Page 120 of Cursed Shadows 4

My mouth sucks inwards and I bite down on my lips.

I tread with them, in perfect tandem, and my wary gaze is glued to Dare’s back.

I don’t want this.

I don’t want to betray them, to reveal Dare’s location to enemies nearby. But I can’t,I can’t, let them take me to the summit.

The thought trickles through me like frost—and just a moment after, Dare turns his chin to his shoulder… and he reaches out his slender hand for mine.

My throat bobs.

That’s it.

The sign. The indication he gives, the way he tells me, indirectly, that his senses have been disturbed.

We are nearing the end of the plateau—and we are nearing the litalves hidden in those woods.

I step closer to Dare’s back, but I don’t offer my hand to his grip.

He doesn’t question it. His hand drops to his side and, satisfied, turns his stare back to the woods that draw nearer and nearer.

Again, my throat bobs. No matter how many harsh swallows I force, that ball is still wedged in there, on the verge of choking me.

It’s easy to form the scheme, but as it creeps closer, and it’s my time to move, to betray the three of them, hesitation has me faltering.

My breaths come out with faint, hushed trembles.

The others hear it. No doubt in my mind about that. But they will dismiss the shuddering fear through my nostrils as the threat of the litalves, not the dread at what I am about to do.

I steel myself. I force my mind to focus on one thing.

Target three.

I am target three.

If I’m to guess, Daxeel is target one. I suppose him as more of a threat on this mountain for two reasons: He has his evate as a second anchor, and he was the one to complete the first passage and walk away with the Cursed Shadows.

That makes Caius target two.

Which is one priority above me.

I’m easier to take out.

But if I help the litalves out a little… If I help make Caius that bit more vulnerable, will they chase me over him?

I’m going to find out.

I don’t attack head-on. Not my style. And I have no chance of success if Caius even suspects for a moment what I’m about to do.

Now is my moment.

With his gaze swerving and shifting over the horizon, from tree to tree, fog to mist, cliffside to boulder, he is homed in on creeping threats. Not on me.

My fists clench for a mere heartbeat before I push into action: I force my boots to slip over the smooth surface of the rocky plateau.

A gasp spears through me, but before the rocky floor can rush up to meet me, Caius is jerked out of his watchfulness, and he moves for me.

His big, meaty hand seizes the nape of my neck.

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