by Chloe Jacobs
“In your pursuit of the Lost,” he said, “you never hunted the bjer?”
“You’re kidding, right? Why would I actively seek to cross paths with something like that?”
He raised an eyebrow.
She crossed her arms. “I don’t go looking for trouble,” she insisted. “If it isn’t causing problems, I’m all for live and let live.”
“An admirable philosophy,” he admitted, surprising her until she thought she might blush. “But it doesn’t bother you that anyone who has ventured within the boundaries this creature has arbitrarily claimed does not return?”
She shrugged. “If that’s the case, either accept that Solem’s Bridge is a dangerous place and post a Use at Own Risk sign, or put a bounty out on the bjer so someone takes it down.”
“But not you?” He sounded surprised. “You don’t want the glory that would be yours for such an impressive catch?”
“I’m not in it for glory,” she said with a frown. “And I don’t hunt lonely monsters that are just looking for a place to call their own. I hunt the Lost.”
He gave her a funny look like she was something he could barely conceive of.
She changed the subject. “One thing I know about this creature is that it’s part of the troll family. Bigger than an ogre, smaller than, well, probably nothing. And apparently it doesn’t see too well, but it’s got a crazy good sense of smell, which is one reason why no one’s been able to sneak past it.”
He nodded. “The bridge has been unpassable since the creature settled there.”
“You know this, and you still want to try?”
He didn’t flinch. His expression was like stone, and it made her think maybe there was something else, some other reason for this insane decision, that they weren’t telling her.
She shrugged and turned her attention back to the problem of the bjer. Solem’s Bridge used to be part of a high-traffic trade route between the northern and southern counties, cutting right through the mountain pass. But bjer were majorly territorial, and the moment one had decided to call this particular bridge home, that section of road had become the equivalent of a tumbleweed town. The trade route had shifted west. It was a much longer, indirect route between the counties, but safer for the farmers and tradespeople who needed to travel along it.
“Maybe we can wait for the bjer to leave. It must hunt for food, right? It can’t just sit in front of the bridge forever,” Wyatt said from behind her. Greta looked over her shoulder and made room for him to join in the conversation.
“Trolls are nocturnal creatures,” Siona said, having closed in as well. “If we get to the bridge before full dark, it might actually be possible to walk right by its den before it wakes.”
“Are you sure?” she asked.
“No, but unless you have another option to consider…”
It seemed as good a plan as any given that they had no idea what they were walking into.
Speaking of which, she pulled up short and pointed toward a crude sign a few paces ahead, warning travelers to veer west. They couldn’t be far from the bridge. “I think we should stop here and do some recon,” she said.
Siona and Dryden both frowned.
Wyatt grinned. “Greta and I can go check things out to make sure the coast is clear,” he said.
She threw him a sharp glance. “Actually, I was thinking I should probably go alone.”
“You’re not going alone,” he said. “You’re still hurt. What if something happens?”
Siona interrupted. “I will go as well.”
Greta shook her head. “Listen, the more people tromping around that bridge, the more attention we’re going to draw to ourselves. I think it would be best if—”
“I agree that we should not draw attention to our presence,” said Dryden, “but you can’t go alone. I will be the one to go with you.”
She wasn’t impressed with that word, “can’t,” especially coming from him. And the last thing she wanted was to go anywhere alone with this guy. He reminded her too much of Lazarus. “I don’t need you. Anyway, I thought you wanted the hunters to handle the bjer.”
Byron stepped forward with a look like he was sucking lemons. “You’ll take my warrior with you. We wouldn’t want you to get hurt. Losing you at this juncture would be…counterproductive to our goal.”
She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, it would suck for me, too.” She turned to Dryden. “Fine. Let’s get out of here. We’re burning daylight.”
Wyatt came over and pulled her back as they were leaving. “You shouldn’t be the one to do this,” he said in a low voice. “I don’t trust that guy to keep you safe.”
He was probably right, but luckily she didn’t rely on anyone to keep her safe but herself.
“I’m fine, really.” She hoped he wouldn’t see through her lie. The wound in her side was still bleeding, making the bandage heavy against her skin, but she was a better choice for this than anyone else, even injured.
“And it’s just a recon mission. No fighting.” She squeezed his hand. It was obvious that he was still disappointed by her decision to remain in Mylena, but she needed things to be all right between them. She couldn’t lose Wyatt, too, not now.
He nodded and squeezed back. “When you return, we need to talk.”
She said good-bye and waved to Siona, who didn’t look much happier. The two of them stood side by side, watching her go as if she was never coming back. It sent a chill down her spine as she turned and jogged to catch up with Dryden.
They moved quietly through the forest. While the suns were still high, quiet could take precedence over swiftness.
When they neared the clearing leading to the cliff’s edge and the bridge, it didn’t take long to find the bjer’s den; there was no hiding footprints that big, and all of them led to a crudely made shanty stuffed just inside the woods.
It looked as if someone had ripped the trunks of four trees right out of the ground and tried to make a tepee out of them, stacking the branches with all the needles still intact as a thin roof. It was a little too structured to just be a pile of fallen trees, but someone less observant might have overlooked it.
She and Dryden held their breath. They stood not twenty feet away from the ramshackle tepee, staring at a break in the logs—presumably the entrance. From within it came the loudest, longest snore she’d ever heard, followed by a nasally cough, a snort, and the unmistakable sound of something shifting on the ground. In fact, she could almost feel the earth move with it.
When the snoring resumed, she sighed and relaxed her stomach muscles, but her senses were still going haywire. She had that feeling of prickles running up her spine and looked behind her, certain someone was standing right there. “Do you feel that?” she whispered.
“As if we’re being watched?” He nodded.
“I can’t see anything.”
“Stay on guard,” he said and turned away. She stuck out her tongue at his back. As if she was ever anything but on guard.
She was pretty certain whatever might be out there spying on them wasn’t the troll-sized guardian of Solem’s Bridge, so it would have to wait its turn. They took a few more steps, and a twig snapped loudly beneath her foot.
They both froze, but after a long moment, during which the only sound was Dryden’s regulated breathing beside her, she sighed. “We’re going to have to walk right by the bjer to get to the bridge.” She mouthed the words as soundlessly as she could.
He nodded and pointed. She turned around and knew right away that the troll wasn’t going to be their only problem. The bridge itself spanned a chasm that had to be at least fifty feet wide…and it looked exactly the way one would expect a rope bridge that hadn’t been maintained by anyone for years and years to look. Rickety. Dangerous. Suicidal.
Damn it.
She motioned him to go back the way they’d come. When they were far enough into the woods to talk freely, she stopped and ran a hand over the back of her neck. “So that’s settled. Even if
we can sneak past the bjer, there’s no way we’re crossing that bridge.”
“Yes,” he said, the look in his eyes so cold ice crystals had formed on his eyelashes. “We are.”
Chapter Ten
When they got back, the faerie princess was waiting. She rushed forward with a nod for Dryden and a smile for Greta. “So, we’re ready to proceed?”
“I know you’re in a hurry, but we can’t go back that way,” Greta rushed to say before Dryden could get a word in. “The bjer was sleeping when we got there, but there’s no guarantee he’ll stay out until dark. Not only that, there’s a strong possibility that the bridge won’t hold. It’s dangerous.”
Leila glanced up at Dryden. Neither of them said anything, but a long moment later, she looked back at Greta. “I appreciate your concern, but I think we’ll have to take the chance.”
She’d already figured the conversation would end up going something like that. She didn’t like the idea, but she had to admit that they were right. She needed to get to the Glass Kingdom as soon as possible. She couldn’t let Isaac down. He needed her to be whole, so she could protect his people because he couldn’t.
“I won’t unnecessarily risk my friends’ lives for anything, so there are going to be some ground rules.”
“What do you propose?” asked Leila.
She angled a glance Dryden’s way. “Siona and I have the most experience dealing with potentially hostile situations, so everybody follows our lead.”
He nodded.
Greta turned away. “Then let’s get moving. The daylight won’t last much longer now, and apparently we have a bridge to cross.”
They made it back to the clearing near Solem’s Bridge about an hour before sunset and it was immediately obvious by the snoring that the bjer was still ensconced inside its crude shelter.
Greta had already warned everyone not to make a sound, not until after they were across the bridge. She’d drawn her sword a few hundred feet back, where the glide of steel being pulled from its leather sheath wouldn’t be overheard, and now she gripped it tight in her sweaty, shaking fist.
Wyatt held back as the others kept going. He drew her dagger from the sheath he’d strapped to his waist. She remembered a time when he’d refused to take one of her weapons because he didn’t believe in violence, but things had changed. He had changed. There was a brittleness to him now that hadn’t been there before.
“Are you okay?” she asked, tentatively. “You didn’t get hurt in that fight, did you?” She felt guilty for not making sure of it sooner.
“I’m fine,” he answered in a terse voice that only made her feel worse.
She bit her lip. “Are you worried about the boys?”
“Yes,” he said between clenched teeth. After a few more steps he stopped in his tracks with a heavy, frustrated sigh. She kept going for a second before realizing he wasn’t beside her anymore, and turned around to find him glaring after her. “Is it so hard to believe that I’m worried about you?”
“What? I’m fine, see?” She held out her arms and bit the inside of her cheek to keep from wincing.
“You’re so full of shit,” he said.
Her mouth fell open.
He spun around and started walking again. “Hey,” she called, jumping forward to keep up with him. “What the hell?”
He rounded on her and pressed a hand to her side. He was careful, barely made contact, but even such a glancing touch tore a gasp of pain from her lips and blurred her vision.
“You can’t keep this up,” he said.
She groaned. “Okay, it hurts, but I’m used to working through the pain. I’ll be fine.”
“Do you even hear yourself?” he said. “You should be doing homework and going to the movies, not working through the pain.”
“Wyatt, that’s—”
“The only reason you had for staying in Mylena is gone now, so why are we still doing this?” he pressed. His deep blue gaze caught hers and wouldn’t let go. “Come home with me.”
She opened and closed her mouth, trying to find the words. “Wyatt, I can’t. Not like this.”
Maybe he was right that her reasons for being here no longer applied, but she couldn’t even think about whether to go back or stay until she’d dealt with the darkness hitching a ride inside her.
“What is it? What happened when you and Ray went to Agramon’s fortress?”
She’d seen him watching her and had known this conversation had to happen at some point. “It’s hard to explain.”
“Try,” he said. “When you didn’t come back in a day or two, I hated myself for letting you go, thinking you were both dead. When I finally found you I was relieved to see you whole and healthy, but now I think I should have looked closer.” He leaned closer again. “What happened?”
“It was horrible,” she admitted, swallowing hard. “I can’t go a night without dreaming about it. He was draining the life out of the children. It was all part of an elaborate spell to open a portal. And I was helpless, Wyatt. So much blood fell before we could stop him, and then…” Her voice cracked.
Wyatt put his hand over hers, letting his thumb smooth across her pulse point. “He hurt you.”
She shrugged to hide her reaction to his touch.
The pain was mostly just a memory, but now she had worse things to haunt her. Like the black thing that slithered deeper and deeper into the very heart of her, even as they spoke.
“He did something more than just hurt me. Some of that magick is still trapped inside me, and every time it comes to the fore, I’m less inclined to fight it, or it’s more determined to be let out. I can’t actually tell the difference anymore.”
There was a war going on in there for control. A war she didn’t know if she could win.
“How? What happened?”
She grimaced. “I was pulled into the portal with him, and I honestly thought I would be stuck there forever. There was no end to it. No way back and no way forward. There was nothing but darkness and cold for what felt like…always.” She shuddered. But that wasn’t really true. Even there in the gap between worlds, she’d had one thing to hold onto. “Isaac got me out.”
“But?” he prompted.
“But I think something came back with me.”
“At the goblin castle…I didn’t imagine it, did I?” He looked down at his hand, turning it over. “When I touched you, it burned.”
“It’s inside me, and I can’t control it. It’s getting stronger.” She swallowed hard, overwhelmed by guilt. “But the faerie queen can help.”
“How do you know that? Just because they said so?”
“I know there’s a good chance they have some ulterior motive, but I don’t have a choice. If they can help, I have to try.”
“What if we—”
“There’s no time. It’s too dangerous. I’m too dangerous. I can feel it nibbling away at my soul like I’m some kind of all-you-can-eat buffet. When there’s nothing left, then what happens?” She let go of the mask she’d been wearing and let him see all the pain and fear she felt. His eyes widened.
“Then I’ll be a monster, Wyatt. Just like one of the Lost. Maybe worse.”
“That’s not true.”
“Yes, it is. And who could stop me? You have no idea the kind of power churning away in here.” Even now, it pushed against her chest and spine, but she couldn’t take any credit for holding it at bay. She had a feeling that was all Siona.
“Fine,” he said. “Then we’ll go with them. But when this is over, I want you to seriously think about what you have here—if anything—and what you could have by coming back home…with me.”
She bit her lip.
He tipped his chin. “You can’t even say it anymore, can you?”
“Say what?”
“Home.” The emphasis he put on the word was full of disappointment and sadness. “Greta, even if the goblin king wasn’t Lost, you don’t belong here.” He leaned closer. “You only think you do because you’r
e too scared to face the idea of going back.”
“That’s not true,” she muttered. It was easy for him to talk about going home. He was essentially still the same responsible, honest, compassionate person he’d always been. His family would welcome him back with open arms. But it was different with her. The image of a stone-cold Drew frozen in that magick circle haunted her. The faces of all the Lost she’d hunted haunted her. Luke’s face haunted her. Isaac’s face haunted her.
“I’ll think about it.”
“Greta—”
She raised her hand. “I said I would think about it, and I meant it,” she said. “But later, okay?”
He nodded and they went to catch up with the rest of the group. Siona turned around and held her finger to her lips in warning as they approached. The bjer’s snoring continued. The uneasy weight that had rested on her chest since the moment she’d started leading her friends to this place lightened just a little. If the bjer was still asleep, there was a chance they could make it across the bridge unscathed.
Everyone took short, careful steps, watching where they put their feet to make sure there were no twigs that could snap beneath boots, no rocks to trip over.
Only ten feet away from the bridge now.
Greta looked up. Two tall posts stuck out of the ground at the cliff’s edge, and the thick rope from either side of the bridge had been tied off at both the top and the bottom. Three or four horizontal wooden planks jutted out into nothingness before the weight of the structure pulled the rest of the stepping boards below the edge of the precipice.
Nobody whispered. Nobody sneezed or coughed or stumbled. Nothing crunched or knocked together or fell to the ground.
They should have made it.
Chapter Eleven
A monstrous roar rang out in the gathering twilight, setting every hair on her body on end. Everyone stopped in their tracks. She jerked her head up, trying to determine where it had originated, because it wasn’t coming from inside the ramshackle homemade tepee.