Wicked Saints (Something Dark and Holy #1) - Emily A. Duncan Page 0,6

staring at the blades in Nadya’s hand, then wordlessly handed her a third, considered further, then a fourth.

“You lose them all the time,” she explained.

That was true enough. Nadya strapped two of the blades to her belt and slid the other two into her boots. At least she would be armed when the prince caught her. Anna pulled a venyiornik from the weapons rack—a long, single-edged sword—and strapped it to her hip.

“That should do,” she murmured. She took two empty bags and started to carefully pack them with food. “Strap those bedrolls and that tent to the bags, would you?”

The entire room shook, a deafening crash coming from the direction of the doorway. Nadya yelped in surprise. She ducked her head into the hallway. Nothing but darkness. Anna carelessly dumped a shelf of preserved food into one of the packs.

Panic clutched at Nadya’s chest. The tunnel wasn’t very long. The Tranavians could be there in moments.

Anna shouldered one of the packs and moved out into the tunnel. The world shifted dangerously as words in a rapid-fire language Nadya only barely understood floated down from the direction they had just come.

She didn’t need to understand the words or recognize the voice. It was the prince. It had to be. She could not last against him.

Then she was running, running, running after Anna. She had to trust that the priestess knew the twists and curves of the tunnel; she had to trust that wherever this led wouldn’t just spill them out into a company of Tranavians.

The sound of magic striking the walls hissed behind them. Something brushed Nadya’s ear, heat coming off it in waves. It slammed into the curve of the tunnel before her, bursting into a shower of sparks. He was close; he was too close.

“Tek szalet wylkesz!” The shout echoing through the tunnel didn’t sound angry. If anything it sounded amused. A laugh rang out, clear and sardonic.

Nadya slowed just long enough to look back into the darkness. A pattering sound came from within the black. It started slow but rose in intensity, sounding not like one but many things. Many moving things. She squinted. A thousand small flapping wings.

Anna yanked her down just as a teeming mass of bats swarmed into the cramped space of the tunnel.

Nadya’s light spell cut off, plunging them into a living, moving darkness. The bats caught their hair and tore at any unprotected skin. Nadya followed Anna blindly, the priestess’s hand in hers the only thing she had that was not the living darkness. It was like being swallowed alive by the dark.

They were trapped within the shifting flurry of wings and claws until finally Anna slammed through a doorway and the girls and the bats went spilling out into the snow.

The bats disappeared into wisps of smoke the second they hit the fading light. Nadya jumped to her feet, helping Anna up. Her gaze was fixed on the opening, the yawning slash of black against the glaring white snow of the mountainside.

“We need to move,” Nadya said, backing away from the cave entrance.

She glanced at Anna, concerned when she didn’t get a response. Anna stared at the open doorway. No Tranavians appeared.

We’ll die if we don’t move. Nadya lifted a hand as the other scrambled for her necklace, catching on the right bead. She sent a simple prayer to Bozidarka, the goddess of vision. A vivid image took over her sight. The prince, leaning back against a stone wall, a nasty, sneering grin on his face, his arms crossed over his chest. At his side, glaring at the opening of the tunnel, a short girl with black hair cut severely at her chin, a spiked patch over one of her eyes.

Nadya snapped back to herself, vision clearing. Her head swam from the effort, eyes blurring until there was nothing but the white of the snow. Swaying unsteadily on her feet, she exhaled, centering herself. The Tranavians weren’t following them. She didn’t know why, but she wouldn’t question it. They would come soon enough.

“We’re safe for now,” she said, exhausted. No more magic. Not until after she’d slept.

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Anna murmured.

Nadya shrugged, looking out over the severe mountainside. Snow was piled high, and where they were standing the trees were sparse. There was little to use for cover when the Tranavians finally ventured out from the tunnels.

Anna gasped and Nadya turned. She tried to steel herself, but when her gaze drew up toward the top of the mountains, it still