Page 48 of In Violent Waves

Fuck it.

Fuck it all to hell.

If he had to carry her the entire way there, he would. As long as he could be rid of her. Lyra stayed still, not heaving breaths or spitting an agitated remark. She must be afraid of him then.

Well, good. So long as she kept quiet, it would make his life much easier.

Ridge chuckled beside him, and he glared his way.

“Not a fucking word,” he ground out.

Ridge held his hands up in a placating gesture.

The rest of the journey passed in a blur of trees and silence. It wasn’t the reprieve he had hoped it would be.

After shifting Lyra to a more comfortable position on his back, he could feel her. Her chest expanded with air and then expelled, and her thighs clenched his waist when he walked with haste. Or she saw something interesting.

At long last, her head had fallen against his shoulder as sleep dragged her under.

In the distance, the lamps of the lanterns glowed. The flames flickered in the night, leading their way in.

It should have relieved him, but it didn’t.

An unsettling feeling crawled through him, and he paused, sweeping the village for anything amiss.

“Would you like to know?” Otto asked.

Wilder shook his head and received a grunt.

“You’re fine with knowing everyone else’s future still, but not your own?”

“I like to think I’m in control of my own decisions and not just another thread in the tapestry of the universe.”

Otto sighed through his nose. “Some threads are brighter than others. Like hers—and yours.”

He didn’t know what to make of that—and didn’t want to.

Wilder swept a wind through the village and caught the odor of something that should not be there, wulvers.

“Matthias …” he ground out. “We’re being hunted.”

“Very good, Prince.” Otto nodded. “Igneous is a few hours behind, but headed this way. If we stay, they’ll catch us, too.”

Wilder groaned. He had wanted a few hours of rest. As he shifted a sleeping Lyra to a more comfortable position, he envied her ability to rest. She slept like the dead.

“Find us some horses. I don’t care if you have to steal them.”

Ridge and Maelys vanished to find horses. Their footsteps were silent despite the leaves and twigs.

They stayed quiet. Listening and preparing for whatever could be lurking in the darkness. Lyra whimpered in her sleep, and Wilder hushed her, soothing her back to slumber.

“I have seen—” Otto began. Wilder cut him off.

“I don’t want to know.”

“It’s not about you—it’s about her.”

Wilder grimaced and then inclined his head.