Whisper of Blade | ✓ (Crimson #1)

Sequel Excerpt: Blood Shadows

They'd lost them.

They'd lost them, yet Kaolin Hyrelle couldn't breathe easy. The thick forest canopy pressed in on her, its air dense with moisture. The manticore at her side growled gently. When Kaolin pressed a hand behind Mala's furry ears and scratched, a deep purr resonated from the lioness' chest.

Ten Blood Shadows and they'd outrun them all.

A hint of a smile tugged at Kaolin's mouth. Wiping the sweat from her forehead, she adjusted her grip on the machete in her other hand. She hacked at the green foliage. Two days of progress through the jungle and still she hadn't met her next guide. Above her head, colorful birds peered at her with beady eyes and monkeys chattered as if mocking that a Pyro girl dared trespass here.

Sweat soaked her pale green tunic, even though she'd risen with the sun only a half hour ago. "I hate this place," Kaolin muttered, careful not to snag the quiver at her waist on any undergrowth. A swing of her arm lopped off the heads of some prickly plants with purple flowers. The sharp spines had left some ugly, bleeding gashes on her hand yesterday.

"I hate the air here." It always felt as if she were suffocating, drowning from the excess water she breathed into her lungs. One of the plants she struck released a yellow cloud of fumes. Kaolin coughed into her sleeve, stumbling away from it. Tears stung her eyes.

Beside her, Mala extended and flapped her leathery wings to blow the plant's poison in the opposite direction.

Kaolin was starting to think she'd go mad, doomed to wander the jungle until she died of dehydration while choking on moist air. "Will you shut up!" she screamed at the monkeys hanging from the vines trellised among the trees. She took a rock from the ground and chucked it at the beasts.

The monkeys leaped away and Kaolin's arm fell back to her side. Around her, the forest settled into stillness, broken only by a humming that originated from the ground. The heartbeat of Mother Earth, the Terrons called it. When they died and were buried, they hoped to be welcomed into her warm embrace.

Kaolin could think of nothing worse than rotting six feet underground—her body being eaten by worms until it lost resemblance to anything human and living. Better to burn. Better to be eaten by fire and return to dust in a day.

Leaves rustled behind her. Kaolin's head whipped around. Dropping the machete, she pulled the bow slung across her chest over her head and nocked an arrow.

Breathe, she reminded herself when her vision blurred.

She couldn't hear anything over the slow pounding of the earth and the quicker frantic beat of her heart. Still sighting down her arrow, Kaolin slowly stood and walked over to Mala. "I don't think we're alone," she murmured to the manticore.

A flicker of black disrupted the green landscape.

Unless her eyes deceived her, the shadows had returned for blood. Kaolin timed her breaths, the rise and fall of her chest. At the next flash of movement, she released the air in her lungs and fired.

She didn't waste time tracking the arrow to see if it hit. Swinging up onto Mala's back, Kaolin prayed that this plan would work. The empire boasted no better assassins than the Blood Shadows and she'd only received training in the Twilight Enclave as a spy. While that meant she could sneak across borders with more finesse, there would no question of whose blood would water the ground should they catch her.

Mala bounded through the forest, crashing through the foliage with abandon. Kaolin ducked low over the lioness' back as they passed under branches and wove between trees. If they broke through the canopy, Mala could fly, but they'd be a visible target and wouldn't be able to meet their guide.