Emberhawk - Jamie Foley Page 0,28

element dulled. “What’s Zamara after this time?”

Felix stared at Ryon’s hands with those strange eyes. “Not sure yet. She keeps dumping her syn in different places so it’s difficult to track her movements.”

Ryon watched silver mist swirl through his fingers on its way to Felix, where it disappeared into his orange fur. “So you’re gathering power from all of your vessels,” he murmured. “Are you going to fight her?”

“If I can pin her down,” Felix said. “The more syn I hold, the easier it will be for her to sense me, but the same is true for you.” His green eyes swirled with surreal energy.

“So you think she might hunt me down.” Ryon looked at the dirty edges of his pant legs. “Did something happen to another one of your vessels?”

The fox’s pointed russet face seemed to fall solemn. “If she finds you, draining my syn would be the nicest thing she would do to the son of the traitor.”

A muscle in Ryon’s jaw twitched. “Watch it.”

“Move for Jadenvive at first light.” The silver dust came faster from Ryon’s skin in a sudden tickle. It twirled and compacted into a ball in midair. Felix chomped down on it and swallowed it whole, as if it were a joyberry. “If that gets infected, it’ll claim your life.”

Ryon shook his hands out and got to his feet. “Not all of us can be immortal.”

Felix snorted. “If you die, I’ll kill you.”

And with that, the fox turned, bounded into the forest, and vanished into the night.

14

KIRALAU

Kira’s stomach rumbled as she scanned the woods around her. The campfire popped, the nearby creek gurgled, and the insects sang, weaving a soothing chorus. But she was anything but calm.

If I could just walk, I would be home by daybreak. But she’d tried to stand as soon as Ryon was out of earshot, and her injury could not be negotiated with. She felt certain that it was just a sprain, and that it would heal quickly with the bone-knit—unless she tried to run away every half hour.

So she’d decided to sit and be patient, for now. She’d need energy to begin the trek to Jadenvive, assuming tonight’s sleep would heal it enough that she could walk come morning. And assuming she needed Ryon’s protection at all.

D’hakka could have just been hearsay, theoretically. Imaginary monsters to keep Navakovrae boys and girls from crossing the border. At least, giant tree-scorpions with spider legs sure sounded like something somebody made up. And they appeared in spooky children’s stories far more often than anyone claimed to have actually seen one.

Something clicked in the brush, and Kira’s pulse stuttered and leaped. She stared in the direction of the noise, keeping perfectly still as her eyes darted from branch to clawed branch.

Nothing moved.

A memory flared to life unsummoned. Tekkyn chased her and Lee as children around the pasture, making a strange clicking noise with his tongue. Click-click-click. “Aha! D’hakka’s gonna get you . . .”

Kira shook her head to banish the memory. It was probably just the fire. Or something. She took a deep breath of smoke-scented air. Bleed that Ryon! How could he promise to protect me and then leave me defenseless in the middle of nowhere?

Nausea reared its head and swam in her belly like an eel. Even if the wildlife wasn’t a threat, she feared an equal danger that was very real.

She was alone. In foreign territory. With a man she didn’t know.

Kira hugged herself even though the fire provided plenty of warmth against the midnight cold, which chilled the metal bangle against her skin. Ryon had hardly spoken since their tentative agreement to travel westward together. He’d hardly glanced at her, either. It was like he was always wearing that freakish mask. She just couldn’t read him.

What she did know was that he was a young man—all of whom had one common interest.

Kira selected a bundle of pine needles from the ground and plucked them out one by one. She’d always had her overprotective brothers and father, and she could toss knives better than any of the boys in Navarro. But Ryon had overpowered her in a matter of seconds, regardless of a serious wound, without using any weapons of his own.

And now he had all of her throwing knives tucked into their sheath, which was strapped to his thigh instead.

Kira slipped Ryon’s bangle off her wrist and inspected it in the firelight. It was far too big to be worn as a bracelet without danger of it falling