Page 36 of A House of Cloaks & Daggers

Light encircled my arm, warm and bright, and filled my nose with the scent of musk and ink and—

It was gone. Abruptly, as if Wren had yanked it back at the earliest possible moment. The pain in my arm disappeared, along with the wounds, without leaving so much as a scar.

“Let’s go.” He clicked his tongue, and Elera began to plod along the road in the same direction I had chosen earlier.

I was right.

The tiniest bloom of pride expanded in my chest at that thought, although fatigue quickly snuffed it out.

“Can I just rest for a minute?” I begged. I was exhausted. Gravity had come back in full swing, intent on squashing me upon the road.

“No.”

Scuffing my feet along the dirt, I jogged to catch up with them, shoulders slumping so far forward that I thought I might trip and fall head over heels onto the ground. “Can we at least take turns on the horse?”

“No.” Wren didn’t look at me.

“Why not?” I complained. I was keenly aware that I was sounding more and more like a whining child caught in a bad mood, but I didn’t have the energy to spare on caring.

“She’s a unicorn, and she’s mine. Get your own horse.”

Chapter fifteen

Sthiara

Wren wanted me tobelieve that I had unleashed a kernel of my own magic in self-defence and killed that Banshee myself.

I did not.

It didn’t matter that he had come back for me. I still couldn’t trust him.

It was far more likely that he’d blasted a hole through the creature himself and was trying to trick me into falling for some elaborate hoax, wherein I would ask him to help me master my power, and he would have me hopping in a circle and chanting nonsense before both heandhis damn unicorn burst out laughing.

Elera clipped and clopped down the lane in a meandering walk, unsympathetic to the fact that my legs had to move much faster to keep up with her graceful strides. Wren perched upon her back, spine straight and head held high as he scanned theempty fields like he was on patrol. The body of the Banshee was miles and miles behind us when the bones of civilisation began to appear around us.

First, there were fences, smooth wood lining the perimeters of the golden fields. Then, small cottages rose up in the distance, gentle curls of white smoke wafting from their chimneys.

We passed one such cottage that was much closer to the road than the others. It was a cobblestone house with vines of crawling wisteria, a jade-green slate roof and reinforced sash windows. Oozing with old-fashioned charm, it captivated my attention as we strolled past. Brynn would have loved it. Larger and grander than our townhouse, flaunting a blooming front garden lined with spectacularly large and vibrant flowers, it was exactly the sort of home she deserved to have.

“Goblins don’t particularly like to be observed,” Wren muttered from above me.

I was quickly tiring of his commentary, though there hadn’t been as much of it that day, and pretended I hadn’t heard him. As he’d done with Elera’s introduction, he was likely trying to spook me. Besides, Goblins didn’t make many appearances in the stories I’d read. From snippets glimpsed on television shows, they were reportedly greedy enough to covet a dwelling like that, but they would rather strip the house of its riches and drag the hessian sacks of gold and jewels back into their dark caves.

The hedges rustled. Wren swore.

“Oh,nowyou’ve done it.”

There was no time for me to look up at him and discern his meaning.

My eyes caught the flash of mint-green triangles above the hedges in the front yard, and then the ground was ripped out from under me as Wren yanked me up and onto my stomach over Elera’s back.

I struggled to right myself, but she broke into a gallop before I had the chance, and it was all I could do to hold onto her flank with my hands and feet as she tore off down the lane.

Auburn curls blowing across my face, I could barely make out the shape of a small, pale green creature as it burst out of the hedges and sprinted after us on all fours. I couldn’t be sure I’d seen the flash of silver, razor-sharp teeth or its long, pointed ears either.

Elera had put too much distance between us too quickly.

I gagged over her flank as the urge to throw up intensified.

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