Fortune Favors the Cruel - Kel Carpenter Page 0,49
hate her, yielded.
Quinn turned a fraction to look at Lazarus. To see the shadow of a grin on his face, even as he tried to hide it from them.
“Come,” the man in the wolf pelt said again. Quinn didn’t break eye contact with Lazarus as he strode forward and mounted behind her. The heat of his body was like a wildfire contained in flesh, even beneath his trimmed tunic and trousers. She wondered briefly what it might be like to coax that fire out. To see what darkness he was hiding…
Bastian shifted with unease as the men with halberds began to move, pulling Quinn from her thoughts of the body behind her.
They delved deeper into the woods, off the trodden path, leaving her no choice but to follow.
Chin held high and knife gripped tightly, Quinn held the reins with one hand and led them into the forest, not knowing if they would come back out.
They rode through the morning, till the sun was high in the sky, before the mountain men slowed to a crawl. Trickling water sounded in the distance, growing to a dull roar as they turned the corner of the rock face they walked along.
A spray of white water rained down between two large boulders, hitting the flat stone beneath it and flowing out into a gentle stream that ran down the mountain and through the dead trees. One by one the warriors stepped through the waterfall and didn’t come back out.
“What are they doing?” she asked as the man with the horn approached them. Hours later, she still held her knife in her sweaty palm and the man took notice. His pale eyes gleaming with something foreign that she didn’t understand.
“You come,” he said, gesturing for them to get down. Lazarus moved first, sliding from the horse and stepping towards the waterfall. The man with the wolf pelt waited, offering her his hand. She ignored it and swung her leg over, loosening her hold on the reins as she fell two feet and landed on the hard ground. It was just as jarring as all her dismounts had been, but she didn’t feel as if she’d topple sideways at any moment. Guiding Bastian with one hand and holding tight to her weapon with the other, she followed after Lazarus who looked irritated that the Cisean warrior had offered her assistance.
One corner of her mouth turned upward as she swaggered forward and came to a stop beside him. Lazarus’ eyes swept from her to the other man, the one who watched her without wariness or fear.
“Go there,” he said, pointing to the waterfall.
Lazarus grabbed her wrist holding the knife and pulled her forward with him to the edge where the ground turned soft and a slight mist of crisp water splattered her face. She leaned forward, squinting into the darkness behind the falling water.
The hand at her wrist jerked as Lazarus stepped through the onslaught, pulling her with him. Quinn let out a yelp at the sudden cold, glaring at him as he continued leading her forward, trudging deeper into the cave they’d found themselves in.
“You could have warned me,” she snapped, pulling at her wrist. Lazarus stopped, turning to tower over her.
“You saw them go through just as I had,” he replied. She pursed her lips.
“And dragging me around like a savage?” she asked, her voice rising an octave, causing the two warriors in front of her to turn.
“If you consider this to be dragging, keep playing games with the boy behind us and find out what happens,” he answered, the words fixed with a slight growl. Quinn narrowed her eyes, her lips parting as the spluttering curse behind them signaled Draeven’s arrival.
Lazarus dropped her wrist and motioned for her to go first.
Quinn muttered an N’skaran curse under her breath and strode deeper into the cave. No … this is not a cave. She looked up the cavern walls that would be too dark to see if it were truly a cave, following it down farther to the very end where two of the masked men stood. Waiting.
Light poured in from behind them. We’re in a tunnel…
They stepped to the side as she approached, and her knife came up. A warning of what she’d do if they tried anything, but they simply stood there as she stepped out into the light of day.
The breath she’d been holding finally exhaled out of her lungs as she took in the nettles on the forest floor that came from