Page 57 of Truth's Blade

She wasn’t under any illusion about the value of that, though. And neither would Marchant be. A shiver ran down her back at the thought of what he would do with her if he ever understood her abilities.

A faint glimmer of light seemed to come from beneath the leaf-covered ground up ahead, and she slowed, skirting around the area, carefully extending a stick she found and poking at the forest floor. There was a place where it looked as if the ground had fallen away into a dark hole, but when she got closer, she saw it was a net, stretched over a pit, and it had pulled down on one side. The ropes were thick and made of hemp, rather than the gossamer silk of the one in her glove.

She hooked the stick under it, and heaved upward, dislodging leaves, but unable to move it up very much.

She almost tripped over the first stake, and she walked around the hole, working them free, and then pulled, so one whole side of the net fell into the hole.

She peered in and found Theo looking up at her. His hair and shoulders were covered in leaves, his hands and face dirt-streaked. “Melodie.”

She lifted a finger to her lips and he fell silent. Then she stepped to the edge and studied the trap.

It wasn’t that deep. On the face of it, Theo could climb out, so something was obviously stopping him.

She pulled the net completely clear of the hole and set it to one side. The moment it was completely away from the trap, she heard Theo’s labored breathing.

It had been dampening the sound from the hole. She gave it another look, saw the faint glimmer of light in the weave.

She shook her head. Had she ever encountered so many spell-worked objects in one place?

She stepped back to the edge of the hole and then crouched down, studying it.

Theo stood in a warrior stance, eyes narrowed, sword drawn.

After a moment, she rose and began to walk slowly around the hole, looking for the reason he couldn’t escape.

Theo moved with her, keeping her directly above him as she moved, and she finally noticed it. A thin line hooked into his coat, tethered to the ground.

Even as she saw it, Theo tried to climb up again, hands scrabbling in the dark, loose soil.

The line pulled him back.

She checked she still had her knife on her belt, then she jumped down into the hole.

The look of horror on Theo’s face made her suddenly doubt herself, as if there was another danger she hadn’t noticed.

“What the fuck, Mel?” He breathed the words in her ear as he pulled her close. She smelled sweat, and earth, and something so deliciously Theo, it sent a shiver through her. “You’re not supposed to throw yourself into the trap with me.”

“I’m cutting you free.” She pulled back, knife in hand, and crouched beside him. Then, having an idea, she pulled her glove tight and carefully worked the hook out of his jacket without even having to cut.

She studied it, but couldn’t see how it had hooked into Theo’s coat. And they didn’t have time for her to work it out.

She walked back to where it was tethered, and hooked the end into the iron loop that was buried in the ground.

“We should destroy it, but I don’t think we have time for that right now.”

He stood beside her, shook his head. “I can’t even see it. I don’t even know what it is.”

She straightened. “That’s why I’m here. We need to go,” she said, and he nodded, turned, and ran up the side of the hole and was up on the lip, looking down at her, in a moment.

He crouched, hand down, and she grabbed it, let herself be hauled up.

“Does Marchant know you fell into this?” she asked him, as soon as they were both away from the edge.

“I don’t know. I didn’t see him.” Theo looked furious with himself. “I fell in before he even arrived, I think.”

“Then let’s put the net back. I don’t think he knew you were here. Maybe it’s a trap that doesn’t warn him. Maybe he has to check it periodically. But I frightened him with the compliance net, so he ran away.” She moved to the net and Theo helped her stake it back in the ground over the hole.

Most of the leaves that had disguised the net had fallen into the pit when she’d pulled it free, but even as they finished stretching it across, more fell from above.

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