33
Ark wanted to pack up all their things and get the hell out of there, but Maia was too exhausted to travel, drained by her magic carrying her soul across miles. At least back in Vassalaer, there weren'tthingsspilling out of the saints' circle.
Unless the circle in the mountains near Thelleus was brewing the same magic…
The thought made Ark cold, and he prepared to turn over in bed for the fifth time, trying not to unsettle Maia, and Azrail who slept on her right. But he froze as Maia shifted instead—carefully, like he'd been about to, as if she didn't want to wake them.
"Shit," she breathed, so quiet he could have imagined it.
Ark slit his eyes open and watched her roll the covers down and climb out, excruciatingly carefully. He opened his mouth to whisper if she was okay, but she headed across the room for her bag and pulled on trousers, stuffing her feet into boots before throwing her jacket over her arm.
Worry tightened his chest. He knew Maia enough to know she was driven by guilt and care, and had a reckless streak. The second she was out of the room, Ark shook Azrail awake and threw the covers back, heading for his clothes.
Azrail groaned questioningly, rubbing his eyes as he sat upright.
"Maia just snuck out," Ark explained quietly. "I'm worried she's going to do something dangerous."
"Like try to shut the saints' circle by herself," Azrail guessed, coming fully awake. He flew out of bed and got quickly dressed. Ark was already checking his weapons—it never hurt to be prepared when they had so many enemies—and aiming for the door.
"Wait for me," Azrail muttered, still raspy with sleep. It had to be almost four in the morning, and it seemed Az was the only one who'd got actual sleep in this bed. Ark had given up an hour ago, and Maia had been waiting for them both to sleep deeply before she snuck out.
With how weak she'd been after her magic shot across the empire, Ark wasn't merely worried. He wasscared. Logic told him Maia could handle herself, and his wisdom told him she had enough power that very few people could threaten her, but the threats that kept him up at night were the people heknewposed a danger to her. To all of them. Ismene, with whatever magic her dark saint friend had given her. And the saint herself.
How easily could a saint find them, no matter how well they hid, no matter how well they armed themselves? Too, too easily.
Ark jogged down the steps into the bar and tested the door, finding the latch already lifted. Azrail sped into the room behind him, wrestling his coat on, trailing shadows and smoke.
"I've been laying a network around Calvo since we got here," Azrail explained as Ark pushed the door open and winced at the biting blast of wind to his face. "I had one back in Vassalaer, so it seemed sensible if we were staying overnight to have one here."
"There's a point to this, I hope," Ark said, at the end of his temper.
Azrail snagged Ark's arm, turning him around so they were heading east. "I can use it to track Maia as long as she goes somewhere we've already visited."
Ark blinked, impressed and beyond relieved. But... "We haven't been to the saints' circle. We don't even know where the island is."
"Neither does she," Azrail pointed out, snapping his collar up to keep out the cold. Wind bit at his face too, making his cheeks dark. "I think she's going to Isak."
Ark blinked, letting that settle in. A thin vein of jealousy rose, but he knew by now his relationship with Maia was secure, so it didn't bloom into insecurity. More possessiveness than anything. And worry—they couldn't trust Isak yet. Would Maia be safe with him? He'd have said yes in a heartbeat if the man—well, kid, he couldn't have been older than twenty—hadn't harboured his own saint.
"To tell him she's his mate?" Ark asked finally, following their route from earlier today and trusting Azrail to use his network to keep them on Maia's trail.
Azrail laughed, his eyes crinkling. "To threaten him into telling her the island's location," he corrected.
Ark contemplated this and nodded. That did seem like a Maia thing to do. Plus, she was a hundred percent focused on finding out what had happened to Vawn. Ark suspected she only wanted to go to the island because she hoped he was there. But what would she find if he was? The man who'd gone to the palace to help rescue her, or a monster?
They'dalltried to assuage her guilt; it wasn't her fault Vawn had volunteered to storm the palace. But she wouldn't back down until she knew what had happened to him.
"She's stopped," Azrail said after twenty minutes of walking in tense silence. "Hurry up."
Ark ran, his heart knocking into his ribs as he imagined the danger his mate could be in right now.
"She's close," Azrail panted, running just as hard as Ark. He must train regularly to be this fit, Ark realised. "She's—"
He ground to a halt, and Ark faltered between one step and the next, giving Azrail a panicked glance.
"How did you know?" Azrail asked with a sigh, turning.
Ark's heart jumped at the sight of Maia leaning against a wall in the lip of an alley behind them, her foot kicked up on the brick and her arms crossed over her chest.