Rose shook her head. “No, I won’t.”
Jeb tossed her the mask and went into the back of Buck’s stall and pulled out her bag.
“That would have been more convenient if I had found that ten minutes ago,” she mused.
“My sister was a mage,” he said, handing it to her.
“Was?” Rose checked and saw that her sword, dagger and her armor were just as she left it.
“The coven master before this one was a power-hungry idiot.”
“Aren’t they all?” Rose twirled her finger in the air. “Turn around. I’m going to change into my outfit.”
Jeb showed her his back. “Don’t try anything funny or I’ll bash you on the head and dump you in a pile of manure.”
Rose glowered at him, but took him at his word. She didn’t doubt he would do it and she didn’t want to risk casting more spells to get around him. “What happened to her?”
His shoulders slumped. “They tried to summon a guardian.”
Wincing, Rose slipped off the nurse’s clothes. A guardian summoning was an ambitious spell. It took years of practice with a powerful coven. A lot of mages died if the spell power backfired. “I’m sorry,” she said.
“She didn’t like being a mage. She wanted to join the militia. Megan was a crack shot.” Jeb shook his head. “But she had an affinity to plants. So, they assigned her to the coven’s gardens, instead. She hated it.”
Tugging on her black leather pants, Rose frowned. They wouldn’t have put a gardener into the coven summoning circle. Megan would have had enough magic to grow flowers, but that wouldn’t have been enough to do ritual work.
“The guardian summoning went poorly and unleashed a backlash of power throughout the coven. The blast wave killed her. She was kneeling in the dirt, digging up a potato.” Jeb’s fists clenched. “Megan, who could put a dagger in a bullseye from twenty feet away, died on her knees.” He sniffed. “At least, she never knew what hit her. The medics said she was dead before she hit the ground.”
“I’m sorry.” Rose finished tugging on her boots. “Then you understand why I’m doing this.”
Jeb nodded. “I do. I understand your brother worrying about you as well.” He glanced over his shoulder when he heard her buckling on her sword belt. “I tried to get Bret to leave you alone, but he’s not going to.”
Rose nodded.
“He doesn’t know about this, does he?”
“No. I couldn’t risk it. He would try to stop me.”
Jeb sighed. “You won’t have much of a head start.”
Rose walked over to Duke’s stall and opened the door. Duke eyeballed her and then stalked out of the barn. He’d give Bret a hell of a chase before he let himself be caught. She planned to do the same. “It will be enough. Where’s Atalanta?” Rose pulled the hood over her head.
“I’ll bring her to you.”
Chapter Thirteen
Riding down the roads in full Seeker gear was bound to get her in trouble, but Rose couldn’t waste any more time. The mages in the pits were getting weaker, if they hadn’t already been given back to their covens. They wouldn’t spend another night in chains, if she could help it.
At least she had surprise on her side, when she barreled into the make shift prison camp on the outskirts of Harbortown. Rose cut down one guard and launched herself off Atalanta on top of another. Ten more guards spilled out of tents and the alarm was sounded. Perhaps stealth would have been the better way to go. She engaged another guard, slicing across his chest and stomach before jamming her dagger into another’s throat. Circling around the pit, Rose saw that there was no way she was going to get the latches open with eight men bearing down on her and more on the way. Whistling for Atalanta, she broke off running and climbed into the saddle without slowing down. The remainder of the guards gave a half-hearted chase and then let her go.
Well, that hadn’t worked out the way she planned.
But at least she got an idea of how the camp was set up. She’d have to do it with stealth and cunning instead of brute force. Casting a healing spell, she winced as the minor injuries she took closed up. One of the guards had got in a lucky shot with his elbow and her ribs throbbed. They did send out a patrol after her, but she made herself and Atalanta invisible when she heard the hooves and they passed right by.
Riding back to the prison camp, Rose watched the patrols and timed them. They would be more vigilant at night, expecting an attack. Sliding off her horse, she walked up to the pit, making sure that her feet didn’t leave any prints in the sand or the grassy areas around it. Guards walked by within ten feet of her, but they didn’t notice that the locks on top of the pit were being slowly released.
Opening the cover was going to cause a lot of commotion and she was going to need a distraction. Creeping over to the command tent, Rose eavesdropped on the conversations until she found some helpful information. A fleet of Solace ships, flying diplomatic flags, were approaching Harbortown. The town had already sent out a few ships to intercept them and find out what their purpose was. It had been too soon for them to arrive if this was in response to what happened with the elementalist—unless magic was involved.
Rose rolled her eyes. While it was possible, even probable, that Solace had scryers watching the goings on in other places, they couldn’t mobilize a fleet this close across the Great Sea in a few days. Although, if the guards believed they could, she might be able to put this to her advantage.
After a few hours, Rose tried her idea. She cast an illusion of a large water elemental hovering over the city. It was ridiculous to anyone who knew magic, but anyone who did was currently in an earthen pit. She was surprised that it took a good ten minutes before any of the guards noticed. But when they did, Rose couldn’t have predicted their panic. They scattered like frightened geese. Half of them ran away from the town, and the other half ran towards it. They broke like unseasoned soldiers and completely abandoned their post. Rose waited a long minute to make sure this wasn’t a trap within a trap, but all was clear. She hurried over to the pit and pulled up on the heavy lid.
“Come on,” she said, using magic to completely remove the cover. Her illusion of the water elemental flickered and disappeared. “Shit.” She still wasn’t one hundred percent. It should have been easy to do three spells at once, but as she looked down at herself, she was also completely visible. And from the sound of things, the guards were coming back. Tying a rope around one of the heavy rings that locked the pit, she tossed it down and helped the mages as they climbed up. “Hurry,” she urged, but they were too weak and slow.
She recognized the first horseman as he came thundering up. “Shit.”
It figured that it was Bret. He must have made a beeline to the town and had been by the docks waiting to catch her if she tried to board a ship to Solace. She could run, but then the mages were doomed. Rose had to buy them some time.
“Run,” she yelled at the mages and then stalked towards Bret with her sword drawn. “Fight me, coward.”
Bret jumped off Duke and pulled his sword as he ran towards her. Rose dodged his powerful heavy swings, dancing around him and teasing him with small cuts. She didn’t want to hurt him. Her goal was to tire him out while leading him away from the mages. Unfortunately, as she backed away towards town, the returning soldiers passed by them and worked on collecting the escapees.
“Were you looking to free the war mage?” Bret grimaced, swinging to take off her head.
“All of them,” she panted, ducking under another blow and scraping her blade across his forearm. It snagged on his bracer and backhanded her in the mouth. Her head snapped around and she staggered. “Fucker.” She spat blood and gave him a deep gash in his thigh in response.
Roaring, Bret increased his attack and she could no longer just toy with him. He wasn’t getting tired. He was getting deadly. She would have to end it.
“You couldn’t leave it alone for two more days?” he snarled. “Solace is arriving to take them to safety. No
w, you’ve ruined everything and I’ll see that you pay for that.”
“Two days, too long.” Rose just missed her arm being taken off at the elbow and kicked out at him, catching the side of his knee on his injured leg. It was his turn to reel and stumble. She sliced at his hand, a deep cut that made him drop his sword. He needed healing or he’d never hold a sword again. He went down on his knees and held his hand. The fight was over and he knew it. All she had to do was disappear, change clothes and heal his hand. It was that simple.
“End it,” he snarled.
“I plan to. One way or the other.” Then Rose turned her back on him. Which was stupid. She knew better. The dagger he threw at her that planted between her shoulder blades reinforced that. She went down. She might have maimed him, but he had killed her.
Rose screamed when he yanked the dagger free and kicked her over onto her back.
“Now, let’s see who you are. You son of a bitch.” Bret wrenched the mask off her face.
“I didn’t know,” she said, gasping in agony, coiling up at the pain. “That you...”
Dropping to his knees, Bret held her. “Heal yourself.’
Rose tried, but her eyes fluttered and the blackness was consuming her. “Could throw with...”
“Rose, please. This can’t be happening.”
His anguished voice came from far away.
“Your left hand,” she finished in a whisper.
“No.” His agonized wail was the last thing she heard.
Chapter Fourteen
Rose was surprised that heaven was a jail cell. Or maybe it was hell? She had a mage collar around her neck. Trying to access her magic, was impossible. The metal’s energy negated any type of spell power. Her back throbbed and she was dressed in a white nightgown that covered her from the top of the collar to her ankles. Reaching around, she felt bandages on her back, but her wound had healed.
“She’s awake, Sheriff,” a guard called.
Rose hadn’t seen him sitting outside her cell. She was in a stone room with iron bars as one wall. The door was locked from the outside. Given the right equipment, she was sure that she’d be able to pick it.
“Leave us,” Bret said, walking into her view.
The guard gave them privacy.
She noticed the chains of rank around his neck. “So, you became a lawman after all.”
He gave her a curt nod. “Harbortown offered me the job after I captured The Seeker.”
“Why aren’t I dead,” she asked. “Not that I’m complaining.”
“I made one of the mages heal you.”
“They would have been too weak after being in the pit.”
“I was persuasive.” Bret bared his teeth at her.
She could believe it.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked.
Rose laid her forehead against the bars. “You didn’t want to become an outlaw and I didn’t want to go to jail.”
She flinched back when he punched the wall. “How’s your hand?”
Bret shook it. “Fine. I didn’t break anything.”
“I meant the cut. Or did you make the mage fix that too.”
He nodded.
“Sorry.” Rose sat back down on the cot.
“Are you?”
“I was going to ditch The Seeker gear and come back and heal you.”
“And get caught with the rest of the mages?”
She shrugged. “It wouldn’t be right. If they aren’t free. I can’t be free.”
“Is that why you became The Seeker?”
Rose nodded. “No one else was going to help them.”
“Why you?”
“Why not me?”
Bret sighed and paced. “They’re going to execute you.”
“Are you going to let them do that?”
“I’m the law,” he said.
“And I’m an outlaw.” She smiled sadly and clasped her hands.
“Aren’t you going to try and talk your way out of this?”
“I killed people. I’d do it again. I won’t stop until the mages are equal citizens. You’re right to kill me, Bret. It’s the only way to get me to stop.”
He grabbed the bars. “You’re just one person.”
“Someone else will come. Maybe not tomorrow or next year. But there will be another Seeker.”
“What are you seeking?”
“Justice,” she said. “Freedom.”
“And you found a jail cell and a hangman’s noose,” he said. “Are you satisfied?”
She cocked her head at him. “Did they hang the mages that saved this town from the elementals?”
Bret’s lips compressed into a thin line. “No. The mages from Solace granted them citizenship. They cannot be touched.”
Hope fluttered in her belly. “What about me?”
“No sanctuary for the criminal known as The Seeker.” He rested his forehead on the bars. “You were so close to freedom.”
Rose knew he wouldn’t let her go, so she didn’t ask. If he wasn’t ready to run away with her before he knew she was The Seeker and spend the rest of his life hiding and pretending, he wouldn’t even consider it now. He had found the legitimacy he had been looking for. No longer a bounty hunter, Bret Wallace was a Sheriff.
“Try to spare my family the worst of it,” she asked. “Tell them I...” she stumbled over the word. “love them.”
Bret walked away from her without a word.
ROSE STOOD ON THE GALLOWS and looked out into the crowd. Jeb was the only familiar face she saw. She wasn’t sure if she was happy or sad. She would have liked to have kissed Bret goodbye. But he never came back to her cell. She would have liked him to know that she still loved him. It would have been nice to know that he still loved her too. If he still did.
“Any last words, Seeker?” The masked executioner said.
Her entire body went still. She knew that voice. “Robert?” she whispered.
“Brace yourself,” he whispered back.
“I am prepared to die so that others may know the plight of our mages will not be tolerated.” Rose yelled, trying to keep a straight face.
The crowd jeered and booed, but there were also some protesting noises. She saw the shimmering contingent from Solace looking on from a balcony of one of the nicer inns. Her brother put the noose over her head and while doing so, unlocked the mage collar. When the platform under her feet opened up, the sudden jerk would tumble the collar loose. She had seconds to cast a spell to dissolve the rope.
“I condemn you, Seeker, to the netherworld,” Robert boomed out and kicked the lever to release the trap door.
Rose tensed as her body dropped. The noose tightened and the collar fell to the platform with a clank. Choking, she cast a small flame while her legs kicked as she dangled from her neck. The fire burned through the rope and she also fell to the platform. The crowd screamed as a jet-black horse thundered across the town square and leapt up to the podium.
Coughing, with a hand to her throat, Rose looked up and saw a large masked man riding Atalanta. Reaching down, he hauled her up and over his lap. Rose squawked and tried to sit up, but the man slapped a hand on her bottom, hard.
“The Seeker rides again,” Bret boomed out. He drew back on the reins so Atalanta reared up on two legs. Rose almost slid out of the saddle.
“You idiot,” she gasped.
He swatted her behind again. “Steady there.”
“You hit me one more time...” Rose threatened.
Bret took off at a fast gallop, which would have sent her puking all over the side of her horse at this angle. Except she hadn’t eaten her last meal that they had provided for her.
“Let me up,” she gritted out.
“Not until we’re clear.”
Rose couldn’t even tell which way they were headed. All she knew, it was damned uncomfortable. “I can make us invisible,” she said.
“Save your spell power. We might need it.”
“Where are you taking me?”
“We’re going somewhere safe.”
“There aren’t any safe places for mages,” Rose said bitterly.
“There will be,” Bret said. “I’m a Sheriff. Jeb is a coven master. The Seeker will ride again. We’ll make sure of it.”
They rode on for a few more miles without pursuit and after an hour or so, Bret stopped by a lake to let Atalanta drink and rest. Rose slid off the horse and held her stomach. “Jerk,” she said and punched him when he got close enough. “You’ve risked everything. I could have gotten away by myself.”
Bret backed her towards a tree, stripping off his sword belt and tossing it on the ground.
“Oh, no you don’t,” Rose said, even as thrills coursed through her body.
He took the neckline of her nightgown and yanked it open.
“What am I supposed to ride around naked?” she asked, her back hitting the tree.
“I’ve got a set of clothes for you,” Bret said, grasping her breasts into his greedy hands.
“Mad at you,” she said, standing up on her tip toes when he sucked hard on her nipple. He ravaged her breasts as they stood there in the middle of the clearing. Unbuttoning his pants, she reached inside to grasp him.
“Um,” he moaned around her breasts as she freed his cock. “Mad at you too,” he mumbled before pushing her breasts together and tonguing over both her nipples.
Shimmying out of her nightgown, Rose kicked it free. “Oh, shut up and fuck me already, Bret.” Using the tree for balance, she wrapped her legs around his waist.
He steadied her hips and plunged inside her. Gritting her teeth at his thickness, Rose leaned back against the tree as he sank to the hilt.
“All right?” he lifted up his head to ask.
She closed her eyes and nodded. More than all right.
He pulled her to him and sank to his knees and then onto his back. That was so good, her eyes rolled back into her head. Bret plucked at her nipples. Bracing her hands on his leather jerkin, she stared into his eyes. “You ruined your life coming after me.” She rode him hard, as if to punish him. He met her stroke for stroke, his big hands leaving her breasts to clutch at her ass.
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