Made From Death (The Darkest Queens Series Book 1), page 9
Ace couldn't tell if it was paranoia that made her constantly look and listen or if it was the sixth sense that someone was watching, but she couldn't shake the feeling. With the dirt road that led out of the city behind her, she was able to pick up the steady sound of water running. Eventually she weaved her way through the trees and made it to the side of the river. She followed the twist and turns as water chased over rocks and she walked against the current.
At some point when the feeling of watching eyes grew too daunting and began to eat at her from the inside out, she started running again. She ran and the feeling chased after her, always lingering behind a tree or next to a bush or in a shadow. When she saw water crashing over a cliff she ran a little faster.
Now was the truest test to see if Shelby had really meant what he said. Ace didn’t feel as if she had been particularly convincing when she told Shelby that they needed each other. No matter what happened, Shelby was right. She would always need him more than he needed her. Ace hated that. The thought of it alone tasted sour. She knew it, admitted to herself, but didn't want to speak it to life. If she said it out loud, she was certain it would be true and it would always be true. So all she could do was hope Shelby was an honorable man…as honorable as a man could be after he helped a criminal, in his opinion, sneak into the queen's first event of the season.
Ace could make do without him. She could figure out her own way just as she always had. She certainly could make do without the bickering, but as long as she had a warlock or a grimoire packed to the brim with spells then she knew it was going to work out.
Where water hit water there was a heavy mist that dampened the bank. She gave the forest one last exam, finding no one, not even a squirrel or a rabbit or a wandering deer. Along the cliff, behind the waterfall, was a ledge just wide enough for a single person to cling to the edge and make their way through the veil of water.
The brunt force of the river arched away from the slender path, but the misting was still thick enough that Ace couldn't see into the cave. Gods, she hoped there was a cave on the other side. Or there was the possibility she could be walking into a trap. When Shelby left he didn't have a weapon but if he knew about this cave beforehand perhaps he knew that there were weapons already here. Maybe when she made it through the veil of water she would impale herself on the end of his sword. And then she wouldn't be his problem.
She took small careful steps, her fingers curling into whatever pieces of jutting rock she could find. The ledge was covered in a thick green sludge and every time she pressed her weight into it her boot slid just a smidgen. She tried to peer down where the waterfall met the river below, and couldn't make out any rocks. But that was all she could imagine was down there…
So she supposed it was either into the cave and potentially to the end of a sword or let herself slip and fall and maybe she could bang her head off of a few rocks before she was submerged underneath. Both ideas were equally as enticing as they were terrifying. Ace was sure that the tiny sliver of fear she got when she thought about that was only residual effects from her previous life, because she was ready for it all to end. She told herself she was ready for peace.
Every inch of her clothing stuck to her, and as the mist began to cling to her hair, she shivered. The rain had been cold but the river was icy. Droplets stuck against her skin like icicles.
While Pasia was warm nearly year round, this river was fed from the top of the mountains in Opeach. Ace wasn't exactly sure how it held its frigid temperature as it traveled such a distance from a different country. She stretched her arm out and her fingertips touched nothing but air. Cave or fall to her death? She gave a nervous chuckle at her own morbid thoughts before she decided to commit and thrust herself into the void.
Her body instinctively wanted to press her eyes closed to protect herself from seeing whatever was to come, yet she kept them wide open. She would meet death just the way she had the first time; she would watch it if it tried to take her life again. It was okay if that was her destiny, but she was going to make death look her straight in the eye as it did its job. With that one step, Ace was certain she was meeting her destiny…whatever that was.
Tension eased from her body as her feet met stone. She made it through the last bit of water and stared into the darkness. The cave echoed back the sound of trickling water. As her eyes tried to adjust, her ears strained to listen for any sign of life. If Shelby was here he would have said something by now. Right?
Her eyelashes brushed against her cheeks as she blinked several times and took another step into the cave. "Shelby?" she said his name quietly, not daring to call out too loud for fear of whatever sensation she felt of someone lurking behind her.
Her voice bounced off the walls, water splashed every time her boot came down to the cave floor, and her breathing was so loud she couldn’t hear herself think. If someone was here she would be able to hear it, she repeated to herself.
So this was it? Shelby really had given up on her. The slope of stone overhead curved downward and met with a boulder that seemed good enough for sitting. Steam and droplets of water clung to every surface. The humidity collected on her eyelashes and the hair on her arms. Ace was sick of feeling wet. If they'd gone back to her little apartment above the bakery she could be sitting in that empty bedroom, wrapped in her stolen blanket, eating something sweet. Instead, she was alone, and wet, and pissed off.
Ace lowered herself onto the rock, balancing her weight on top of it, and pulled her legs to her chest. Stretching her arms around her knees, she buried her face in her legs and groaned. What was she going to do now?
She asked for a day of silence from the gods—bargained for it really—now she was regretting it. If the gods were in her head they would tell her to do something and though she might argue it at least she’d have a sense of…direction? She’d messed up. She’d messed up royally. And that wasn't just a pun because she was actually dealing with royalty.
So many people had seen her face. She wasn't just some plain Jane, there weren’t hundreds of other girls with orange eyes just strolling the streets of Pasia. She would be easy to recognize. Steps splashed in the shallow puddles that gathered on top of the stone and Ace looked up, pushing the wet strands of hair off of her face so she could see.
A dark figure loomed at the mouth of the cave.
Ace became a statue perched on that rock. Wide eyes glued on that human form, she wondered if she should say something first. Someone had followed her. Someone had finally come to deliver her justice.
"I'm surprised you made it. Maybe I shouldn't be because this seems just my luck." Shelby complained as he sauntered forward. He wiped his hand across his face and then down his body trying to push off what excess water he could.
"Where were you?” Ace demanded as she let go of the notion of a sudden attack that was fueled by her paranoia. His sudden appearance had given her a minor heart attack, and that was just rude.
"What?" The slightest bit of humor laced his tone. "Why? Did you miss me?"
Was he serious? Joking at a time like this? Two could easily play that game.
Ace’s arms tightened around her lower half. "I missed you. More than you'll ever know." She made a point to press a hand to her chest and look up lovingly towards the heavens. "You complete me, Shelby.” She stood. "What would I ever do without you?" She tried not to remind herself that was actually the issue she was trying to solve a second ago but without the implied sarcasm. "Why would you leave me, Shelby? Why would you scare me like that?" she mocked.
What might have been a growing smile disappeared from Shelby's face. He rolled his eyes and planted his hands on his hips. "I've been following you for at least half a mile."
Well, that would explain the feeling of someone watching her. How had he been so quiet though? How had she never seen him? Someone his size couldn't suddenly turn invisible. Shelby walked right past her, the smell of soap on his skin was strong again, somehow more apparent since getting wet.
From what Ace could see, the cave came to a sudden end but Shelby took a sharp right and when she thought he was about to smack right into a wall he disappeared. No explanation. Not a single word. Typical warlock prick.
"What?" she whispered to herself before she hurried after him. She leapt forward, following behind till she saw the small dark crevice he’d slipped through. "Where are you going?"
Shelby grunted in a way that Ace could only assume was some type of laughter. Darkness consumed her and she branched away from what little light she had at the beginning of the cave. She felt along the narrow passage, trying to listen for him. Light flickered to life somewhere nearby. Ace turned around, realizing that she’d entered another large chamber of the cave. Her hands had been pressed to the edge of the cavern, facing her away from where Shelby had actually gone.
She tipped herself back against the wall in another apathetic pose acting as if she knew she was doing that all along. Shelby hadn't even looked in her direction. He couldn’t care less as he began picking through two large glowing chests…Glowing. Chests. Yes, two beautifully crafted wooden chests were somehow preserved in this murky cave and light poured out of their openings to fill the room. There was no way this wasn’t against the law.
"Um, what are those?" she asked.
"Provisions."
"What is a warlock employed by the queen doing with provisions in a cave outside of the city?"
Shelby pulled a bag out of one of the chests and held it open before him shaking his head. "First of all, I'm not employed by the queen, I've been enslaved by the queen. There is quite the difference. Second, it is not unheard of for someone to have a Plan B."
"And why didn't you enact Plan B sooner? What is Plan B?" She peeled herself away from the wall and came to stand near the chests to peer down into them. "If Plan B was to run away, why wouldn't you run away sooner? It doesn't really sound like you enjoyed working for the queen."
"Plan A was safer." Shelby began shoveling items into the bag. He held up a shirt and looked between it and Ace before he nodded to himself and pushed it into the bag. Was he packing for her? That was both incredibly sweet and ridiculously annoying.
"I don't really understand how Plan A could be safer. Surely if you knew there was a way for you to escape and be as far away from the queen as possible you’d do it. Wait…were you planning on running away to Tarshton? Do you think you'll be safer with the Fae? Being with the queen would be less dangerous than that. Gods, don’t tell me we are heading to Tarshton."
Shelby straightened, finally tying up the bag before he slung it over his shoulders. "Not everything is about me. Just like not everything is about you. I know that might be a hard concept for you to understand."
For her to understand? Ace openly balked at his statement. She didn’t know how to do hardly anything for herself anymore. Growing up she went along with everyone else's plan and it killed her! Literally! Now she was just a pawn of the gods.
"Oh you think I'm selfish?"
"I don't necessarily think you think about anyone else."
"I don't know, I feel like I was thinking about you when I agreed to help you get your people out of enslavement. I feel like I was thinking about other people when I decided to help the gods kill all these awful queens. I think that I think about other people quite frequently actually. And honestly, I'm thinking about you right now."
"You are?" He arched a brow.
"Yeah, I'm thinking about punching you right in that square jaw of yours."
Shelby closed the chest in front of him, plunging them back into darkness, and headed back out of the room. He paused somewhere before the door, Ace guessed. "Don't get your panties in a bunch, but I'm gonna do some magic real quick. Okay?"
"Gotcha. Do you need some space?" She nodded and took a step back, her feet settling in a shallow puddle. The edge of her lips tugged down as she noticed. "Do you need a pinprick of blood? Or a stray donkey hair? Maybe a—"
"Just shut up. I have to be able to concentrate.” He cut her off.
Ace pursed her lips, choosing to keep quiet as she waited to see what he would do. Blue light expanded from Shelby's palms. It glowed against his skin and pulsed inside the small space. Shelby stared down at the orb in his open palms.
Light danced across his features and through the cave. Ace looked down at her own hands to examine the way that it was reflecting off of her skin. As quickly as the orb had appeared in his hands it was gone.
"That's it?" Ace said, reaching out toward the wall to follow Shelby.
"That's it? What were you expecting? Song and dance?" Shelby said somewhere ahead of her.
"Something like that. You didn't even chant a spell or anything. How boring."
The moment he stepped into the main vein of the cave she was able to see his dim outline with what little light made it around the edges of the waterfall. He reached up, grabbing the straps of the backpack and stopped. No witty response, no returned jab. Nothing but silence.
Ace paused, genuinely surprised that he wasn't continuing the back and forth. A tingle started up at her fingertips, working its way over her shoulders, and down her spine.
"Smells a lot like unsanctioned magic in here," an unfamiliar voice said. "What an interesting little hideaway." Her spine went ramrod straight as she forgot how to breathe. "Where's the evil-eyed woman?" the voice pressed.
Evil-eyed woman?! Evil-eyed woman?! He had to be kidding. Her eyes might be unnatural and totally terrifying to encounter but nothing about them was evil. What Ace had inside of her…that was holy fire. Holy.
Shelby said nothing. He gripped the backpack and didn't so much as look in her direction. Did whoever was out there realize Ace was there?
"You know she left behind an awfully messy trail. It was very easy to track. So where is she?"
Apparently not.
Rubber soles squeaked against the wet stone as the man started forward. Shelby stayed still.
What is Shelby doing? Shouldn't he be doing something? I don't know, maybe magic??
"You can tell me or I can cut it out of you? The queen wants you returned but does not care if you remain alive and I've been dying to cut up one of you warlocks just to see what makes you so different." Ace couldn't catch the sound of metal and leather but she didn't doubt by his tone that he was holding his blade in his hand already.
"She isn't here," Shelby finally said. "You just missed her, she already left."
Why was he doing this? Ace stayed nestled in the dark, her hands settled on the walls on either side of her. She didn't dare move for fear of making a noise and revealing herself.
"What a shame. I was hoping to bring back both you fools for the favor of the queen. Though she doesn't seem near as worried about you as she does your little friend. That does provoke the question, why?" the man said.
Queen Sienna was interested in Ace? That…that's not possible. Why would she be interested in her? That couldn't be the truth.
"I don't know,” Shelby said quietly.
That's when Ace finally caught it. The tip of a dagger was already under Shelby's chin. He took a slow step back and the man followed, still talking. A chatty guardsman, he was. And if Shelby hated one thing, Ace thought, it was a chatty person.
"You must know something. You two conspired together. You can't really tell me there is solidarity between thieves, beggars, and liars, now can you?"
Shelby didn’t speak. For a few sweat inducing seconds, the only sound was the water crashing on rocks outside the mouth of the cave. Ace could do nothing but watch as the two of them backed up again and again until the guard was in her line of sight. No matter how she squinted she couldn't make out enough of his features to recognize him.
"Keep your hands on that bag of yours. I don't want to see any magic. You’re going to lead me right to the girl."
Well, if he didn't want to see any magic then he was in for a big surprise. Taking that as her cue, Ace leapt out of the passageway and crashed into the guard. How was that for a little razzle-dazzle? She'd just appeared out of nowhere.
She ducked low and brought her shoulder into the guard’s gut from the side. He grunted as the two of them toppled. Quite honestly, Ace was surprised that he didn't drop his weapon at impact. Dang it, he was good.
Feeling reckless with her heart hammering in her chest and her fingers trembling, she pressed herself against him, digging her elbow into his arm. He pushed at her and though she knew that grown men were much stronger than grown women, in most cases, it still surprised her how much she had to struggle to fight back.
"Now would be your chance to use that magic!" Ace shouted to Shelby. She never pulled her eyes off the guard but she thought in her peripheral vision she could tell that Shelby wasn't moving. Her gut sunk a little, dragging her spirit down with it.
"Magic takes concentration," Shelby stuttered, holding the backpack and stepping a little closer.
"Then concentrate!" Ace used both hands to wrestle the guard’s arm that held the dagger away from her. All her effort went into holding his bodyweight down with her hips and slamming that arm against the stone repeatedly.
His fingers curled tightly around the hilt and she growled through clenched teeth. The guard shifted under her as his fingers interlaced in her hair, pulling her head back. A ragged breath surged from her but she didn’t let go of his arm. There was no way she could let him have control of the dagger, not if she wanted to stay alive.
Come on Shelby… Come on Shelby…she screamed inside her head.
She would scream out loud if she wasn't worried about breaking Shelby’s concentration. Even if her hair was about to rip from her skull, possibly taking her scalp from her body, while she was dragged off of the man.
Water soaked into her clothes, stone scratched her back, and her head bounced off the cave floor. She wanted to shout and she could feel the noise burning its way up her throat as the pain pulsed in her head. She clamped her mouth shut, willing herself to stay quiet. She still had the guard’s arm in her hands, though it was no use, he was just stronger. He knelt over her, hissing as he swung a fist into one of her elbows and tore her hands away from his blade.
