Page 77 of A Dagger of Ice and Intrigue
The barks and growls came closer.
I arched my brow, looking at her.
The girl tried the same maneuver, but only managed to propel herself against the other wall. She’d obviously trained for hand-to-hand combat and could probably take me out with one strong fist, but right now, she needed to be nimble, not strong.
I growled, tensed my leg muscles on both sides of the gate, and leaned down. “Give me your hand.”
She looked at my outstretched palm as if it would scald her.
The wolves finally found us, hurtling down the alley, snouts wrinkled with anger.
“Come on!” I roared, flexing my outstretched arm.
The girl swore loudly, jumped, and grabbed my hand.
In my unstable state, the slight weight of her pulled me down hard. I barely regained my balance, thanking the gods for all those countless hours I spent training my grip, and pulled her up, arm stinging and screaming.
Just as she straddled the gate, the wolves slammed into the wood, shaking us.
I wasn’t sticking around to see how high they could jump. “Run!”
We both leaped down and hit the cobblestones at a frantic pace, not straying away from each other.
Only after five more alleys, when the wolves’ bark was nothing but a distant, threatening echo, did we stop, right before another ice patch, the both of us more out of breath than we should have been.
That’s what fear did. Made you weak.
My back bowed, I placed my palms on my knees, using a wall to stand upright–but still kept my eyes trained on her. Right now, I didn’t care if she saw me like this.
Something was wrong.
Struggling to climb up the fortress stairs on the first day was understandable. Famished, thirsty, and cold, only my stubbornness had kept me going.
But I was fed and clothed properly now.
A simple run shouldn’t have winded me like this.
I expected the girl to make another snide remark. Maybe take that ax and try to finish what she’d started in the alley.
“Thank you,” she said instead. She didn’t look at me in this pitiful state, a small comfort.
“You’re…welcome,” I managed to say and licked my lips. “Why were they chasing you, too?”
“It seems the hounds hate any outsider, no matter where they come from. And theywillbite.” She snorted a mean laugh. “I’ve learned to stay away from the city’s center and you should, too.”
Not if I wanted to escape this mad place where dogs chased you down icy streets.
“Outsider?” I echoed. “How did you get in?”
And how can I leave? That history sounded too much to share with a stranger you didn’t trust enough to save your life until the last moment, but any scrap of information could help.
“I was brought here. And I’m not telling you how to get out,Huntress.”
I swallowed my annoyed sigh and righted myself, but didn’t move away from the wall–I feared my tired knees would give out if I did.
“Why were you following me?” I asked.
“I have more important things to do with my life than care where you skulk,” was her instant reply. Then she exhaled sharply through her nose, as if just remembering I’d saved her from being mauled alive–or at least some mean bites. “I was told where you were and came to get you.”
