Page 32 of Lies That Bind
“I was a goner the moment I laid eyes on you, Aisling,” he confessed.
That was before he got his future sight gift. That was all the way at the Lottery.
“Empress?” one of the soldiers asked, and I took two huge steps away from Kohen.
Focus, Aisling, you’re the leader of the largest country in the world.
I spun. “Yes, Lieutenant.”
“We think that if we head—” Colt stopped and cocked his head to the side as if speaking to his creature. The hawk flew down from the sky and landed off to the side, perching on the top branches of a tree directly to our right.
“My creature says that there are over a dozen flying Talanagi circling the skies now. She’s going to stay low so that we aren’t found. They will send out ground troops soon to?—”
He gasped just as I saw something blue move to our right, where his hawk was perched. I pulled my father’s sword just as a griffin leaped down from where it must have been hiding in the thick branches of the tree and gobbled Colt’s hawk into itsmouth. One second, his creature was perched on a branch, and the next, she was…eaten.
The griffin cocked its head to the side and peered down at us with one of Colt’s hawk’s tail feathers still poking out of his mouth. My heart broke as Colt let out a silent wail. It was the most soul-crushing thing I’d ever seen. The soldier opened his mouth to scream but knew he couldn’t attract anyone right now, so he just shook with rage as agony contorted his face.
The griffin leaped from the tree and landed before us, cocking its head to the side.
Kohen pulled his blade, stepping in front of me protectively. Finn and Jade did the same. But the griffin didn’t seem to have any interest in me. He was staring right at Colt.
It was horrifying. One moment to have your creature alive and well, and the next… gone. Murdered.
There was no human jumping out of the thick woods to attack us.
“I think he’s unbonded,” I breathed, feeling crushed after witnessing what had just happened. The Wilds were brutal in that way. We needed to get out of here.
I knew they called them the Shadow Blades for a reason, but I’d never seen them in action until now. One second Colt was standing with unbridled rage, fists shaking as he clenched his jaw, and then in a blink he had pulled his knife and thrown it into the griffin’s wing. The blade sank into flesh and the griffin shrieked, staggering backward, and I swallowed hard. We all took a step back, and in another blink, Colt was at the griffin’s throat with a second blade. He was incredibly fast, but before he could slice into the creature, the griffin made a clicking noise with his tongue and then we were all flying backward. Some kind of shockwave had emitted from the creature. My butt hit the ground first as Kohen threw himself over me, pinning me to the ground.
Colt gave a battle cry, clearly no longer caring about making noise, and ran at the creature. Somehow, he’d pulled out a cord and lassoed it around the beast’s neck. Then he was on the creature’s back, pulling the cord tight to choke him. It was an incredible sight, and as much as I knew we should get away and move to safety, I couldn’t stop watching the battle before me. Another clicking sound reached my ears and another shockwave shot out from the creature, this one rattling my lungs, but Kohen seemed to take the brunt of it since he was lying on top of me. Trees shook, but Lieutenant Colt stayed on him. The griffin kicked off the ground in a panic, and they both went skyward.
Holy crap.
I understood the desire to retaliate for his dead bonded, but right now was the worst possible time for this. There were over a dozen Talanagi in the skies. Colt was going to be seen.
“We need to get the empress to safety,” Kohen said, standing.
Seargent Finn and Captain Jade eyed the sky where their friend had just gone and only hesitated about leaving him behind for a brief moment. “Of course,” they said, and then I was yanked to my feet, and we were all running. Kohen, Finn, and Jade created a circle of protection around me.
I knew the motto. No man left behind.
“We should stay and wait for Lieutenant Colt.” I slowed my pace, trying to wrap my head around how this had gone south so fast. We’d lost our creatures, and now Colt’s hawk was dead and he was riding an unbonded creature into the sky on the night we blew up the Red Palace. If he was caught, the Luskins would torture him to death.
All three of the soldiers shook their heads. “That’s not protocol when protecting you, Empress,” Jade said as her long, red ponytail bobbed behind her. “We leave him. We can send an extraction team at another time if he survives.” I could hear the quiver in her voice, though. She didn’t like the rules.
Ifhe survives.
I hated that. I did. But she was right. If Liana were with me, I’d fly up and help him take down the griffin. What could we do staring up at the sky? He was on his own.
“Let’s head south and take the river around the Wall. I’ve done it before,” Kohen stated and got a few raised eyebrows. I knew he’d done it before because I’d gone with him during our time together in The Wilds.
There was no argument, though. By Jade’s calculations, it would take roughly two hours jogging on foot as we were pretty deep into Luska and far from the border, but travel on foot was our only option. We agreed that if we got split up, we’d meet on the other side of the Wall in the Wilds in Amersea. We’d run as fast and far as we could without stopping until we were out of enemy territory.
As we ran, my mind was with Liana and Onyx. Were they okay? I couldn’t sense her at all—she’d completely shut me out. I wanted to reach out to her mentally, but I also didn’t want to distract her if she was in a fight for her life.
I knew how important it was for her to get retribution for her mate, how long she’d waited to see Drak again. I just couldn’t believe it was happening on the night that we took down the Red Palace. I also couldn’t believe she’d left me behind. It hurt, even though I knew it was out of protection.
After about thirty minutes of solid running, I slowed, trying to catch my breath. The others matched my pace. I had a stitch in my side, so I grabbed it, pinching hard as I turned our run into a slow jog. No one questioned it. They just slowed to match me and kept their eyes peeled on the forest. The pain in my side eased, and I was about to say that we could run full-out again when Jade suddenly stopped, holding up a fist. The sign meantpause and be alert.
