Page 89 of A Throne of Blood & Vengeance

Didn’t seem fair after I’d had to listen to him run his mouth for weeks.

“So we leave the horses behind and walk through,” Samara said, interrupting my internal griping. “Rynn, Cali, and I all have experience spotting the doors because we visited the badlands often when we were at Drudonia. We can forge a path.”

I almost pointed out that Rynn had fallen into a trap on her way to us, but I bit my tongue. In some ways, the active trapdoors were easier to spot because the trappers kept the areas clear, whereas the abandoned ones were covered by dried up plants and other random debris.

Cali glanced up at the sun and grimaced before giving Roth an appraising look. “Without the horses, we’ll have to run to make it to the temple before nightfall.”

“Your point?” Roth asked flatly. I glanced over my shoulder to find them scowling at Cali and rubbed my hand over my mouth to hide my grin. Cali was only voicing what we wereall thinking—Roth’s idea of physical activity was getting a book down from the highest shelf in the library.

And they’d created magical freaking ropes to help them with that . . . amongst other things, I suspected, based on how I’d caught Samara blushing sometimes when Roth’s ropes shifted on their forearms.

“I can carry them if need be,” I offered.

Samara’s jaw practically dropped as she stared at me.

“What?” I asked, shuffling a little on my feet.

“Aww, he wants to feel useful,” Kieran joked. “Let him put all those muscles to use, Rothie Bear.”

Roth and I both glared at the blond courtier, but he just smiled wider. Then one of Roth’s ropes started to unwind from their forearms—likely to choke Kieran—but Samara smoothly cut in.

“Thank you for the offer, Vail.” She walked over to Roth and took their hand, gently wrapping the rope back around their forearm while Roth continued staring daggers at Kieran. “Roth, will you be okay running?”

Bright orange lines bled through Roth’s hazel eyes as their bloodlust rose. “Don’t worry about my stamina, Samara. I can sure as fuck outlast Kieran.”

“That sounds like a fun game,” Kieran murmured.

“I do like games that are a win-win for me.” Samara grinned smugly. “Let’s make it to the temple, and then we can play.”

My mind ever so helpfully conjured up the memory of Samara tied up in that cabin while Draven and I tried to make her scream.

Fuck.

“You okay there, Marshal?” Cali drawled. Her tone was casual, but she still looked at me like prey she was determined to take down.

I’d have to be careful as we made our way through trapper territory. Something told me that if Cali saw an opportunity toaccidentallyknock me into a trapdoor, she’d take it.

“If we’re going to do this, we should get moving,” I said gruffly, trying to ignore how uncomfortably tight my pants felt right now and willing my hard-on to go away. “Rynn has the best senses out of all of us. She shifts and takes the lead. Cali can scout from overhead. I’ll take the rear guard.”

It was so easy to fall back into ranger mode, I hadn’t even realized I’d done it until I’d given the orders . . . ones I would have given to Adrienne, Emil, and Nyx in different times.

I wouldn’t be doing that again. Two of my rangers were dead, and Nyx . . . I didn’t know what Nyx was.

For a second, the grief and rage I felt were almost crippling. Until I ruthlessly shoved them into the depths of my soul, slammed the door shut, and threw away the key. Dwelling on what had happened wouldn’t help us now. Carmilla would pay. I’d make sure of it.

“It’s a good plan,” Draven said, cutting off Cali, who looked pissed off at being told what to do. I hadn’t meant to give her orders like that, they’d just slipped out. “I’ll do my best to sense the spiders if they go on the move, but I likely won’t be able to give much warning if it’s them springing a trap.”

“Understood.” I nodded at him thankfully—something I never thought I would be doing. “Let’s see to the horses and then get going.”

I strode back to the black mare Samara and I had ridden, took the reins that Kieran wordlessly passed to me, and started untying my bags. Suddenly, Samara was there, holding out her hand.

“I can carry it a?—”

“Or you can stop being difficult and let me carry one of them.” She curled her fingers quickly several times in a veryclear hand-it-over gesture. “Crossbow too. I’m a better shot, and you know it.”

I grunted because it was true. Samara was shit with a sword, but she was the best shot I’d ever seen with a bow—or a throwing dagger.

“Aim for dead center between their eyes and fangs. It won’t kill them, but it will mess up their sense of direction.” I passed her the bag, waited for her to secure it to her back, and then unlatched the crossbow. She greedily took it from my hands and checked it over quickly before accepting the quiver of bolts from me as well.

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