Page 61 of A Lick of Flame

I strain against my shackles until blood trickles from my wrists. I moan against the gag. It’s futile.

“Can you be quiet?!” one of the guards growls.

“I could knock him out cold,” the other guard says.

“No, leave him be,” Charles tells him.

I have never been more frustrated or helpless in my life. I let out a yelp of joy through my gag – it comes out sounding more like a muffled groan – when I see the tent catch fire.

My joy quickly turns to panic when Maya doesn’t exit the tent. Hamlin staggers out. I note that he is fully clothed. Maya runs out behind him; she stops and looks around her at the abject chaos.

“Hey! What is that?” one of the guards says.

“What in the gods’ names?!” Charles shouts. All three of them run toward the fire, which has now engulfed the whole tent. A second structure catches alight.

Looking my way, Maya gathers her skirts and runs toward me. She has a bunch of keys in her hand. She drops down next to me and starts trying the different keys.

I moan against the gag as my wrist shackles come off. She gets to work on my feet while I unfasten the gag.

“You did it,” I say.

“Of course I did.”

I notice that her dress is falling off her shoulder and gaping a little in the front. I can see the tops of her lush breasts, which are on the verge of spilling out. I try not to look at her or to feel the rubbing inside me. It’s anger and lust and jealousy. I want to march over to that prick Hamlin and punch him in the face repeatedly.

“What are you doing?” Maya growls. “We need to go!” she whisper-shouts.

I realize with a start that she’s unlocked the shackles on my ankles.

I nod and jump to my feet. We run for the horses. Relief floods me when I see that the person sent to check on the horses has returned to the fire. They are trying to beat out the flames, but it isn’t working. Another of the structures catches alight. It’s bedlam right now, but it won’t be long before they have it under control and realize that we are gone.

“I’ll get Midnight,” Maya tells me.

I start to argue because she needs to take the horse right next to this one. We don’t have time for her to find Midnight. Instead, I think better of it. I doubt that Maya would listen to me even if I tried.

“Hurry,” I say instead.

I start to untie one of the horses on the farthest end. It doesn’t take me long. I do up the saddle cinch and lead my horse out.

I stop dead when I see Bard. He has Maya in a hold, her back to his front. My eye is drawn to the knife at her neck. The one pressing into her jugular. One nick, and she’d bleed out in an instant.

“You didn’t think it would be that easy, did you?” he says. “It’s the oldest tactic in the book: create a diversion and then escape while your enemy’s attention is elsewhere.”

By all the scales on a dragon, this is bad! It’s terrible!

What now?

“I can see your mind working, Dante. Don’t do it. I know you. I know you’ll—”

“You do know me, Bard. That’s exactly it. I might have pointy ears, but I’m still the person who fought beside you for all those years. The person who took the fall for you two years ago. How’s the shoulder?” I ask.

Bard took an arrow and was struggling to mount his horse. I helped him. He got away from the fae marauders. I didn’t. I was captured.

“I spent two years in the pit fighting for my life. Two long years.”

“Now you figure I owe you?” He lifts his brows.

“No. You don’t owe me,” I say with reluctance. I want to agree with him and to plead with him to let us go, but I don’t. “I chose to save you, and I would make the same decision again in a heartbeat. I mean, you were about to become a father for the fifth time. I couldn’t let them take you away from your family.”

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