His eyes widen at my anger, then narrow. Finally, a perplexed crease grows on his forehead. “I don’t—”
“We’re wasting time,” I snap. “Decide whether to help me or not. If not, then get off my bird.”
A dangerous smile settles on his lips. The light of intelligence in his eyes grows even brighter. “I will help you. Then I will die.”
I’m already regretting my actions as I lean forward, crying to my thunderbird, “Treble! Fly!”
I won’t tell Treble where we need to go until we’re in the air. I can’t chance Cyrian following us.
Treble cracks his wings, a single powerful sweep carrying us up into the air. I grip with my thighs and wrap both of my arms around Nathaniel to keep him securely positioned. He’s heavy and it’s difficult, but I’ve held him in place on Treble’s back before. I wasn’t so fatigued then as I am now, but I tell myself that I can do it again.
Hagan lurches with the sudden movement, his knees knocking into Nathaniel’s before his reflexes kick in—the muscles in his arms and legs visibly tensing as he adjusts his balance. He’s not in the most comfortable position, facing backward, squished between Treble’s wing joints and Nathaniel’s unconscious form.
Below us, Cyrian raises his hand in Hagan’s direction, preparing to let loose the dark light he controls, but Treble is already banking to the left. Once again, I become a shield between Cyrian and Hagan.
As Treble rises into the haze, seeking concealment in its murky depths, I take one last look at the arena below us.
Cyrian’s arm drops to his side. The hunters watch us leave, their faces upturned while their weapons lower. The patch of bloody sand where Nathaniel lay becomes smaller as we rise. Finally, it’s nothing more than a crimson bloom far below us.
As the haze envelops us, I face forward again, finding myself the focus of Hagan’s attention.
I may have left one danger behind, but I’ve brought another threat with me.
Chapter 3
I meet Hagan’s eyes across the small gap between us. Now that we’ve entered the haze, the air is murky and cold, visibility obscured, but I can see the dangerous glint in his eyes all the same. I’m not too concerned since he isn’t carrying any weapons now, while I still have my hidden sword and dagger.
Leaning to the side, I call past him again. “Treble, take us west. Look for a patch of overgrown plants and vines that are as black as night and as red as blood. We need to fly west of the Bitter Patch into Mathilda’s territory.”
Without taking his eyes off me, Hagan repositions his grip on Treble, his hands settling across the top of Treble’s wing joints on either side. He inclines his head sharply at Nathaniel, raising his voice over the rushing wind. “You’re destined to kill Nathaniel, yet you’ve saved him many times. Why?”
Inwardly, I sigh. I guess it was too much to hope that he wouldn’t demand answers while he has my undivided attention.
I snap back. “Why did you push Nathaniel out of the wolf’s path?”
Hagan takes a sharp breath as if he’s preparing for an equally sharp response, but he slowly exhales instead. His shoulders hunch. “All I had to do was keep Nathaniel fighting until dawn. No matter how tired we got, as long as we kept fighting, we would both get what we wanted.”
My lips part slowly with shock as I register the meaning behind his statement. He’d bargained for control over Christiana and then he’d set her free.
I speak slowly, testing my thoughts. “You wanted Christiana’s freedom. Volunteering to challenge Nathaniel was the only way to free her.”
Hagan gives a single nod. “She despises me, but she’s all I’ve got left that’s worth fighting for.”
I narrow my eyes at him. “What about the fight between you and Nathaniel?”
He shrugs, his voice so quiet that I almost don’t hear him over the wind. “Nathaniel and I used to spar against each other all of the time. We could fight for hours and neither of us would win.” He looks up again. “Nathaniel would have remembered that.”
“You really intended to keep fighting until dawn.”
“As long as Nathaniel was alive at dawn, he would remain Cyrian’s champion,” Hagan says. “Then I could walk away knowing Christiana was safe.”
I search Hagan’s face, wondering how much of his story I can take as truth. Sudden pain overwhelms me. My voice holds my accusation. “You may claim your motives weren’t malicious, but when Nathaniel was dying, you chose to finish it.”
Hagan’s jaw clenches. “I pushed him out of the wolf’s path. Everyone saw me do it. If we’d kept fighting, I could have made it look like I’d done it to protect myself. Once Nathaniel fell, I had no choice but to follow through.”
I shake my head in disagreement. “But—”
“No!” he bellows. He leans forward, his eyebrows drawn down. “If Nathaniel bled out slowly until after dawn and then died, your queen would rule Fell country by default. Cyrian may be brutal, but he needs us. Your queen will eradicate the human race as soon as she has the chance.”
I can’t control my rage. “I would have saved him!”
Hagan jolts back as far as he can without upsetting his seat on Treble’s back, surprise flooding his expression at my vehemence.
He starts to speak, but I shout him down. “The minute dawn arrived—the first instant that I thought I could use my power—I would have saved Nathaniel. The same way I did just now. He was never going to die. He will not die!”
I take a deep, shuddering breath, trying to calm my emotions. Starlight leaks through my armor again and I can’t afford to lose any more of it.
Hagan is equally angry as he glares back at me. “Why would I believe you?”
We’re right back to where we started. He’s demanding to know why I want to save Nathaniel when I’m supposed to kill him—when Nathaniel’s life means my death. It’s the most important question I’ll ever need to answer and it’s being asked of me by a man who, for all intents and purposes, is one of my most dangerous enemies.
“Because I don’t belong to Imatra,” I whisper.
Yesterday, Nathaniel gave me the message that his dying father asked him to deliver to me. He promised his father he would find me—the girl with hair the color of bone—and tell me I didn’t belong to the fae.
I didn’t understand it yesterday—still don’t understand it—but since then, I’ve seen how the humans live. I’ve seen their country, their hollow eyes, and felt Nathaniel’s determination to free them, his unbending certainty about his path.
My loyalties can’t belong to the fae anymore—or even to the humans. I have to be loyal to myself.
I have to be true to the only outcome that can possibly bring peace to both Bright and Fell: Nathaniel has to rule.
Hagan leans forward again, but this time, he moves slowly and carefully, his head tilted, his lips pursed in a questioning line. “What did you say?”
I raise my voice so he can hear me over the wind. “I don’t belong to them! I betrayed my queen when I crossed the border. If it weren’t for the Law of Champions, she would have hunted me down and killed me, the same way Cyrian wishes he could kill Nathaniel. Neither of us is fighting for our monarchs. We’re fighting…”