well...shall we find somewhere to make camp?”
No one answered her. They all simply filed, one by one, into the forest. Some smiling, some glowering into the trees. Not one of them sparing a second glance at the mountain peak. Not one of them taking a single moment to acknowledge how much they’d risked, and how far they’d come.
Not that any of us is likely to forget...
Katerina lingered at the rear of the pack, stepping lightly over the blanket of pine needles and clutching discreetly at her fractured wrist. She hadn’t even felt it in the moment. It hadn’t been until the mist cleared and they’d landed that the stabbing pain broke through into reality.
It throbbed and ached as they wound their way through the emerald trees. The others might be used to such pain and such spectacle, but both were brand new for Katerina. Truth be told, she found herself a little overwhelmed. Sometimes staring up at the sun-streaked canopy, listening to the recurrent chorus of a thousand invisible birds. Sometimes marveling that she was even able to walk straight when one of her bones was cracked straight through the center. For a moment, she almost found herself wishing that her brother was there to see it for himself.
He’d always been the warrior, riding out into the sunrise, while she’d always been soft. The perfect little princess who stayed behind at the castle, sipping sparkling wine and sitting on silk cushions with her ladies. If only he could see her now. He wouldn’t believe his eyes.
Then a twig snapped somewhere in the distance and she scurried back to the group.
No...I’m very glad Kailas CANNOT see me right now.
“How’s the wrist?”
She glanced up in surprise to see Dylan standing right before her. Whether he’d abandoned his place in the front because he heard the noise as well, or if he’d simply been waiting for a chance to speak with her in private, she didn’t know. As it stood, he was having trouble meeting her eyes.
“It’s fine,” she said quickly, stuffing it back into her sleeve and fighting the wince of pain that followed. “Just a little sore. No big deal.”
He stared at her for a moment, delicately reaching for her hand. She immediately offered out the uninjured one and his lips twitched up with a faint grin as he reached for the other.
That grin was quick to fade.
“I’m sorry.” He ran his fingers delicately over the skin as a look of true remorse clouded his handsome face. It was broken, all right. She could tell from the look in his eyes. “I thought we were so much higher...I never would have—”
“Would you stop?!” Katerina exclaimed. The words were a bit louder than she’d anticipated and the others stopped in their tracks, turning around curiously to listen in. “There was no way that you could have known, and that couldn’t matter less! You risked everything to catch me! To save me!”
Tanya bit her lip with a mischievous grin. “From a deadly, ten-foot drop—”
“Shut up, Tanya!”
It would be a long time before Katerina was able to see the humor in the situation. And until such a time, she certainly wasn’t going to let the others tease Dylan for a selfless act of sacrifice that most surely would have saved her life. Not if she could help it.
“I’m only agreeing with you,” the shifter replied innocently.
“Well, stop.” The dainty princess mimicked a hand gesture she’d seen the men make a hundred times, then twirled her fingers and pointed the others back to the path. “Dylan saved me, and that’s the end of it. Now, let’s find a place to make camp.”
The others shared a quick grin as Dylan turned swiftly on his heel—eager to put as much distance between himself and the others as was humanly possible.
“I didn’t do anything,” he muttered as he headed off into the trees.
“Hey, that’s not true,” Cassiel called after him kindly. “You broke her wrist.”
NEEDLESS TO SAY, BY the time the sun had set and the need to find shelter for the night had become desperate the collective mood had not improved. Tanya and Cassiel were still silently delighting in what had to have looked like the most anti-climactic ‘rescue’ in the history of the world, Dylan was still mortified and appalled to have done it, and Katerina was still nursing her hurt wrist.
To make matters worse, it started to rain...
“Well, that’s just perfect,” Tanya narrated in a loud, pitiful voice. “They survived the harrowing climb down the peak, only to drown in a monsoon shortly to follow.”
“It came out of nowhere,” Cassiel said softly, gazing out with a slight frown at the torrential downpour soaking the forest. “There wasn’t a cloud in the sky.”
“As far as luck goes, you have to admit that it’s consistent,” Katerina said helpfully.
Dylan shot her a reluctant grin before handing his blade to Cassiel and lifting himself effortlessly up the trunk of the nearest tree. He vanished for a moment, using the higher vantage point to scan the surrounding area, jumping back down with a plan.
“There’s a small outcropping of rocks just half a mile east. Looks like they might provide a little shelter. Everything else around here is just trees.”
“Sounds good to me,” Katerina said with a shiver. At this point, anything that wasn’t just ‘standing out in the rain’ sounded good to her. Already, it had soaked through her clothes and was trickling in freezing little rivulets down her spine. The others concurred.
They picked up speed and reached the rocks in only a few minutes. Dylan was right. They curved in such a way as to provide a bit of shelter for those gathered underneath. The only problem was, they weren’t the only ones to have gathered.
At least ten other people were huddled beneath the giant stone seeking shelter from the rain. And ‘people’ was using the ter
m rather loosely. Even from a distance, Katerina was able to see the telltale ears of a woodland sprite, as well as the sallow complexion of a rain-drenched vampire.
Great...more vampires. And I’m the only one not covered in some degree with blood.
The group pulled up short the second they saw the others, pausing with the caution of those who had the entire might of the royal army on their trail. For a minute, they all silently debated leaving. Then a flash of lightning shot through the sky, and they decided to take their chances.
With Dylan and Cassiel in the front they elbowed their way quickly to the back of the huddled masses, taking shelter in the back of the cave. They were clustered closely but casually, with one hand always at the ready. But Katerina wasn’t worried. Their standoffish position alone was meant to dissuade any well-meaning introductions.
Of course, that always seemed to work better in theory...
“Ben Gold.” A jovial man stuck his hand right under Dylan’s nose the second the four of them had claimed space beside the others. “Pleasure to meet you. Despite this awful rain.”
There was a slight pause, then Dylan accepted carefully. Instinctively wary of such an outgoing personality. “Riley O’Keathe, and these are my friends. And yeah,” he glanced up at the roiling clouds, “it’s a little intense. Came out of nowhere.”
When the man followed his gaze, he leaned in for a casual sniff. So quick and discreet that no one else realized he’d done it. Katerina watched closely as his face relaxed: the possible threat was immediately downgraded. No, the man wasn’t a shifter. No, he wasn’t secretly armed with royal military supplies. Yes, there was a chance that he was exactly what he seemed.
A soggy old man. Taking shelter from the rain.
“Where are you from?” Dylan asked politely, shifting a little so the side of his face that had been torn up by the avalanche was hidden in shadows. “Is there a village nearby?”
Katerina fought back a grin. Of course, Dylan wasn’t just being polite. Of course, he’d take advantage of every new introduction just to get the lay of the land. Always strategizing, that one.