Empire of Flame and Thorns (Flame and Thorns #1)

Chapter 36

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

I throw myself backwards as a cloud of arrows zips through the air. Hitting the ground behind the fallen tree I was sitting on, I roll across the grass while arrows crack into tree trunks around us with sharp thuds. Leaping to my feet again, I take cover behind a thick tree.

Across the grass, Draven is backing away as the arrows force him away from me. Black clouds and winds materialize around him as he summons his magic. But that only makes the stream of arrows grow more frantic.

I cry out in alarm as an arrow buries itself in the tree right next to my cheek. Jumping backwards, I try to scramble out of the storm of arrows that pelts us both.

“We need to split up,” I call as I duck and twist. “We’re too big of a target together. We need to split their attention.”

“Don’t you dare—” Draven begins, but I cut him off.

I know that I’m right. As long as they can surround us and shoot at us both at the same time, we’ll be trapped.

“We’ll meet up at the river,” I yell.

Anger flashes across his face as he shoots winds and lightning at the trees where the arrows are coming from. I yelp and leap back farther as an arrow almost takes me in the chest. It’s time to go. Now.

“The river is miles long,” Draven snaps back at me. “Which part of the river?”

“The wet part!”

Frustrated growls and crackling lightning strikes answer me, but I don’t stop to listen. Instead, I whirl around and sprint right into the woods in the other direction.

If half of our ambushers follow me, Draven should be able to take out his half as soon as he is no longer surrounded. So all I need to do is to lead my half away, give them the slip, and then circle back around.

Thankfully, my energy has now returned since I manage to eat most of the food before we were attacked.

With my heart pounding in my chest, I dash between the colorful trees. Arrows zip past me. But there is no sound of footsteps behind me. That just makes even more dread crash over me. How can an entire group of people be following me without making any sound?

Grabbing a tree trunk, I swing myself around it and dart to the left.

An entire rain of arrows speeds past right in front of my face.

Crying out in shock, I screech to a halt and backpedal furiously. Sharp thuds echo as the arrows strike tree trunks to my right. I whip around and sprint in the other direction instead.

The same thing happens several more times. When I try to take one turn, so that I can loop back towards the river, an entire cloud of arrows streaks right past my face.

It isn’t until it happens a fourth time that I finally understand what’s going on.

A chill snakes down my spine as realization floods my mind.

I’m being herded.

But by then, it’s already too late.

I jerk to a halt, almost stumbling and falling over, as an entire wall of drawn bows materializes in front of me. Flailing my arms, I fight to recover my balance. And when I finally straighten, bows with nocked arrows are pointed at me from every direction.

My pulse thrums in my ears. I drag in deep breaths, trying to calm my racing heart, while desperately trying to make out who the bows belong to.

Then at last, a figure from straight ahead steps out of the foliage around her.

Except that the foliage follows her out too.

My jaw drops.

Shock clangs inside my skull like giant bells as I stare in open-mouthed disbelief at the person in front of me.

A dryad.

Mabona’s fucking tits, it’s a dryad . I’ve heard stories about them, but I didn’t think they lived here. All the legends say that they live in the deep forests to the north. I stare at the female dryad before me.

She’s shaped like a woman wearing a flowing dress. Except her dress is made of branches and vines and leaves. And so is her long hair, which ripples around her as if on a phantom wind. Red flowers grow around her head like a crown. The splashes of red are a stark contrast against her pale green skin. Millenia’s worth of wisdom seem to swirl in her brown eyes. As if she has lived through all the ages of this world. Seen it all. Lived it all. And knows it all.

My mouth dries out as she locks those intense eyes on me.

“What is a fae from the Seelie Court doing in our woods with a dragon shifter?” she asks. Her voice is low and smooth, but she spits out those last two words as if they taste foul.

I swallow. “Trying to find my way back out of here.”

She cocks her head, the vines in her hair rippling with the motion. “How did you get here?”

“We fell through a hole in the tree trunk ceiling thing,” I stammer.

“Where?”

“I’m not exactly sure. About four hours walk, I think.” Raising my arm, I point in the direction we came from. “That way.”

“What were you doing in the woods in the first place?”

“I’m a contestant in the Atonement Trials.”

Silence falls over the woods. A few bowstrings creak faintly as the dryads holding them pull back a little farther. I draw in a breath and try to keep my focus on the only dryad here who is not currently pointing an arrow in my face.

She narrows her eyes at me. “What is the Atonement Trials?”

I’m momentarily stunned that she doesn’t know, since it’s such an integral part of our lives. But I suppose that if they live down here, there is no reason for them to have heard about it.

“It’s a competition,” I explain. “The Iceheart monarchs host it once every one hundred and fifty years. They make us fight each other until there are only three left, to prove that we’re worthy. And the ones who win are given permission to leave the city.”

A sharp hissing sound rips from all the dryads around me. I flinch, thinking that they’re going to shoot me.

“The Icehearts,” the dryad leader snarls in a voice full of poison. Then she narrows her eyes at me as a contemplative look passes over her face. “I knew that they trapped you in your court. After all, you rarely venture into the forest. But I did not know that they make you fight each other for sport.”

Clenching my jaw, I squeeze my hand into a fist. “It’s our only shot at a better life.”

She cocks her head again, and that considering look blows over her beautiful features once more. The silence around us is so loud that I can hear the air rushing in my ears.

“You hate them,” she says at last. It’s half statement, half question. “You really, truly, hate the Iceheart Dynasty, don’t you?”

Since I’m fairly certain that she isn’t going to run and tattle to Empress Jessina, I answer honestly. “Yes.”

“Hmm.”

I just hold her gaze, not sure what else to say.

“You’re following the river to get out,” she says, and once more, it’s somewhere halfway between a statement and a question.

“Yes,” I answer. “I want to get out of here as fast as possible.”

She watches me in silence for an uncomfortably long time, as if she’s trying to read the sincerity on my face. Then she finally nods.

And without another word, she turns around and begins walking away while all the bows are lowered.

“Wait,” I blurt out. “You’re just… letting me go?”

As soon as the words are out of my mouth, I know that it’s a really dumb thing to say. I was just ambushed by a horde of dryads after I trespassed on their territory, and they’re letting me just walk out of here. I should have just taken my miracle and run. But meeting them, meeting a dryad, threw me so far off my game that my brain is still scrambling to catch up.

The leader turns back to me.

A spike of fear shoots through my spine as she smiles. It’s not a comforting smile. It’s the sharp smile of a predator who’s about to rip someone’s throat out. Age-old fury burns in her eyes as that smile slashes across her lips.

“You hate the dragon shifters,” she says. Malice, potent enough to sear through the very ground beneath us like acid, seeps into her voice. “We hate them more.”

Just looking at the vicious rage on her face steals the breath from my lungs. And before I can recover it, she has already disappeared into the magical forest with the rest of her companions.

For an entire minute, I just stand there, staring after her while my heart pounds in my chest.

Then a sudden realization crackles through me like lightning.

Whipping around, I stare in the direction I came from. The direction where I left my dragon shifter.

My heart pounds as the dryad’s words echo in my skull. You hate the dragon shifters. We hate them more.

Dread and fear wash over me.

Draven.