“Whatever, you keep looking if you want. I’m going to camp.”
He turns and stomps loudly away. The other man lingers, swinging his torch around, which causes the mists to swirl. They’re thick enough now to almost cover Rob and I both. The man harumphs and grumps for a moment longer before turning and walking away.
We lie and watch with bated breath until the light of the torch is no longer visible, then a few heartbeats more. At last Rob let’s out a heavy sigh.
“Bastards. We need to move. Now.” He stands up and offers me a hand up.
The unfinished conversation hangs between us, a weight in the air. Now is not the time and we know it. Rob grimaces then turns and walks away. I follow behind, trying to watch my step in the dark.
Unspoken words throb in my chest. I may have healed Rob’s body but what I did handled nothing for the mental damage caused by what he saw and what was done to him. He’s driven and I understand that. He left behind his best friend and clan mates.
A dark spiral spins my thoughts around and around. I’m tired. We’ve been moving since the sun rose. And I’m scared. Scared to stop, scared to go on, and underneath all of it I’m scared for Duncan. That I’ll lose him. No, that’s not fully it, is it? I’m scared I’ll fail.
I make a choking sound as a lump swells in my throat. I try to suppress a sob but it’s impossible. Rob looks back, then stops.
“What?” he asks in a harsh whisper.
I hold up a hand and shake my head. Tears stream down my face as I swallow, trying to open my throat up. The emotions are too strong, and I can’t get control. I’m being swept along a flood of fear, grief, and despair.
Rob stands two steps away, staring. His eyes bore in and make me feel even worse. I wave my hand, motioning for us to continue. He wavers, and for an instant he begins to turn, then stops and shakes his head.
“Dobber,” he curses under his breath, but I’m not sure if he’s calling himself an idiot or me.
I choke up more. He grabs me roughly and pulls me into an embrace. Terror overrides the storm. I stiffen, then try to push him away, but he pins my arms to my sides and squeezes me tight. The smell of smoke, dirt, and sweat fills my head as my face crushes against the rough spun cloth of his shirt.
Chest hair sticks out of the tie on his shirt and tickles my nose. He makes a soothing noise and holds me tight. I struggle a moment longer until the fear dissipates as I’m being held by another human. Relief—sweet, welcome relief—rushes through me.
I’m safe. I’m not alone. It’s not all on me. I have allies, even if he doesn’t trust me. I’ll have to prove myself. His heart beats slow and steady, thudding against my cheek pressed to him. As the held back tears flow, I relax. The emotional storm finds release and bleeds away.
“I’m sorry,” I say, voice muffled by his chest.
“Ach,” he says. “It’s—”
The baying of hounds cuts off any words he was going to say. As one we leap apart and turn towards the sound. The long, high-pitched howl comes again, leaving no doubt. They have our scent.
“Run!” he yells.
ChapterTen
I run.
Lungs burning, muscles quivering with exhaustion and verging on failure, but sheer terror pushes me through it all. Shouts behind us are interspersed by the baying of dogs. The hounds are close enough that I hear them running through the brush.
Rob leads the way, leaping over crevasses I probably wouldn’t see without his guidance and dodging around trees. We’re heading into what seems to be a valley, and my fear is compounded by the memory of the last time I was caught in a valley. As we run there are trees—full grown, real trees—and the ground transitions from hard scrabble rock and mostly growing moss to peat and grass.
Risking a glance back I see the yellow-red flicker of torches that look like the dozen eyes of a monster that is on our trail. Seeing how close they are I find a second wind I didn’t know I had. My training with the Druid is paying off in unexpected ways.
The overwhelming sense that I should be able to do something swells in my chest. They call me the Destroyer but all I can do is run. Magic is a trickle, not enough to do anything useful, and I still have that burned-out sensation. I wish, with all my being, I understood why I can do miracles one moment and now, when I really need it, I’ve got nothing.
Rob bounds ahead, somehow not only looking graceful but managing to not be too loud even though he has the sword on his back and a pistol on his side. He leads the way and I follow. The hounds yowl and bark. My heart races faster and faster as adrenaline pumps. A low throb in my guts beats slightly off the timing of my heart. I try to pull in magic, which is the only way I can think of it, and at last something slightly more than a trickle responds. As magic flows, a mist rolls in.
Mists in the Highlands are thick but the soupy consistency of this is thicker. It swirls and eddies at our passing, slowly rising to my knees. Something whistles past my head, followed almost immediately by a loud cracking boom. A rock to my left explodes and sprays sharp shards of stone into the air.
I yelp and stumble to my right, shielding my face with my arms. Rob grabs my arm and jerks forward.
“Run, foolish lass, run.”
I don’t have breath to argue. My cheeks burn but my lungs burn hotter, and I push through all of it. Moving is our only chance.