Hearts At Stake - By Alyxandra Harvey Page 0,58

around us, the valleys, the location of the river.

“Over there?” I suggested hesitantly. “On the other side of that valley. Maybe.”

He kept firing, to give us some cover, and I concentrated on not passing out. Those jagged rocks looked just as comfortable as the ferns. Just a little nap.

“Don’t you dare,” Kieran said sharply. “You can’t sleep yet.”

“But I’m so tired.”

“Keep moving.”

“Wait. The rocks . . .” I rubbed my eyes. “There’s a gate behind those rocks.”

“Good, get—ooof.” A dagger bit into his arm, cut through thick leather and skin. Blood welled like plump raspberries. He gritted his teeth. “Just a cut. Keep moving.”

I had to crawl through the undergrowth, feeling through the dead leaves for the handle. The iron was cool under my fingers, the rust rough against my palm.

“Got it.”

Kieran kicked out at a Hel-Blar who was far too close for comfort. He kicked out again, switched his gun for one that shot little vials. The first one hit the ground and broke open, releasing a cross between mist and powder. It was delicate as lace, hovering in the air. I felt funny, entranced by the way it clung to leaves and the Hel-Blar.

Hypnos.

“Stop,” Kieran commanded grimly. The Hel-Blar paused, confused. They hissed frantically but didn’t move. I didn’t move either. “You,” he said to the vampires straining against invisible chains. “You’ll get the hell out of here and you won’t come back. You’ll keep running until you’re clear out of the country. And if you try to drink a single drop from any human, you’ll walk straight into the next sunrise.”

A howl, a grunt.

“Go.” They shuffled away. I lay where I was, unable to move. Kieran crouched beside me, his expression regretful but determined, “I’m sorry,” he said.

“Kier—”

“Shhh,” he interrupted. “Don’t say anything.” The Hypnos powder worked through me, making my limbs heavy, my voice falter. “I have to do this, Solange,” he murmured. He brushed a kiss over my forehead, gentle as moth wings. Anger and fear burned through me, betrayal was a conflagration that might burn the entire forest to the ground. When I’d suggested he betray me, I hadn’t thought he’d take me literally. I’d been a fool to trust him.

And now it was too late.

CHAPTER 22

Lucy

Sunday evening, later still

“I don’t know how I let you talk me into this,” Nicholas muttered as we ducked into the corridor. “It’s a bad idea.”

“It’s brilliant,” I insisted with more certainty than I actually felt. The corridor was damp and cold and confining and hardly gave us an advantage in a fight. But the only alternative was the woods, which were swarming with renegade Helios agents.

Sometimes my life was just weird.

Nicholas stayed close, his arm stretched behind him so that his hand could grip mine. I tugged experimentally. He tugged back.

“I’m losing feeling in my fingers,” I complained. He relaxed his hold, infinitesimally. His eyes caught the glow from the torchlight, reflected it like a wolf’s eyes might. He wasn’t just the Nicholas I’d argued with since I was little, he wasn’t even the Nicholas that had kissed me senseless yesterday; he was another Nicholas altogether. The hunter had risen to the surface.

I should probably be worrying about the fact that I was about to walk into the vampire courts instead of staring at his butt. Staring at his butt made me feel less like hyperventilating.

“Breathe,” Nicholas murmured, sounding half-strained, half-comforting. “Your heart’s not meant to skip beats like that.”

I wiped my free hand on my pants, hoping the palm he was holding wasn’t as sweaty. I’d changed into a pair of Solange’s cargos, assuming they looked more like something a secret agent would wear than my velvet skirts and beaded scarves. There was clay all over the left leg. It made me feel like crying for some reason. I was trying so hard not to imagine the hundreds of horrible things that might have happened to my best friend. She had to be safe. Absolutely nothing else was acceptable. Nicholas’s thumb made small soft circles over my knuckles. I released my pent- up breath. My eyes stopped burning. We could do this. We had to, it was that simple.

“I’m okay,” I whispered.

“I—” He cut himself off , squeezed my hand once, hard. My heart stopped, then leaped into overdrive. I couldn’t hear anything except the blood rushing in my ears and the drip of water, even though I was listening as hard as I possibly could. He sniffed once. I tensed all over; even my eyelids