Page 13 of Ember and Eclipse
“We don’t have time for sleep. We have to make it to town, preferably before the rain. Friend won’t be able to traverse the valley-like streets once they flood,” the hunter explained without looking at her.
“Which town?”
“Gavenport.”
Of course.The only mortal city this side of Heigar’s Pass. The free port of the free people, they called it. Ironic, seeing as how she was a captive.
If she was going to escape, she needed to do itbeforethey reached the city.
Chapter IX
Likethenightbefore,they stopped some hours after sunset. Her body only felt mildly better, and she supposed she had her mage father to thank for that particular gift. She healed faster due to the witch blood in her veins. Though she imagined a full witch probably healed even quicker.
Even though she was still sore, she planned on killing him and escaping that evening. They’d be close to Gavenport in two days’ time, and it would be more difficult to kill him and get away with it there.
Though it was challenging, she fought to stay awake. When she laid down, she had faced away from him, but now she took the opportunity to roll over. On the other side of the fire, the hunter slept in the patchy grass with only a rolled-up shirt bracing his neck and head. He was on his back, his arms folded over his chest and ankles crossed as if he didn’t have a care in the world. She watched as his torso rose and fell shallowly, indicating sleep.
Hopefully.
It called to mind a predator who was comfortable sleeping in the open because it knew it was at the top of the food chain.
And she hoped to use that to her advantage.
Rel only had the knowledge from taking off all his weapons to go on. There was a dagger sheathed on his side, the leather holder worn from years of use. It would be the easiest to dislodge and use before he awoke. Silently, she sat up and slowly curled her legs beneath her. When he still didn’t move, and his breathing didn’t change, she stood up. She was paces from him—the only thing between them was the softly crackling fire. Careful to mind her step, she tiptoed around the flames so that she would end up near his boots instead of his head.
It took her long, heart-pounding minutes before she was standing over him. One thing she was good at from her years in Romul was making herself disappear in plain sight. Moving quietly, fading into a crowd, acting small. Though it didn’t always save her from the whims of the prince, she imagined there were plenty of times it had.
Carefully and as stealthily as an assassin, she stepped over him so that she was straddling him, standing in such a way that her shadow didn’t pass over his features. Her gaze moved between the knife and his face, watching for any signs of alertness. And then she waited. She would have to crouch and pull the knife out at the same time. There wouldn’t be time to slit his throat. She would have to stab him in the torso. Repeatedly. The violence she was about to inflict made her stomach churn.
Mercy is always a weakness.
It was him or her. She knew weakness intimately. She’d lived a long life where she was compliant, or at the very least, not combative. But that was not who she was anymore.
Rel dove for the knife at the same time she pressed her body weight into his hips. The blade slipped from its sheath easily and was in her hand. Without waiting for his reaction, she brought it up…
Except she was suddenly jerked forward,intothe hunter.
The next thing she knew, she was on her back. The dagger was no longer in her palm, but the bite of steel against her neck was a good indicator of where it went.
The hunter’s body crushed hers, pressing her into the hard ground and effectively trapping her beneath him. His teeth were against her throat on the other side of the sharp knife that had already drawn blood. The sound he unleashed against her skin was so animalistic that fear lanced through her.
It was nothing but their harsh breathing for a heartbeat.
“You may have been as silent as a prey afraid of waking a sleeping beast”—his lips brushed against her flesh as he spoke—“but you’re prey nonetheless.”
“I amnotprey,” she hissed. “And I am not afraid of you.”
The pressure of the knife’s edge let up, and warm crimson trickled down her neck. Hot and smooth, his tongue was against her throat in its place. He laved up her blood in a slow swipe of his tongue.
A foreign feeling heated her. Some mix of repulsion and allure. An almost silent gasp parted her lips.
“Your heart says otherwise.” He finally lifted his head from her neck. The look in his eyes was so savage, so primitive, that for a moment, she thought perhaps hewasa predator of the night. The red of her blood stained his full bottom lip before he slowly ran his tongue across it.
And then, as if reining in the beast, the look dissipated in a flash. He appeared no more than a man. Albeit, a very dangerous one.
“I could have killed you.”
“You should have,” she managed to say, throwing his own words back at him.
