Don't Touch My Men - Helen Scott Page 0,70

those I loved. Now was not the time for those kinds of thoughts though. I needed to steel myself, to focus on the surprise that would give me the edge in the upcoming fight.

As soon as a commotion was heard outside the auditorium, I knew it had to be Adelle.

Now was my time.

I unsheathed the sword and pushed off, sprinting toward the throne on the stage and launching myself into the air, ready to strike. The Horseman moved to the side at the last second, and my blade went wide. Having put so much force into my jump meant that I had to tuck and roll when I landed to slow down my momentum.

“You know you won’t be leaving this hall alive, yes?” The Horseman’s creepy ass voice echoed around in my head as well as my ears as he spoke.

I pushed to my feet and paced around him, noting where the pieces of the skull were sitting next to his throne. If I couldn’t land a hit, then the least I could do was try and steal a piece of the skull, maybe I’d be able to destroy it or something. I was sure someone had probably already tried, but they wouldn’t have had the end of the world breathing down their neck, and that was a pretty damn good motivator.

The Horseman was big—bigger than me without his head and almost twice as wide. He loomed over me in his thick leather armor and black cape like he was a movie villain, only he wasn’t. As he drew his sword, I knew if he was able to get a single hit in, then I’d be dead. Just the force behind it would probably have my body ripping and breaking in ways it was definitely not supposed to.

Still, when I spotted an opening in his defensive posture, I lunged. My sword practically bounced off his armor, and in that moment, I knew there was more to it than just leather. It was either enchanted or had steel underneath. Since I didn’t feel the hard surface of steel with my hit, I was betting on the enchantment. I didn’t know any witches or mages that could perform magic like that, but the Horseman had been around for thousands of years, so anything was on the table really.

He swung at me as we edged around each other, and I was barely able to avoid the brunt of the hit. The tip of the sword caught my thigh, but I couldn’t focus on that. I waited until I was in the position I wanted, and then swung once more. My sword rebounded off his armor, and I exaggerated the effect and took a fake tumble, knocking the table with the head pieces on it over and landing on the floor.

Without pausing, I grabbed a piece of the skull and sprinted away from him. I knew he had strong magic, I’d seen him use it on Mae, but I was hoping that if I got out of his line of theoretical sight, then it would make it harder for him to use. So I ducked and dived behind things backstage as I made my way to the door.

As I opened the door, I heard the Horseman call out, “You can’t get off the property. We’ll find you eventually.”

I knew he was right, based on what had happened with Mae, but that didn’t mean I was just going to let them catch me. I sprinted out of the building through the closest exit I could find, hearing shouts behind me, and took off toward the building in the graveyard. Mae had warned me to stay away, but if people were avoiding it, then that made it an excellent hiding spot. At least for now.

The worst thing I could do as the prey in this hunt was stay in one spot for too long, but I needed a moment to figure out my next move.

31

Mae

Hours later, we were driving through the night. Leftover boxes of food were bagged up in the back, and Hunter and Alastair slept soundly. Ellis drove, the headlights two sparks of light in the dark of the road ahead.

I still couldn’t fucking believe it. We got the skull. And then we lost it to some old lady and a golem. It felt like a nightmare.

It could take the old lady just as long as us to reach the Horseman, or she could use more of her wicked magic to beat us there.