Chapter 17

17

I reacted without thought, no time to even try my cognitive manipulation.

He yanked me forward and I reared back and loosed my fist at the guy, landing a hit on his chin.

Shit, had I cracked my own bones? I hissed, cradling my hand against my chest.

The element of surprise was on my side though because he hadn’t expected me to retaliate. Even if he’d noted I wasn't wearing a collar.

The fae male crumpled into a fetal position on the ground. Down for now, but how long would he stay out? He hadn’t sounded the alarm so I’d have to hurry.

Exhaustion rushed at me, too weak from the collar to be of any real good. “We have to find Onyx now ,” I whispered to Noren.

The two of us redoubled our efforts, moving fast and loud. My fingers twitched, the pain in my knuckles fading in comparison to the terror of being found out. We kept to the perimeter of the camp and I followed a few steps beyond Noren.

Finally he stopped and pointed with his snout, his eyes narrowing on a spot ahead.

Adrenaline pushed me forward with such force my stomach dropped. Puking wasn’t going to help. Neither would worry or anxiety. But they trailed me on the way to the tent and I lifted the flap to see a single figure with star-light hair sleeping on his side on the pallet.

Onyx .

A breath of relief ripped from my lungs. I hurried inside with Noren. An explosive snore told me he wasn’t alone and I turned to glance over my shoulder at two other pallets. Great, roommates.

Or more likely they were spies, sent to watch Onyx and gently persuade him to cooperate with Dorian. He hadn’t been put to work, yet.

My numb fingers didn’t want to move. They certainly didn’t want to get the device into place, and I fumbled too many times crouched beside his pallet. Luckily from the angle of his head, I had unobstructed access. I slid the notches into place and the collar released with a click.

Onyx’s eyes popped open at the sound and he sat straight up in bed. I hurried to press my palm to his mouth to keep him quiet.

His eyes went wide and angry until recognition dawned and he relaxed, his chest dropping.

“What are you doing here?” he muttered against my palm.

“Getting you out, clearly,” I whispered. “Why weren’t you in the bunks with the others?” He was sharing a space, but in the dimness it was impossible to tell if the other two men in the tent were slaves or not.

“I told him I needed to think about things. Guess it put me in a holding pattern. He slapped me with a collar but said he’d give me time.” Onyx shifted to his side and rubbed the area around his neck where the chain had rested. His features twisted. “How did you get it off?”

“Noren brought me the key.”

Onyx pursed his lips and let out a nearly silent whistle. “Then we’re out.”

He pushed the blankets away and crept to the other pallets to wake the men. They spoke in hushed voices and Onyx handed the device off to the first one. “Pass it on. Free as many people as possible, men and women.”

The fae male stared between us with wide eyes and nodded, pressing the device to the piece at his neck a heartbeat later.

Free as many slaves as possible. Yes, I liked that idea. These people didn’t deserve to be prisoners any more than the halflings in the Seelie court deserved their fates.

Onyx stood too quickly and lost his balance, gripping the side of the tent until the wave of dizziness passed. At last he opened his eyes and met mine. “I’m ready.”

I cast one last look back at the others before I followed Noren and Onyx out of the tent.

I had to believe those men would do whatever they could to free the others.

With every footstep toward the wall, my focus narrowed, even as my chest tightened. We had to make sure we got there before anyone realized we were missing, and the last few hours until daylight were the only window we had.

“Can you run?” I twisted closer to support Onyx.

“I’ll try.”

Freedom was close enough for me to taste and that scared me more than anything else. There were hurdles to get over before we made it, huge ones, but the collars were off and that had been the biggest problem.

I prayed he was correct and the device would save many more before it fell back into the wrong hands. No one deserved to live under the thumb of a man who wanted to control them, to force them to work, who took away their choices.

I pumped my arms at my sides and hustled as fast as my legs would allow. Onyx kept up to the best of his abilities, leaning heavily on Noren. The direwolf didn’t seem to mind the extra weight.

Every step made the bands constricting my ribs grow tighter and the thud of my heart to pound erratically. If we didn’t get away from this camp tonight then we'd never leave. We’d lose our one shot?—

I pushed those thoughts out of my head and shook it violently for good measure. We’d make it out. We had to.

Dorian Jade couldn’t be allowed to get away with his plan.

We booked it through the trees and into the depths of the forest by the light of the stars overhead, moving as quickly as possible until Onyx started to flag. My own magic had taken such a hit from the collar, I had no power to offer him, only a shoulder.

I fell into step at his side and took some of his weight for him, both of us managing together somehow.

The light in front of us grew brighter and the trees thinned enough for me to make out the shimmering mass of the wall separating the courts. It rose, towering, toward the velvet sky, glowing with its own light.

Oh, shit, it felt…alive, and terrible. It felt heavy and oppressive and drew every ounce of magic out, leaving me hollow.

Onyx and I both stopped dead in our tracks without having to speak out loud to the other.

“The necklaces,” Onyx said, his tone seeped in dread.

I’d been too focused on escape to remember.

We had no way to get through the wall. We’d been given the necklaces to protect us from the magic when we first arrived, and without them, we were stuck. Trapped on the Unseelie side.

“What are we going to do?” I asked him through numb lips.

He shifted from foot to foot, Noren moving to my other side and crouching down with a whine.

Finally, Onyx sank, his legs folding beneath him like he just couldn’t move anymore. “I heard talk in camp. The city where your mom is supposed to be? It’s decently close to the Unseelie wall. If I can figure out a direction, then we’ll travel along the wall.”

My stomach plummeted. “It’s not safe to be on this side.”

Onyx turned to me and his eyes radiated an inner power. “We either stay and wait for Dorian Jade to give us two new necklaces or we walk. We’re out of options.”

My knees gave a twinge of protest at the thought of walking.

“How are you going to figure out what direction we need to go?”

He lifted his face to the sky rather than answer and scented the wind. A small pulse of magic rang out from his hand when he held it aloft and he scrutinized the stars. Then, weirdly, he turned back the way we came.

“West. We go west.”

“Isn’t it going to take us right back to camp?”

He pushed to his feet again, wavering before he straightened his spine. “Somehow we got turned around, Tavi. Our senses must have been muddled with the proximity to the wall because judging by the constellations, we were heading back to camp already.”

Ice grew in my veins at the thought. “Okay.” I paused, swallowed, cleared my throat of the pins blocking it. “Okay, let’s go.”

We’d have to try and find a way through the wall once we got to the right place. We’d?—

The thought cut off abruptly as a wave of dizziness crashed down on me, so strong I stopped and held my palm to the side of my head like an anchor.

My arm twinged and the rest of me went up under small pinpricks of flame.

“Hey, are you okay?” Onyx’s question sounded at a distance and almost inaudible against the sudden ringing in my ears.

No, not okay. Definitely not okay. I reached out for something to steady myself and came up with empty air instead.

Eventually, the spell passed with a few deep breaths, but the queasiness never left. I pried my eyes open and tried to smile at Onyx.

He took a step in the opposite direction at whatever he saw on my face.

“I’m going to be fine.” I sounded waterlogged and sick. “Let’s go. As far and as fast as possible.”

At least we were together, I consoled myself. Even if we had to push through exhaustion and our own pains and sickness, we were together. I’d found Onyx, and Noren had found me.

The journey would be ten times easier, a hundred times easier, if I felt better. My shirt clung to my sweat slicked back and the ache in my muscles doubled in the next hour. I needed to find a witch, or a doctor or shaman, as soon as possible. We didn’t have any more time to waste.

The gloom of pre-dawn slowly melted away into a sunrise of amber and pink. The rising sun chased the last of the clouds from the horizon until overhead, the sky opened up.

Although neither of us spoke, we kept going. My stomach gave a low grumble that somehow translated into pain rather than hunger.

Eventually Noren forced us to stop late in the afternoon. He cut in front of me and sat down, the movement sudden, and I almost tripped over him. He offered a growl before rising to lick my face.

“What’s his problem?” Onyx asked, the syllables slurring together slightly.

“If I have to guess, I’d say he’s concerned.” I glanced around but the forest looked exactly the same here. “Do you think we’re safe to set up a camp and rest for a bit?”

“I don’t think we’re safe anywhere until we get the fuck out of this court.” Onyx straightened and purposely wiped the strain away from his face when he felt my attention on him. The change came over his features rapidly but even his best efforts couldn’t disguise the lines around his eyes which hadn’t been there when I first met him. “We need to find somewhere off the beaten path, with shelter in case the weather turns.”

I glanced up at the cloudless sky overhead but sighed, knowing he was right. The land didn’t want me here on this side of the wall any more than it did on the Seelie side.

It took several more minutes for us to find two huge pine trees offering shelter, and we made a small makeshift camp between them. The wind bit into my exposed skin with needle-like teeth. Every gust that blew offered no respite from the chill of the evening. It was colder here in Unseelie than in the Seelie court, and the biting nip almost seemed to herald snow, which sounded insane.

The trees were evergreen and moss speckled the ground, but we weren’t even close to winter.

It was the same way the weather went crazy when I was unsettled. My fault again? Probably.

Although I’d seen crazier things. The weather always revolted against me when I least expected the change, and right then I was too tired to care.

We couldn’t take a chance and light a fire. It would draw our enemies. Instead, Onyx and I huddled together, stealing warmth from the other and passing it between us. Noren was practically a furnace but when he left to hunt, we were alone. Shivering.

Terrified and cold and tired.

I’d never take a blanket for granted again. I always thought I’d rather be too cold than overheated, but these chilly days in the elements had me seriously reconsidering.

Noren returned with a squirrel and Onyx mustered up a burst of magic to roast the thing. Which wasn’t necessary, but it helped.

Once again we were back on the run.

Thank goodness for the direwolf. His bulk provided the warmth we needed to keep the chill from sinking deep into our bones.

“It’s all going to be okay,” Onyx offered.

Something in his voice told me he spoke out loud more for his benefit than for mine but we both knew his words were an empty promise.

“I’d like to believe it but I’m a little old to put my faith in fairy tales.”

“It’s better than the alternative. Do you want to stay in a constant state of fear, waiting for the worst to happen? That kind of thinking is only going to make you hesitate, make you worry.”

Onyx wasn’t wrong.

We huddled against Noren and soon the direwolf settled, curling up into a ball and forcing us to adopt the same posture. We were nothing but wolves in our den with our pack, everyone snuggled together until our breathing evened out and sleep crept into our bodies.

Rest did not come easily, but the few hours of shut-eye we got were a blessing. Our stomachs were filled by the squirrel, and with my eyes closed, I might have believed we were safe.

Noren’s growl shot me right out of the restless dreaming. I blinked, sitting up fast enough to make myself dizzy. Somewhere in the distance, twigs snapped. The sound stopped abruptly but the rest of the night had gone still.

Someone was out there in the darkness, watching us.

I lurched to my feet in the next breath, magic surging through my blood.

The return of my powers was a warmth in my veins and I found my limbs shifting into the halfway form between human and wolf, my strongest form, without conscious thought. If I had to go down, I’d do it swinging, and I’d take everyone else along with me.