Amber Eyes

by S. D. Grimm

  The sun had reached its zenith now as they trudged through the forest. Ethan didn’t mind the slower pace Logan kept. He’d said it was because he was waiting to hear what the wolves and Scout saw up ahead before walking into it, but Ethan had the feeling Logan was taking it easy on him. Every movement still ached, but not nearly as bad. His wounds would be nothing but scars soon.

  He was far enough behind that he thought it might be safe to pull out the stone Connor had given him in the palace. Just to have a peek.

  Maybe Connor had some news for him on the whereabouts of that poor girl. Not that he wanted to add another person to rescue. He just couldn’t stop thinking that he had to. If not him, then who?

  The girl appeared in the stone first.

  Her eyes were so big and round. Something clearly had her frightened. A fire burned in his blood. The need to rescue her grew. If only he knew where she was.

  A pair of cold, green eyes appeared. “You? I can see where you are.”

  Heart pounding, Ethan covered the stone and pocketed it. Who was that?

  “Ethan?” Jayden’s voice startled him.

  He looked up. “What’s wrong?”

  She eyed him askance. “I was just about to ask you the same thing. Are you all right? Do you feel something?”

  He shook his head, trying not to look like a young boy holding a slingshot near a fallen bird. “You seem worried.”

  “Me?” She fell into step with him.

  “Yeah. Ryan told me you had a run-in with Thea.”

  She looked at the ground. “Oh.”

  “Is she what has you all shaken up?”

  She looked up at him and he trapped her gaze. Her eyes squinted, as if she wanted to bolt, and she shook her head really fast.

  “Are you seriously lying to me right now? Don’t you trust me?”

  Her chest hitched on a breath. “I do. I just . . .”

  Clearly she wasn’t going to tell him. Just as well. She should probably be talking to Ryan about it. “Hey, don’t let her get to you.”

  She frowned as she nodded, focusing on the ground in front of her. Even so, she tripped on a tree root. He caught her arm.

  Pink flushed her cheeks. “I’m good at that.”

  He laughed. “You are.”

  It finally brought a smile to her face. Ryan glanced over his shoulder at them, and Ethan stared at his brother. Twice now he’d been caught with that “slingshot.”

  The smallest twinge of heat flickered in his chest. A threat? For whom? And why did it seem so far off?

  Ethan picked up the pace, hoping to get everyone walking closer together. Maybe whatever this dim threat was, it would dissipate if he put more distance between whatever it was and the people he was trying to protect.

  The low pulse of heat remained, though. Strange.

  Then the heat exploded.

  A muffled scream came from behind him.

  Ethan spun around. Shielded Jayden.

  A twig snapped loud enough to betray that whatever stepped on it was no squirrel. Ethan set down his satchel and pulled out his bow. He removed three arrows from the quiver at his waist and held them in his right hand.

  “Ethan?” Ryan’s voice seemed hazy as his senses sharpened around the trees. Movement. Noise. He searched for them. Heat shot through his chest. The threat loomed.

  “Ethan.” That voice was Logan’s, demanding information.

  His mind raced to recall his surroundings as he kept his gaze trained on the trees to the north. Something was there. The threat pulsed from that direction.

  The heat in his chest grew. Another threat. Jayden was in danger. Ryan was in danger. Chloe was in danger, but there was someone else. Who? And how was he supposed to protect all of them?

  “We’re surrounded,” he whispered.

  Logan stood just behind him. “I called Westwind back. He says he smells the queen’s filth riding on the wind.”

  That jolted his heart to beat faster. How was he going to react to his instincts, bark orders for them to follow, and save everyone? He couldn’t. And which threat was he supposed to listen to first? He couldn’t trust his talent now, not if he wasn’t sure which person he was protecting. It hadn’t worked when his parents needed him, and it wouldn’t now.

  Ethan closed his eyes and listened. A muffled whine drew closer. The heat pulsed in his chest. “There’s no time to run.”

  The queen’s men stepped through the trees to Ethan’s left. He’d been wrong pinpointing the sound, but not wrong about the threat. His heart dropped to his stomach as Scarface walked into view with his sword at Kinsey’s throat.

  Ethan would recognize his enemy’s scarred face anywhere, but he hadn’t remembered the man’s green eyes. Green. The same as the eyes in the stone. How could he be so stupid? Because of him, Scarface had found them. Found Kinsey.

  His heart was like a smithy’s hammer.

  “Let’s be reasonable, shall we?” Scarface smiled.

  “Kinsey!” Chloe screeched.

  Soldiers closed in from all around. The threat pulsed. Ethan listened.

  Scarface hollered and ripped his hand off of Kinsey’s face. Ethan saw blood on his palm.

  “I’m sorry, Ethan,” Kinsey whimpered. “I wanted to learn to fight. Please forgive me. I—” Scareface’s hand clamped over her mouth again, cutting her off.

  Ethan’s heart choked him. “There’s nothing to forgive, Kinny.”

  “Turn over the Deliverer, and I’ll give you this little pup back, dog.” Scarface snarled. “I saw her red hair and thought she was the one I saw you with before, but I see you’re attached to more than one.”

  Hand over Jayden? Never. Ethan raised his new bow, thanking Morgan for her gift. “Let her go.”

  “Or what?”

  His insides screamed at him to do something. Part of him was being pulled to shoot the man holding Kinsey, the other part wanted him to spin around and take out another.

  “Put down your weapon or she dies,” Scarface said.

  “No.” Chloe’s voice was wild.

  “You can’t have her.” Ethan made his voice hard.

  “If that’s the way you want it.” Scarface pressed his knife into Kinsey’s throat. A trickle of blood wet the blade, and her muffled cry leaked through his fingers. “You move, she dies.”

  Ethan looked into Kinsey’s eyes. So big and wide and bright. Tears pooled over her eyelids and dripped onto her captor’s hand. Ethan nodded once. She blinked in response. She understood. She’d be safe. He’d rescue her.

  Heat pulsed. He needed to take out the man with the knife, Scarface, and the archer trained on Jayden. Which one first?

  Another drip of blood trickled out on Kinsey’s neck where the blade pressed.

  “You can take me.” Jayden walked forward.

  “No!” Logan’s deep voice overpowered Ethan’s with the same answer.

  “Then you’ve made your choice. Franco promised to take those you love.”

  Ethan’s talents surged. He tuned in. Spun and shot the archer behind them. That man fell and he turned toward the pulse. His talent pulled him right. He fired his arrow and a man with an arrow aimed at Chloe fell. The new burning pulse wanted him to take out Kinsey’s captor, but someone aimed an arrow at Jayden.

  Jayden’s attacker was closer. He could get both. He shot his arrow at that man first, then he grabbed another arrow.

  Ethan turned.

  A smirk curved the scar on Scarface’s cheek, and he looked right into Ethan’s eyes. “Say goodbye.” He stabbed Kinsey clean through the middle.

  Red bloomed on her clothes.

  Blood dripped off the blade.

  The loudest sound in Ethan’s ears was her sharp exhale.

  Not Kinsey. His heart wrenched.

  Chloe’s pained cry dulled in the air.

  Ryan’s yell echoed as if in a distant cave.

  “Take the Deliverer; kill the others!” Scarface’s voice drowned out everything.

  Then
nothing. Ethan heard nothing else as he raced forward to catch Kinsey’s falling body.

  She crumpled into his arms. So light. So warm. So limp.

  “Kinny? Talk to me.”

  Scout shot between him and another man. The canines had arrived too late.

  Logan’s sword clanged above Ethan’s head. A threat for Jayden still pulsed, but the heat didn’t burn. She could have taken care of herself. His talent had failed him. Too much to listen to. He couldn’t protect them all.

  He lifted Kinsey’s body up to his chest. “Kinny.”

  “Love you most . . . brother.” She fell limp in his arms, unseeing. Her chest didn’t move.

  “No!” His scream scorched his throat. This couldn’t be happening. Couldn’t be real. Not Kinny. She was so young. And he’d promised to teach her to defend herself.

  The sounds of fighting grew silent. Ethan stood. Only three soldiers remained. Westwind had one pinned to the ground. The other one clashed his sword against Logan’s. Scarface stood, waiting.

  Ethan rushed at his enemy. Heat pumped through every vein now, not just his chest. He’d tried to keep it quelled, though the embers were always there, waiting to be fanned into flame. This was no threat taking over. This was the familiar heat of revenge. And Scarface would die.

  Ethan faced his enemy. “You killed an innocent child.”

  “I killed her? You knew the price. You weren’t willing to pay.”

  Ethan clashed his weapon against Scarface’s. Pushed. His strength fueled him. He kicked the man into a tree and Scarface’s arms spread to break his fall. Ethan brought down his blade and it sliced into Scarface’s stomach. Deep. He screamed.

  Now he would die. Ethan swung his sword, but Scarface’s look changed to a smirk. He held out a glass vial filled with dark liquid and dropped it. Purple smoke rose from the ground like a funnel cloud.

  Ethan’s sword cut through it, hit something hard and sent a jolt through his arms.

  The smoke cleared. Nothing. No one. Ethan’s sword imbedded into a tree. He yanked it free and turned to see the remaining soldier. Logan held his sword up to the man, but Ethan didn’t care. He walked up to him and swung his weapon. The soldier’s head thudded to the ground.

  Chapter 23

  An Old Fire

  Jayden turned away from the gruesome death in front of her. Ethan had become that killer she’d seen on the hill. The red hill. That’s what she called it in her memory. He’d killed ten men without blinking. But this man hadn’t been a threat anymore—he’d been a prisoner.

  This kill had been from rage. Hadn’t it?

  Chloe pressed her hands over her gaping mouth. Her wide eyes framed her fingers. Ryan had cringed, squeezing his eyes closed. The same horror and surprise pulsed through them.

  Jayden peered back over her shoulder at Ethan. He stood there, chest heaving.

  The skin behind her ears tingled. Sorrow with the strength of a tornado tore into Jayden. It joined rage, like a tide pool filling. She tried to choke the emotion away, gripped her daggers tight.

  “Jayden.” Logan touched her elbow, and she realized her knuckles were white. She released her weapons.

  Ethan dropped his sword and fell to his knees next to Kinsey’s body. He pulled her onto his lap.

  Chloe rushed to his side. She wrenched his shoulder. “Is she—?”

  Ethan’s wet eyes looked into hers. “I’m sorry. I—”

  “No.” Ryan dove next to his sister. He scooped Kinsey into his arms, pulling her body from Ethan. Eyes blazing, he stared at his brother.

  “Ryan, I’m sorry. I thought I could protect her. I thought—”

  Ryan curled Kinsey’s body into his chest, shutting Ethan out. Chloe cupped Kinsey’s head in her hands. Tears dripped off her face.

  “Ethan.” Jayden touched his shoulder. “It’s not your fault.” A rock sank into her stomach, pulling her heart with it. All of this was her fault. She hadn’t turned herself in to Franco.

  Ethan pulled away from her as if she’d burned him, and his guilt hit her like a lightning bolt. “It is my fault.”

  He walked away.

  Jayden started to follow but Logan caught her, shaking his head slightly.

  She wanted nothing more than to comfort him.

  Ryan stormed past her.

  Jayden pulled her trapped arm. “Logan, please let me follow Ryan. I—”

  “Let them be.” He released her, and she knelt next to Chloe who hunched over Kinsey on the ground. A tear leaked out of her eye. “Westwind says there are more soldiers.” Logan’s voice was firm, quiet. “You stay with Chloe. I’ll send Ryan back your way.”

  Jayden stood. “Logan, Ethan is in no shape to go with you for a fight.”

  “Ethan can keep it contained. You stay with the others.” Logan stalked off.

  Jayden placed her hand on Chloe’s shaking back. So he’d noticed the emotions playing with her. Or at least noticed that she wasn’t herself. She had to get it under control. Bury her emotions. Be a warrior. Be stone. Like Ethan.

  “It’s not fair.” Chloe sobbed. “She was so young.”

  Jayden closed Kinsey’s eyelids over those lifeless eyes. It wasn’t Kinsey anymore. No warmth of emotion emanated from her. Just a cold nothingness. A void where so much life should be.

  A rustle in the brush caused her to turn, hand on her dagger’s hilt.

  “It’s me.” Ryan put his hands up.

  She replaced her weapon and ran to him, wrapping her arms around him. He held her so tight she could barely breathe. He stroked her hair as he held her.

  “I’m so sorry,” she whispered.

  “It wasn’t your fault. It was Franco’s fault. We all did everything we could.”

  She pulled back and looked into his eyes. The storm raged, though he looked nothing more than sad. “Ethan?”

  “He won’t listen to me.” Ryan’s eyes scanned her face.

  A pang hit her heart—Ryan’s. Why?

  Ryan’s throat bobbed. “He’ll listen to you.”

  Ethan ground his teeth together. He didn’t need more people coming after him telling him it wasn’t his fault. He turned, ready to tell someone off, but Logan approached.

  “Westwind says there are three more.” He motioned west.

  Ethan grabbed his bow and stood. “Not for long.”

  He followed Logan into the woods to where the scent of smoke filtered through the trees. Three more. He took three arrows from his quiver and pulled the bowstring back.

  Logan stood next to him, hand on his sword hilt. “I’ve told the wolves to stand down.”

  Ethan stepped out of the trees into full view. The three men stood.

  He called on his speed. It shot through him with such electricity the pulse made his heart trip through a beat. Fire fueled it. An old fire. Revenge. He embraced it. His talent urged him to protect himself from the man on the right first. Ethan ignored it and aimed his arrow at a different target.

  One arrow flew. Smacked into the man’s chest. The man fell, limp. The second arrow shot through another man’s eye. The third soldier ran at Ethan—the one his talent had warned him to take out first.

  The quiet throb of a threat in his chest warned him. Revenge said let him come. Revenge said relish a fight. Revenge burned. He wanted this. Needed it. This man would die. Ethan dropped his bow.

  “Ethan?” Logan’s voice was distant.

  The enemy drew his sword. Ethan spun. Slashed. His blade hit bone and he called his strength. It fueled him. He yanked out his weapon and buried it into the man’s heart.

  But Kinsey’s blood was still on his hands. Another dead body hadn’t changed the fact that he’d failed to protect her. He’d failed because his stupid talent gave him too many orders at once. How was he supposed to listen?

  But he’d been the one to endanger her in the first place. Scarface had found him because of that stupid stone.

  Someone touched his shoulder.

  Ethan spun, sword ready, but it
was Logan.

  He’d backed up, hands in surrender. “Can I count on you to hold it together, Ethan?”

  Could he? The fire of revenge had taken over his talent. He couldn’t let that continue. He shook his head, trying to push back all the anger. Then he took a deep breath. “Yes.”

  “Good. Let’s get out of here.”

  They made it back to where the others were, and Ethan choked when he saw Kinsey’s body again. Jayden rushed up to him. Hugged him so tight. Seemed to hold his sadness with her arms.

  Chloe’s wet eyes met his. “How did he get away?”

  “I’ve seen that trick before.” Logan touched the shard of broken glass on the ground with the tip of his sword. “This was nothing but bottled magic. They aren’t talents. I’ve seen Idla create a funnel cloud with the same purple smoke.”

  Jayden turned toward him, but left her arm around Ethan. “Spells? Aren’t those dark magic?”

  “They belong to those associated with the Mistress of Shadows. Those who follow her.” Logan clenched his jaw.

  “Then there’s no way we can predict what power he can wield at any given time. No way to tell who he’s given spells to.”

  Ryan looked into Logan’s eyes. “Or how long the spell lasts.”

  “Unless we can find a way know what types of spells—”

  “A Whisperer would have these abilities to discern,” Chloe said.

  Logan nodded. “More reason to find her before Franco does.”

  He picked up Kinsey’s limp form and Ethan’s heart squeezed. Killing only took the pain away for the moment. When everything rushed back to him, his head seemed so clouded. And an ache ripped through his chest. He wanted to let his knees buckle. He wanted to fall to the ground and curl up into a ball. He wanted to be done with all of this.

  Jayden rubbed his back, then she turned and followed Logan, hugging Chloe.

  Scout leaned against his leg, eyes round and ears laid back. Ethan patted the dog’s head. “I’m coming, buddy. I just need a second to cool off.” His dog stayed with him, as was Scout’s way. He never left Ethan alone if he sensed any distress. Ethan smiled and crouched down, letting Scout nuzzle into him—something he didn’t know he’d needed until right then.