Chapter 30

His fur is oily beneath my fingertips. I rake my fingers through his sandy coat again and again, wondering what happened to the usual plush blanket he once adorned.

And then I feel the wetness, a warm liquid pooling from his side, and my hand freezes over the thudding pulse of the wound. I try to pull my hand away, but it doesn't budge. I pull and pull, but my hand is too heavy, stuck in a viscous glove of vital fluid and blood, and then I hear her.

A night splitting scream echoes around us, and I yank my hand from his side, to cover my ears and shut out the sound of her shrieks, but the smell of my palm snags my attention. I turn my hand over in front of me, admiring the thick carmine clots speckling my skin, and the shrilling screams grow louder.

I plunge my fingers between my lips and suck. I suck and suck and suck until my lips screech against my skin, and I slide my fingers out, dipping the point of my tongue into the underside of my fingernail. I look up and find Eldridge watching me, whimpering from the wounds I caused, hurt and betrayal fresh in his storm-colored eyes. Gently, he shakes his magnificent sized head, pleading with me to stop, to remember.

I throw my head back and caterwaul at the memory of who she used to be.

* * *

A hand clamps over my mouth and nose, but before I can throw my elbows into the attacker's chest, a pair of lips find my ear.

"Don't move." Sin's whisper is barely loud enough to hear. He's covering me entirely with his body pressed firmly against mine, his palm hugging my mouth and the tips of his hair splayed over my arms like garden snakes. "Don't make a sound."

The clip clopping of hooves along the road turns my blood to ice. No one would be traversing the road at this hour. No one but Legion soldiers.

Our eyes lock, and I nod under his hand. The energy of the dome-like shield he projected around us pricks at my own magic like a static charge. It'll serve to bounce off any incoming arrows should one of them hear us on the other side of the thin layer of trees separating us from the road. We let the fire burn out last night, and the remainder of the smoke has cleared—as long as we stay still, there is no reason for them to notice us.

Sin slides his hand off my mouth and sets it on the ground next to my head. It would make too much noise for him to slide off me completely, so he hovers above me, supporting most of his weight between his arms that act like prison bars on either side of me. The clacking on the road grows louder until the group is directly parallel to us, hidden by the tall veil of trees.

"How much longer until the next pick-up?" a male voice asks.

"Shouldn't be more than a few days. They'll send word when they're ready for us," a woman replies.

"I'm fucking starving. Let's just go now."

A horse whinnies as the sharp ring of a slap pierces the air, and the male voice swears.

"We go when they tell us it's safe, and not a minute sooner. Do you understand?" the woman asks, not a drop of patience in her tone.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. I just wish they didn't take so fucking long."

The line of trotting horses moves past us, the hushed whisperings of their riders fading with them. When the sound of them quiets completely, Sin slides off me, and the crisp air assaults my skin where his body had been trapping our heat between us. I search for his eyes in the night, but it's too dark to distinguish more than the silhouette of his body.

The body that was just pinning me to the ground and protecting me with an invisible shield.

"What pick-up are they talking about?" I ask.

"I knew they had a supplier," he growls, more to himself than me.

"But you don't know who it is."

The laugh that comes from his chest is pure animal. "For now. But hunting is my favorite pastime."

My mouth dries at his words, knowing it is people he prefers to hunt.

"Should we follow them?"

"No. When we return tomorrow, I'll send men back here to pick up their trail and tail them. For now, go back to sleep."

Hoping he doesn't hear the fear in my voice, I say, "I'm not sleeping knowing they're that close to us."

"I'll stay awake and keep an ear out. It's fine—you can sleep."

I push up to a sitting position. "I'll stay up with you. It's better if we're both alert."

"No one is getting past me, Wren. If I hear anything, you'll be the first to know. I won't… nothing is going to happen to you if you sleep."

I don't say anything for a moment, wondering what he was about to say before he corrected himself. He did shelter me as soon as he heard Legion approaching. I have no reason to believe he wouldn't do it again.

"Fine," I agree, my tone clipped. "But if you hear anything—wake me immediately."

"Deal." He blows out an exasperated sigh. "You may call me many things, little witch, but I'm not daft. Only a fool would break a promise to a bloodwitch."

I can't tell if he means the comment to be sarcastic or not, so I merely shake my head knowing he can't see it and lie back down. And despite the adrenaline still pounding through my veins like stampeding horses, I find myself drifting in and out of sleep as exhaustion eventually weighs me down. At some point in the night, I fall over the edge completely, Sin's voice echoing in my head as the words he left unspoken now ring with the clarity of church bells.

I won't let something happen to you.