It scared him. I could tell from the way he fled my touch, disguised as no more than a shift to get comfortable.

“Perhaps we made a child now,” I said.

“No, Ada. I’m afraid you will have to gather more patience for your womb is nowhere near its fertile state.” He sat up as leather encapsulated his legs and a fur-lined dress of silky skin formed around me. “We ought to hurry now, so we may reach—”

Something hit my eye.

Both clenched shut on reflex, throwing me into darkness as my ears pricked at an onslaught of groans and whistles. I wiped a hand over my face.

Wet. Warm. Slippery. Blood?

“Stay down!” Enosh’s bark resonated along with a barrage of quick shk-shk-shks, like spades cutting into the ground, and a heavy weight settled on my chest. “The corpses must have led them straight to us.”

Them.

My heart burst into a sprint and my eyes shot open. I blinked once, fighting the burning blurriness in one of them. The outline of Enosh sharpened with the second blink. At the third, my stomach dropped.

Heavens, no!

Red rivulets ran down his abdomen, coming from a gaping wound between his shoulder and his chest, the flesh and skin shredded around the tip of an arrowhead. The feathered fledging of yet another arrow protruded over his shoulder, where they must have shot him in the back.

“Oh my god!” My shaky hand reached for his wound. “You’re injured.”

Enosh only hushed me and picked me up, my body so heavy I could barely lift my arms to clasp his neck. Because he’d once more given me armor, row upon row of bony scales that still formed around me as he hoisted me onto the horse. “One leg to each side, for we shall ride faster than ever before.”

He reached behind and pulled an arrow out under curses. A sudden crack caught my attention, and that was when I saw it. A wall of bone had erected around us, shielding us from whatever wanted to come through.

Arrows, mostly.

Several punctured the bone here and there, though the biting crk of an axe also chipped away at the wall. The more the bone crumbled, the more shouts filtered in, sickeningly cheerful and underlined with the hiss of blades. Wafts of bitterness crept into our shelter, putting a knot in my stomach.

Was there… fire?

“Stay close to me.” Enosh mounted behind me as easily as ever, but I heard the groan of pain as he wrapped his arm around my middle. “Shh… I will not let them harm you.”

I did as told and pressed myself tightly against him, fighting the panic pounding in my chest. Everything happened so fast, yet time seemed to slow as the wall of bone thinned into a cloud of powder.

It surged toward us with the speed of lightning, only to burst into the forest shaped like a thousand bony daggers. They found their way into skulls and stomachs, replacing the twang of bowstrings with the blood-clotting screams of… soldiers.

My heart dragged heavy on its strings at the sight of studded armor, plated helmets, and green standards peeking from all around us. This was no mere mob of pitchforks and priests, but a formidable force barely thinned by those who sunk to their knees. Even before the men collapsed to their sides, they shot up again, taking up arms against their comrades.

Our horse spun, tore through a wall of swords, and dashed deeper into the forest. It weaved around corpses who bit into the necks of soldiers, while Enosh sent wave after wave of bone daggers at them or let ropes of skin strangle them. For a blissful second—not even half a breath—it appeared as though we might escape.

Until the forest floor caught fire.

It started as an orange spark, but quickly ran to the left and right, forming a wall of roaring flames. Thick and tar-black, billows of smoke turned the air rancid, burning my lungs with every inhale.

Our horse stopped.

Spun. Then spun again.

“Catch them!”

Soldiers armed with swords and torches poured in from both sides, cutting off our escape.

Enosh held me tighter. His other hand pressed against my face, blinding me as the horse shifted beneath us. Everything shook. A force thrust me upward. The horse disappeared from underneath me. Excruciating heat engulfed me, and the stench of singed hair crept into my nostrils just as my arse hit the horse’s back once more.

“No…” The word tumbled from Enosh’s lips as his hand slipped off my face, letting the blood chill in my veins.

Another wall of fire spread out ahead of us, letting the flicker of flames reflect on the studded shields of the soldiers before us. They gushed in from a hill to the right, took formation nearby a creek to the left, brought in—

Something thrust me forward.

I clung to the horse’s neck as Enosh’s thighs shook where they framed mine. At his scream, I swung around. All blood sucked from my arteries, sending a chill across my skin.

The bloodied tip of a heavy bolt protruded from beneath his collarbone, only a hand-width away from where my head had been. They must have attached a rope to it, which whipped against the horse’s side each time it danced.

Enosh dug his shaky fingers into my hair. “I gazed through the eyes of the dead and the way home is empty after the last line of soldiers. Let the horse take you to the Pale Court and wait for my return while I fight them and ensure your escape.”

Bile licked the back of my throat. “No! No, no, no—”

“Shh. They will not rest until I am captured or they are dead. It’s far too dangerous for you to remain with me. The corpses will protect you.” His forehead lowered to mine. “I will return to you, Ada. I will always—”

A strong tug unseated him, pulling him off the horse. Just then, a rope of skin braided itself around me, tying me to the horse until I leaned forward and clasped its cold neck. A brittle wall of bone shaped to my left and right. The horse thrust into a canter faster than the wind, nearly throwing me off if it wasn’t for the rope. Hooves boomed underneath me to the whistle of arrows as they pierced and splintered the weakening wall.

It thinned into a thick cloud of bone, from where it turned into a crowd of corpses. They lined my sides, running, stumbling, barraging through everything in their wake as they ensured my escape for what felt like a small eternity. The wind whipped around my eyes and tears blurred my vision. Something stood in our way, but the horse ran right through, and a crk echoed along with a yelp. The tension of the rope disappeared as my veins filled with liquid dread.

Oh no. No, no, no…

This was too fast.

My dress to heavy.

When the horse jumped something, I shifted back. Scales of bone, heavy and rigid, tore me sideways. I leaned forward. I grappled for the mane. Harness. Anything.

With a jerk that vibrated against my clammy palms, the thunder of hooves turned more hollow. Gravity ceased to exist for long moments. Suspended in the air, I was ripped sideways.

I hit the ground a moment later, my shoulder clashing with the massive root of a tree before I skittered over dirt. Pain exploded inside the joint and the skin along my arm burned as splintered bone chips cut into it. My eyes shot to the horse.

It kept running.

Without me.

OceanofPDF.com

Chapter 20

OceanofPDF.com

Ada

I snapped for air, pulling the autumn chill down my throat and into my dread-filled chest. What was I supposed to do now? The horse was gone. What remained were several dozen corpses who stared at me none the wiser.

As long as they kept standing, though, they hadn’t overwhelmed Enosh. Still, I couldn’t just sit here and wait for him. Soldiers might come for my head next. Devil be damned, where was I?