Rise from Ruin: The Elemental Gods Book Five by September Thomas

Author:September Thomas [Thomas, September]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Independent
Published: 2021-11-29T16:00:00+00:00

39

Zara

“Careful there.” The quick flick of Pyra’s wrist stopped me cold. Mud sucked at her boots as she edged forward and lowered into a crouch. Carefully, the God fingered a fine thread of silver that extended across the width of the path worn down by deer. “I’m all for following their traps like sheep, but I draw the line at having holes punched through me.”

The God nudged the wide brim of her floppy hat out of her face as she peered up at me, eyes alight with excitement through the thick layer of dirt and grime smeared across her face. I followed the line of her extended index finger to the crossbow wedged in the gap between a tree trunk and its branches. A flicker of sunlight speared through the dense foliage and glittered off the edges of the arrow locked and loaded in its grip.

Yeah, that would have sucked.

I blew some loose strands of dark hair out of my face and pulled Pyra to her feet. She wrinkled her nose and scanned the underbrush, removing her hat to get a better look, exposing her freshly dyed hair pulled back from her face messily with a small strip of red fabric. The inky black color of her locks suited her well—unlike the murky brown Lee had dyed mine.

The witch had offered to change the colors of our irises, too, arguing the reddish tint of Pyra’s eyes and the glowing aquamarine of mine were too distinct, but after a debate that ran ad-nauseum, we’d ultimately left them be. They were our among our most telling features, and we needed to be recognized somehow.

“That makes three traps in about half a mile,” I estimated. “We’re getting close.”

“You betcha.” Pyra pulled out her compass and nibbled on a frayed nail. Under her breath, so only I could hear, she added, “We’re too far north. We need to move west or they’ll think we’re trying to reach her camp.”

I motioned for her to take the lead around the saplings, and, with the tip of my boot, covered the signs of our movements, taking care to make it less obvious we’d crossed through without completely obscuring our path. I wanted them to know we were here, but not that we were stupid. Granted, in my wildest dreams, I hadn’t expected to make it two days in the heart of enemy territory without encountering anyone, so we must have been doing something right…

Or the scouts were horribly cocky.

The next hour moved with painful slowness. Each step forward warred with my instincts. I flinched whenever I deliberately stepped on dry branches, the resulting snaps reminding me of fireworks, and I forced my shoulders to drag against the loose bark of the thickly-packed trees, breaking off small pieces, marking our progress through the woods. The deeper we went, the more stupid I believed our plan to be. It was madness, trying to get caught by Kaleal’s scouts twenty miles away from her palace.

But it was that madness I relied on them believing for this plan to work.

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