"Does that mean you plan to fly up there?" Eva asked.
"I want to," Brisa admitted, not quite able to hide the yearning on her face as she looked from the storm to Eva. "But now is not my time."
"How will you know when it is your time?" Eva found herself asking.
There was something in this conversation that tugged at her. A whisper of knowledge that she needed.
It hovered just out of reach. An annoying prickle driving her to possess it, but every time she reached for it, it slipped through her fingers.
"I'll just know. The world will tell me," Brisa answered.
Eva squinted at the clouds, catching wings as dark as night.
Brisa nodded, seeing where her attention had gone. “Sebastian would have felt the call too. I wouldn’t expect him back anytime soon. He won’t be able to resist playing in a storm like this until the worst of the fury is spent.”
Warin cleared his throat. "As interesting as that is, we still have a job to do. Those horses aren't going to corral themselves."
Jason shot him a disgusted look.
Eva nodded. "He's right. We don't have time for this."
Not with the storm threatening to let loose at any moment. Once it did, their job of recovering the rest of the horses would be nearly impossible.
"Don't stray too far from the main body," Drake remind her. "We don't know who could be out here."
"That's why you brought warriors, isn't it?" Eva asked.
Drake bent a no nonsense look on her that made Eva grin.
"I know. We'll be as quick as possible. We wouldn't want to tempt fate," Eva said, shooting one last look at the storm before clicking her tongue at Caia.
To her surprise, the mare refused to budge. Even when Eva flicked the reins and squeezed her sides with her knees, Caia didn't move.
"Caia?" Eva questioned.
This wasn't like her friend. Caia wasn't some ill trained mount liable to spook at the smallest thing. If she was balking, she had a reason. Something Eva's human senses were missing.
Eva stroked Caia's neck. "What is it, my heart?"
The mare's ears swiveled before lying flat against her skull.
Eva's instincts roared.
"Ambush," she screamed.
Brisa launched herself skyward, an arrow piercing her wing before she could catch the wind and take flight. She screamed as she plummeted to the ground.
Eva was off Caia in an instant.
"My wing; I can't move it," Brisa moaned as Eva crouched beside the Tenrin, her gaze swooping over her body.
An arrow was lodged in her right wing, the appendage drooping behind her. Brisa struggled to bend it, a whine of pain leaving her as it collapsed again.
"Don't do that," Eva warned.
"What do I do?" There was a broken note in Brisa's voice. "I can't fly. How do I survive if I can't fly?"
"It's going to be fine," Eva assured her even as screams of pain rose around her.
Somehow, she'd make this right. Just as soon as she figured out how.
Jason pulled his horse to a stop on the other side of Caia, his eyes on the hills to their left where shapes were massing. "Eva, we can't stay here."
"Help me get her on Caia," Eva ordered.
She stood, lifting Brisa up. Jason, to her relief, didn't waste time arguing. He reached to steady Brisa from his spot on his horse as Eva guided her onto Caia's back.
Jason looked behind Eva, his expression freezing into a mask of horror at what he saw there.
Eva’s eyes closed as she braced for pain. Thunder rumbled, drowning out all sound. When it abated, there was no pain. Only a body pressed against hers, trapping her against Caia.
Jason's expression was stricken as he stared over Eva's shoulder, looking like he was about to cry.
Drake's voice rasped in her ear. "Go. Don't look back."
Only Eva did look back, fighting a sense of growing inevitability. A hopelessness that crept into her heart and refused to leave.
The sight of blood spreading in a wide circle from where an arrow had punched through his upper chest was jarring next to the smile that greeted her. One made up of beauty and a pureness that she'd remember for the rest of her days.
"You know you have to," he told her, setting one hand on the injured Tenrin.
Tears rolled down Eva's cheeks as she suppressed a sob.
In desperation and not knowing what else to do, Eva reached out for her mind. Sebastian. Please.
Silence echoed around her, no sign her friend had heard her.
Thunder rumbled overhead, the storm’s call drowning out her own.
If you can hear me, please answer.
Sebastian’s voice remained absent, only the buzz of the storm and its relentless pull growing by the moment.
Eva closed her eyes. They were on their own. No help was coming from that corner.
And she couldn’t stay, Drake was right about that.
If Brisa were to die, Covath would blame the Trateri for her death. There would be no peace. Only violence and hatred.
If she stayed, she risked Brisa and the Trateri would have no choice but to fight to the death. She and Brisa would still fall or be caught in the end.
The only chance any of them had was for Eva to go and take Brisa with her.
It was a difficult decision that went against everything Eva was.
One Drake didn't intend to wait for Eva to make. Despite his injuries, he picked her up and set Eva on Caia's back.
"You take care of her," he told Jason, holding the other's eyes for a long second.
Jason's nod was faint, his eyes screaming the same reluctance to leave that Eva felt.
Drake flashed a crooked smile as Warin and his men rode toward the hills. The figures at the top plunged down the slope toward them, cutting off Eva and Jason's path back to the main body. "Caden was right; you have the makings of an Anateri. Now, go. We'll buy you time. Don't stop until you find safety."
Drake slapped Caia's rump.
The mare lunged forward, her hooves pounding over the ground as her gait flattened out.
Eva's heart was in her throat as she steadied Brisa, taking one last look at Drake standing silhouetted by the hills around him.
Caia carried them around a bend in the trail, leaving Drake and the rest behind.
Eva faced forward, her heart in her throat as they rode away from the ambush and the promise of safety lying on the other side.
"They're following us," Jason called.
Eva looked up, seeing figures running along the ridge to their right. As she watched, a few took their lives in hand as their horses leapt down the rocky slopes.
Foolish idiots. That was a good way to break a horse's leg.
Eva supposed that wasn't important to them. They only cared about catching her and Brisa. Eva tightened her grip on the Tenrin, being careful not to crush Brisa’s wings. It was awkward trying to hold the girl as Eva was forced to juggle Brisa’s wings while also not letting her fall. "This will hurt a little."
The girl was hanging on to consciousness by the thinnest of margins. Eva was afraid of the shock and blood loss but there was no time to stop.
Now that they were cut off, their ambushers between them and safety, their only chance for survival was stalling until Caden and his people could find them again.