Page 106 of Empire of Flame and Thorns

“What are you—” I begin, but he cuts me off.

“We’re finding you some food.” He shoots me a look. “I can’t have you passing out because I’m not going to carry you.”

A question that I have been pondering all day is right there on my tongue. Why haven’t you already left? Why haven’t you just shifted into your half-shift and flown away along the river without me? But I don’t dare to ask that question out loud. Not yet, anyway. So I simply follow him deeper into the woods.

Eventually, we find some fruits and berries that look vaguely edible. Draven tries them first, claiming that he will better be able to withstand poison or other unwanted side effects. When he deems them safe, he hands them all to me. I practically inhale them all.

Once I reach the end of my little feast, I slow down and instead study Draven’s face while I chew.

Noticing my staring, he frowns and meets my gaze. “What?”

“I was just thinking that I’m kind of glad that you managed to evade the knife that I slashed at your face before.”

The confusion in his eyes deepens, and he shakes his head at me in silent question.

I flash him a grin. “It would have been a shame to damage such a pretty face.”

A surprised laugh rips from his chest.

He snaps his mouth shut almost immediately, cutting it off, and shoots a stunned look down at his own chest. As if he can’t believe that that sound came out of his own body.

There is still a hint of amusement playing at the corner of his lips as he looks up and meets my gaze again. “You have an uncanny ability to?—”

An arrow shoots right past his face.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

Ithrow myself backwards as a cloud of arrows zips through the air. Hitting the ground behind the fallen tree I was sitting on, I roll across the grass while arrows crack into tree trunks around us with sharp thuds. Leaping to my feet again, I take cover behind a thick tree.

Across the grass, Draven is backing away as the arrows force him away from me. Black clouds and winds materialize around him as he summons his magic. But that only makes the stream of arrows grow more frantic.

I cry out in alarm as an arrow buries itself in the tree right next to my cheek. Jumping backwards, I try to scramble out of the storm of arrows that pelts us both.

“We need to split up,” I call as I duck and twist. “We’re too big of a target together. We need to split their attention.”

“Don’t you dare—” Draven begins, but I cut him off.

I know that I’m right. As long as they can surround us and shoot at us both at the same time, we’ll be trapped.

“We’ll meet up at the river,” I yell.

Anger flashes across his face as he shoots winds and lightning at the trees where the arrows are coming from. I yelpand leap back farther as an arrow almost takes me in the chest. It’s time to go. Now.

“The river is miles long,” Draven snaps back at me. “Whichpartof the river?”

“The wet part!”

Frustrated growls and crackling lightning strikes answer me, but I don’t stop to listen. Instead, I whirl around and sprint right into the woods in the other direction.

If half of our ambushers follow me, Draven should be able to take out his half as soon as he is no longer surrounded. So all I need to do is to lead my half away, give them the slip, and then circle back around.

Thankfully, my energy has now returned since I manage to eat most of the food before we were attacked.

With my heart pounding in my chest, I dash between the colorful trees. Arrows zip past me. But there is no sound of footsteps behind me. That just makes even more dread crash over me. How can an entire group of people be following me without making any sound?

Grabbing a tree trunk, I swing myself around it and dart to the left.

An entire rain of arrows speeds past right in front of my face.

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