Fear of Fire and Shadow (The Fade #1) - Samantha Young Page 0,41

into the saddle like an acrobat. She grabbed the reins expertly, turning the horse to the west. Her eyes caught Wolfe’s and they swam with gratitude. “Thank you!” she yelled and then kicked her heels against the mare’s flanks and bolted away.

“Where is she going?” I yelled against the noise of the chaos behind us, still cold with shock despite the heat of the fire at my back.

“Back to her clan,” Wolfe grunted. “Come on, Rogan, move.” He vaulted onto the stallion and then reached a hand down for me. I just stared at him, still not believing what he had done, how powerful he was.

“Rogan!” he yelled and pulled at my arm. Shaking myself of my stupor, I reached for him and let him pull me onto the horse. His arms came around me, squeezing me tight, as he took hold of the reins and pushed the horse into a gallop.

Chapter 14

We rode in silence, pushing the horse to his limits to get as far from the Iavii as we could.

Wolfe was correct—we were very close to the border and soon, just as the stallion’s coat was beginning to sweat, we came to a stop on a hill. We stared down on a valley in the distance where the glass factories of Vasterya shaded the border. It had grown much bigger since I was a child, lots of dark, crooked buildings surrounding the factories. This was the rookery.

“We need to be extra careful here,” Wolfe warned, his voice pinched with tension. He dropped the reins, and I turned awkwardly to see what he was doing. He was shrugging out of his emerald military jacket. He threw it on the ground behind us.

“Won’t you be cold?” I asked, trembling a little myself.

He shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. From now on, I don’t want anyone to know who we are until we’ve returned to the Guard.”

Seeing wisdom in that, I nodded and let him move the stallion forward. I still hadn’t asked about the magic. For the first time, I felt real and true anger toward Wolfe—not angry at him because of who his father was but hurt and angry at him for his deception.

No one knew Wolfe was one of the Glava. Evidence suggested he was a powerful one too.

I stiffened as I began to understand why I was so mad at him.

“You all right?” Wolfe asked. I nodded, trying to ignore the heat of him at my back and the way my body wanted to relax into his.

I was angry because somewhere along the way, I had begun to trust this man. Stupid, stupid, stupid! How could I? Were the nightmares, the memories, that huge gaping hole in my heart not enough to remind me not to trust a Stovia?

I stewed in silence, sensing Wolfe’s tension. He was probably on tenterhooks waiting for me to ask why he had hidden the fact he was a mage. Dear haven, what awful vengeance he must have been planning.

And yet, why would he save me from the Iavii? Vengeance seemed incongruous to the man I’d come to know.

Stop it! I yelled at myself. I didn’t know him, I didn’t know him at all, and it was that silly kind of girlish thinking that was going to get me killed.

Wolfe was keeping me alive because I was the only one who could save Haydyn.

Not long later we were inside the walls of the rookery.

The change in atmosphere was intense. Something ominous slithered over me and clung to my skin, causing chill bumps. There was a malevolence here. People hurried past, not even glancing at us, their heads down as they determinedly rushed to get inside out of the dark, dank, dirty streets. Urine and horse manure mixed with the smoke and smells from the glassworks. Houses and shops were shabbily constructed, soulless and frightened-looking buildings jammed together in crooked rows. There was little light here, streetlamps sparsely spaced between streets.

I could feel Wolfe’s shock matched my own. This was unbelievable.

“How could Markiz Solom Rada let this happen?” I whispered and turned to see Wolfe warily eyeing a boy who was staring at us.

“I don’t know,” he bit back. “We should have been told. We would have stopped this.”

“We will stop this,” I murmured, determinedly. “For now, we need a plan to return to the Guard.”

“I have a few coins I kept hidden. The Iavii didn’t get them. We’ll find somewhere with lodging so we can eat, rest, and send a message to the Guard in