Page 159 of A Sanctuary from Shadow
Rye’s brown eyes clouded further.
Pete’s plan wasn’t a fix-it-all. We could only diminish the damage being done to the Dell—unless we wanted to become outlaws for killing royal officials. For me, I didn’t foresee that charge sticking—being the crown princess, and all. But for Pete—well, that wouldn’t be ideal. And I couldn’t helpanyonewithout him.
As if this thought had signaled him, I heard Pete gripe above the beyns’ wailing families, “What in fecking hell is happening here?”
Rye and I peered around the tree trunk wall we hid behind, watching Pete prowl toward the slavers, all of whom had abandoned their posts to deal with the threat in their midst. The threat Howlite knew had spent centuries kicking ass and taking names. The disheveled, ornery, hungover predator whose hand hovered by his sword’s pommel. If he blew his lid over their culling, they’d need all hands on deck to quell him.
Just as Pete had predicted.
I yanked Rye from the shadows. Together, we dashed to the closest grouping of bound beyns and led one of its chain gangs away. The cursed moved like marionettes, gazing ahead but seeing nothing. We deposited them in an alpine building reminiscent of a post office.
“What of the tethers?” Rye asked as we hustled back to continue our rescue. “How do we remove them?”
“Cold iron.” Adrenaline racing through my veins, I skimmed for slavers and found only hopeful bystanders—too scared to aid our endeavors but willing us to continue. “You freeze an iron blade, then cut the tether. That’s what Pete said.”
“And their curses?”
“A Witch can remove entrapment curses.”
Rye’s face dropped. “The Dell was purged of Witches four decades ago!”
“I know.” I frowned, wondering about the purge. “Pete told me.”
Swearing, Rye took wing. “I’ll move faster in the air.”
“Stay low!” I gulped as he flitted off. At least when we’d been working side-by-side, I didn’t feel as exposed. But I mustered on, my help meaning freedom to someone.
“You’re seizing every bonny female in the Dell, you rotter!” Pete groused in the background at Howlite, who waved him off, all puffed up like a strutting, power-tripping turkey. “You take them, then who’s to warm my pallet on my next pass-through?”
Good idea, Pete—playing the horny dog. Something Howlite can relate to.
The asshead slaver chuckled. “You’ll wank it or make do, McKenna.”
“Make do?” Pete harrumphed. “With what? The hogs in Exotic Enid’s pens? I ken you and your ilk have already laid claim to several of their hindquarters, but I don’t share your crooked appetites. You like the snuffling, dirty ones, don’t you, buck?”
Howlite fisted his hands at Pete’s impertinence, but several of his fellow slavers couldn’t contain their laughter. He knocked one of his underlings aback the head.
“Funny you should mention dirt, McKenna,” Howlite said. “Have you seen that bony bitch I fucked last night? I’ve a score to settle with her.”
He didnotjust say that!
Seething, I ducked behind a boulder a breath away from the next chain gang, my chest expanding with flame at that magic word—bitch.
Get your shit together, Amy! You can’t firebomb every person who calls you that! Even one who lies about sleeping with you!
I did as Pete had taught me during our initial magic lesson—breathed in through my nose, out through my mouth. He claimed ninety percent of controlling one’s powers was simply breathing properly. So, I meditated for several heartbeats just to forestall physical flames, then scurried to the chain-gang and nabbed their tether. Knowing it wasn’t flammable.
I rushed them to safety as fast as their hapless feet allowed. Pete could only keep his distraction going for so long, after all. My job was to work fast. And not get caught.
Sadly, I failed on that second part. Because someone dimed me out.
“She’s the one what your gaffer’s after, isn’t she?” a homely beyn cried to the slaver she’d dragged over. I’d noticed her at the tavern the night before, having what looked like a girls’ night with 3 of her besties. Apparently, she’d noticed me too. Now, she stood pointing me out as I halted by the fountain, gritting my teeth on a scream. Thankfully, I’d been on my way back to retrieve more slaves and hadn’t had any with me. So, the slaver wouldn’t know what I’d been up to and go hunting for hidden slaves.
He only knew I was wanted by his boss.
“You, there!” he bellowed. “Hold!”
“He’ll release them all now, won’t he?” The beyn clutched the slaver’s leafy coveralls. “He’ll release my Daisy?”
