Warrior Everlasting (4 page)

“Trey, wait!” she called behind him, but he shook his head and kept walking. He couldn’t talk to her right now.

“I take it things didn’t go well?”
Torz asked mildly, quietly, in Trey’s head as he approached them.

“Not exactly.”

Scout stormed up behind him. “Stop, Trey. Just listen for a sec!”

He turned slowly to see her glaring at him, hands on her hips, looking for all the world like a warrior princess in her cloak. Yet the top of her head didn’t come to barely his chin. “I’m listening.”

“I’m not saying we have to hate each other again—”

“I never hated you, Scout. I never stopped loving you.”

The anger in her eyes softened, and she dropped her hands from her hips. “I know, Trey. But give me time. I can’t go back to the way things were. I’m not that girl anymore. I need to get to know you again.”

Well. There wasn’t much he could say to that, was there?
I never stopped loving you. Why isn’t that enough?
But he understood. He didn’t want to understand, and he wanted to be angry and pout and tell her she was wrong. But she wasn’t. “I see,” he said instead.

She reached for him, and the hurt, angry side of him wanted to pull away. But he wouldn’t. Ever. If Scout wanted any part of him, asked anything of him, no matter how much it broke his heart, he would give it to her.

“Please, Trey. I’m not saying it won’t happen. I’m just saying… let me learn to trust you again.” She widened her eyes, sea-foam green and the most beautiful he’d ever seen, pleading with him.

“Yeah, Scout. Of course.” Half-forcing a grin, he said, “But do it fast, okay? I already lost a year. I don’t want to lose any more time with you than I have to.”

She smiled back at him as tears rolled slowly down her cheeks. “Thank you.”

“Well, this is awkward.”

Trey glanced at Ashra in surprise. He’d completely forgotten about their unicorns.

Torz pawed the ground, his horn sparking the fire to keep it lit.
“I suggest we eat and get some rest. I assume the master’s lair will be within a day’s walk.”

They all looked to Ashra. She was the one with a mission of vengeance. Scout and Trey wanted to save their families — and Iros’s lost girlfriend, who had been Ariston’s very first victim. No one even knew if she was still alive, or if her soul had been torn to shreds to create an evil one for the soul stealers. Torz was here because he loved Ashra at least as desperately as Trey loved Scout.

But Ashra… Ashra was here to kill.

Ariston had been the rider of Ashra’s mate — Azezial. Ariston had tricked Azezial and cut off his horn, killing not only the unicorn that trusted him with his life, but the entire Corste line. The magnificent red unicorns who escorted souls to heaven had all died instantly.

And because Ashra’s foal had Corste blood, she'd died, too. Ashra had lost her entire family in one second.

Never mind that Ariston had done it to save the love of his life. His betrayal hadn’t even saved her. Instead, Iros, the Irwarros’ human commander and Ariston’s brother, had taken the horn and cast Ariston out of Paradesos. Ariston became master of the Taraxippus, or soul stealers, as Scout called them. And his very first soul taken had been Aella, the betrothed of his brother.

“She’s still alive.”
Torz’s voice echoed in Trey’s head, and he shook himself from his thoughts. He’d been standing there staring at Ashra for who knew how long. Scout watched him with one perfect eyebrow raised.

Ashra, for her part, ignored him completely, purifying grass before ripping it free with her razor-sharp teeth.

“How do you know that?”
he asked Torz silently, crossing their little camp to take the weird, awful, worse-than-cardboard fruit Torz was purifying for him. No one else could hear them. It was like text messaging, but with no phone. And face to face. So, pretty much not like text messaging at all. Trey rubbed the back of his neck. Clearly, he was exhausted.

“We talked of this last night. I thought you were awake,”
Torz said, and vaguely Trey remembered something of it, but he’d been so tired. Torz continued, “
I know because Ariston torments Iros with visions of her. Like he’s tormenting Scout with visions of everyone she loves. Her parents… her sister. You.”

Trey’s head came up like he had strings attached to his neck, and someone had yanked on them.
“Me?”

“I believe the saying humans use is ‘Duh’.”
If unicorns could grin, Torz was.

Trey scowled at him, but it was half-hearted because it was difficult to scowl when hope was causing your heart to nearly explode up through your throat.

They ate in silence, too exhausted for any more drama. There were no bugs here, no groundhogs or mice or pests or owls or birds. The only sound was the occasional sizzle of Ashra's or Torz’s horn and the chomping of razor-sharp teeth.

“Sleep. We ride early tomorrow,”
Ashra commanded, wandering off to disappear in the shadows, keeping watch, protecting them.

Trey glanced at Scout. Well, this was awkward. Did he lie down across the fire from her and let them both freeze? Did he lie down next to her and wait until she fell asleep to move close enough to keep her warm? Or did he—

“What if we sleep on my cloak and sleep under yours?” she asked around a yawn. She glanced at him through dark eyelashes, a blush barely visible in the firelight.

Trey nodded, pretending like his heart hadn’t just leapt for joy. “Yeah. That might keep us warmer.”

She swirled her cloak off her shoulders, glaring at Ashra momentarily for good measure — presumably because it was a cloak and not sweats, and then smoothed it on the ground. She bit her lip shyly. “I don’t know—”

He lay down, grateful for the soft, weird, moss-grass stuff that made sleeping on the ground so much better than it could have been. She hesitated only a second before she collapsed next to him, curling into his side with her head on his chest.

This is heaven.

“Do not stay awake all night, Ashra,”
he heard Torz say as his eyes slid shut. Absently, he stroked Scout’s tangled, silky hair until sleep finally claimed him.

Chapter Four

She heard the voice, slinking through her subconscious, and she fought to wake up before it found her. She couldn’t.

“This is a very bad thing you’ve done, Scout.” His voice slid over her like scalding oil, leaving her skin raw. Her entire body shook, but refused to wake. Maybe Ashra was right, and someone needed to hit her.

“Ashra. Ashra, help.”

“Interesting that you can talk to the unicorns,” the voice continued.

Now screaming rose from behind him, visions of a towering castle with sharp angles casting knife-like shadows on the ground below. Scout stood in front of it, and a man stood before her, as if guarding the doorway. Soul stealers swarmed in the background, and the wails of the souls trapped inside the castle followed their movements. She tore her eyes from the monsters to land on the demon before her — once a man, now the worst kind of evil.

“I was a rider, once. One of the greatest. And I cannot talk to them. They won’t allow me to talk to them. You killed my Taraxippus. Do you know how hard it is to create them?”

She squinted into the darkness, but he was only a broad shape in the shadows. Big, she could tell — as big as Iros, easily. “I will kill them all if they stop running from me.”

Ariston chuckled, and it seemed to hold real amusement — not a sound she pictured coming from him. He stepped from the shadows and came toward her, and she could finally see him clearly. Hair so black it had a blue sheen, like everything else in this forsaken place. He was handsome, she realized with surprise, and he seemed to read her thoughts. A smile slowly lit up his face as he came closer, step-by-step.

“Yes,” she said aloud. “You’re handsome until I look at your face.”

The smile died and a cold arrogance replaced it.

“Soulless black eyes? Totally not in style right now.” She didn’t know why she was surprised. The soul stealers had black, empty pits because they had no soul. She knew Ariston didn’t have a soul — it was trapped in the horn of his unicorn in Paradesos.

“And I want it back.” His voice confused her; she was so lost in her own thoughts.

“You want it back so you can conquer Paradesos. I will not help you.”

His face darkened, and the monsters in the castle behind him moved faster, roiling through the air in a frenzy brought on by his anger. She watched with horrified interest as silence fell around them.

“I have your sister. Do you recognize her screams, Scout?” A single, piercing shriek shattered the still air, and Scout did recognize it. She’d awakened often enough to Lil Bit’s cries in the middle of the night to know it instantly.

“Lil Bit!” Of their own accord, Scout’s feet propelled her forward.

Ariston opened his arms, a triumphant grin lighting his face. Until he was blocked by a giant, flaming shadow.

“Wake up, Scout. That’s enough!”
Ashra stomped hard, splitting the blue grasses as the ground cracked right under Ariston’s feet.

He fell to his knees, swearing at Ashra in a language Scout didn’t understand and didn’t have to.

“I’m not afraid, Scout. I know you’re coming.” Lil Bit’s voice echoed through the darkness, much like Ariston’s.

When Scout was awake, Lil Bit was in her head. But here, in her dreams, Lil Bit was separate from her. Knowing she wasn’t a figment of Scout’s imagination gave Scout the courage to leap onto Ashra’s back and they soared away. A blue sun rose in front of them as Scout finally forced her eyes open.

Ashra stood above her, snorting and angry, dark brown eyes rolling.
“Do you have any idea how hard that was?”

Scout’s head was cradled on Trey’s lap. He watched her silently — worry, terror, anger — all warring for position in his beautiful eyes.

“How did you — how’d you come in? I thought it was a dream.” Her voice sounded like she was half-dead in a desert. She swallowed several times, trying to moisten her throat.

“I’m just that powerful. And you’re, apparently, just that stupid.”

Scout frowned at her and Torz interrupted, his mild voice calming the rawness of her nerves.
“If you go to Ariston — if he touches you in those dreams, he will take your soul. It is why he tempts you now.”

Scout pushed herself up, away from Trey’s warmth.
You can’t love him yet. Not yet.
“How was I supposed to know that? You could have mentioned!”

Ashra snorted and pawed at the ground.
“I assumed you would be smart enough not to run into the open arms of our enemy, Princess.”
Only Ashra could sound afraid and annoyed all at once.

“And what if I wanted to attack him? Huh? You could have told me.”

Ashra wheezed in frustration and moved away, nickering softly.

“So she’s swearing at me in horse language now?”

“You called me. That’s how I got in. You called me and believed I would come, and it opened a door.”
Ashra spoke only in Scout’s head. Trey and Torz couldn’t hear her. Scout gaped at her unicorn.

“So… what you’re saying is I’m the powerful one,”
she finally said.

Ashra’s chuckle echoed through Scout’s mind, but she didn’t respond for several minutes. Trey lay back down, and Scout curled against him, for his comfort more than her own.

Or so she told herself.

But she was a liar.

Torz went to Ashra’s side, pushing her with his muzzle toward the wall, apparently so he could take watch. It wasn’t until Ashra settled quietly on the grass, wings spread around her, that she finally answered.
“We’ve always known you were the powerful one, Scout.”

Scout didn’t wake until she felt Trey sliding out from underneath her. Without his warmth, she couldn’t go back to sleep. “Any sign of anything?” She heard him ask.

“No. Nothing. If we fly, we could probably be there by nightfall, but I’d advise walking. Slower, but it gives us an element of surprise,”
Torz answered.

“He knows exactly where Scout is at all times. It doesn’t matter if we walk, fly, or come in with trumpets blaring. They have bonded,”
Ashra said. She sounded exhausted. Scout would be willing to bet her big, tough unicorn had stayed awake all night, protecting Scout from nightmares.

“I have not bonded with him!” Scout meant to yell indignantly, but her throat was still so dry that all she did was squeak like an enraged mouse. Highly effective.

All three of them turned to stare at her. Trey raised an eyebrow, running a hand through his hair, but didn’t say a word.

He hadn’t still been angry at her about the whole I-can’t-love-you-right-now thing last night, but he seemed to be now. She could tell him that she never stopped, and that she always would, but that would only make keeping him at arm’s length while she tried to learn to trust him again that much more difficult.

“Chill, Princess.”
Ashra heaved a sigh as if Scout was the most unruly of children.
“A bond with evil is not the same as a bond with good. He forges the connection, using love to get into your heart. Then it is impossible to get him out.”

“Like he has with Iros and his betrothed. Now he’s doing it with Scout and Lil Bit.”

“Scout and everyone she loves. Us, her entire family… he has us all,”
Ashra agreed.

On that bright note, Ashra and Torz wandered off, hopefully to find food. Trey poked at the fire, mostly as an excuse not to look at her, Scout was pretty sure. “Fire’s dead, Trey.”

He nodded and didn’t look up.

“If this is about last night…”

He shook his head, dark hair falling recklessly across his forehead. “It’s not.”

She narrowed her eyes. She’d always been able to read him. Hiding emotions was not one of his strengths. But if he wasn’t mad at her, she hadn’t a clue what caused him to attack the dead fire like it had burned all his clothes in the night.