Page 87 of A Dagger of Ice and Intrigue
We know where you are.
Three days, two miles away from the crater’s rim, south-west, follow the morning star.
We’ll come for you.
Chapter
Sixteen
ALLIE
My steps quickened as the hot coals stashed in the metal soap dish I’d pilfered from the wash room heated up my thigh through the satchel.
Everything I had on me was stolen.
Borrowed, Vegheara. Borrowed. You’ll send them back or pay for them after you’ve reclaimed your throne and settled things in Aquila.
No matter how much I repeated that to myself, it brought no comfort.
Only more guilt.
The borrowed boots smacked the cobblestones, the vibration shooting straight through my frazzled body.
Three days of stuffing myself with Mrs. Thornbrew’s amazing cooking–I was woman enough to admit I’d miss her venison stew for the rest of my life–sleeping, plotting, and not much else, I still felt weak.
Weaker than I should have been.
Weaker than I needed to be on this journey.
But it was my only shot at reclaiming my Clan.
The streets felt even emptier than usual, the city still stirring awake in the grey morning hours.
Since the girl had found me so embarrassingly easy, I’d been forced to seek a different path today.
I still didn’t know how I was followed. The Commander said the sky sees, but that…that was impossible, right?
The clouds looked fiercer than usual, gathering in menacing jagged lines above, as if trying to cover us all.
As if the crater felt I wanted to get out and wanted to keep me here.
The constant wind didn’t hiss today, making the silence more eerie as I navigated streets I’d never been down before.
My heartbeats pattered something awful in my chest as I neared the market buildings, lower and bulkier than the rest.
At least there were no barks or massive paws hitting the pavement–
The hairs on the back of my neck stood as I neared the back of the sweets shop.
The cobblestones pulsed purple right underneath my boots.
I jumped back as if scalded.
The cats on the window ledges and fence hissed and arched their backs.
The purple light slashed together in one jagged line, its sharp head aimed straight at me.
For a few frozen moments, I stared at the line of light bleeding from between the cobblestones and I swore it stared right back at me.
