A Dark and Starless Night

Chapter Thirty-One

Eve hurried through the trees, clothes and skin being snagged by branches and thorns. Rik was close behind her, guards on their tail, calling out to them to stop.

She felt her power in her hands as she charged on, chanting over and over, I will not be afraid. I am in control. A voice in her tried to tell her she was afraid, she wasn't in control. But she ignored it.

She came to an abrupt stop when something fell on her from above. She slapped it away from her and it fell unceremoniously to the ground. A boot. She looked up, seeing a thick wire hanging from a sturdy tree branch. Her mind reeled to make sense of it as Rik and the guards caught up.

"The snare was triggered," she said, still breathing heavy.

"They escaped," Rik said, peering around the clearing, hands flexing.

"What is going on?" the captain demanded, chest puffed out, cheeks red.

"Nothing," Eve said, meeting Rik's eyes, their colour darker under his furrowed brows. "It's nothing."

Rik closed his eyes for a measured moment that seemed to go on forever before he let out a harsh breath. "Let's go back and wait for the others to return."

"That'll scare them away at least," Eve said quietly, rubbing the inside of her arm as she fell into step with Rik.

"You hope."

"We're safe and well-guarded."

"Not so well-guarded that whoever they were was deterred from biting the bait."

When they returned to the clearing, the guards who had stayed behind to guard their things lowered their hands from their swords and sighed in relief. Rik dropped onto a log, his shoulders tense, anger written in the muscles of his back.

Eve debated going to him and talking, begging him not to be angry with her. But she didn't know what words to say. It struck her hard, the realisation that she didn't know how to defuse his temper. She knew how to cheer him up when he was sad. She knew how to soothe him when he was agitated. But anger... that was a foreign emotion to her when it came to Rik.

Instead of even trying, the risk of failure hanging over her, she went to one of the guard's horses and began to stroke his thick neck, glancing to Rik more often than she liked. The guard fished a brush from his saddle bag and offered it to Eve. She smiled gratefully at him and brushed the horse while her mind raged.

She should call this expedition off, get them all back to the city. Rik would be safely tucked behind the palace walls and Ali would be safe in her apartment. Fin... well, Eve had the feeling that Fin could survive anything. She recognised a survivor in him, now more than ever. He clearly had an array of skills that came from years of staying alive. She, on the other hand, had lost what skills she had once had. But that was a good thing, surely.

What does it matter if you go back? a voice inside her asked. You're more unsafe in the city with two – or more – murderers. At least out here it's only the one. And you can't even be sure it is one of the murderers.

She hummed and hawed for the hour it took Ali and Fin to return, Ali having conveniently found what she had forgotten in the carriage. Eve and Rik stepped into the carriage, Rik's dark mood not shifting.

"I take it the plan failed," Ali said, hands gripping her embroidery hoop tightly.

"Wonderfully," Rik grumbled, glaring out the window.

"The snare worked," Eve said, before Fin could ask. "But they slipped out of it somehow."

He sat back, considering what she said. "It's likely they'll back off for a few days, now they know we're aware of their presence."