Page 110 of A Thief to Die For

I can’t bring myself to say it again.

‘Marian, answer me.’ She grabs my arm. ‘He came for me? He wants me back?’

‘Yes,’ I say, stumbling over another box and bashing my knee. Where is my damn bow?

‘But how could he possibly want me now?’ she asks. ‘How could I even explain? He loves –’

The urgency to get to the fighting is overpowering. Maybe if I’m lucky, I’ll be impaled. That would be less painful than this conversation.

She bites her lip, then throws the heavy tarp off one of the boxes. She pulls out a large glass jug, giving it a shake. ‘You know, if Father had given me the time of day, I could have been his greatest weapon years ago.’

I don’t doubt that.

She grins. ‘Now, I’ll be his nightmare.’

After confirming the horses have been released, Agatha dumps the sharp-smelling contents of the jug all over the trailer, then uses a long rope soaked in the same liquid to light it up from a distance. Multiple explosions go off, making us dive for safety, my arms covering Agatha. The shocking heat sears our skin, even through our clothes.

‘I’m a little jealous you know how to do that,’ I say, in awe.

She raises a brow, smirking. ‘Really? You know, with a little practice, you could learn.’

I let out a snort at my own words about combat training being thrown back at me.

We take off running and dive together under the nearest non-burning wagon. ‘What’s the plan?’ I whisper, since she left the jug of chemicals behind.

‘Above us, there’s a box that should have my phosforexium. I’ll just need to mix –’

A startled cry bursts from her as she’s dragged out from under the wagon by her foot.

‘Agatha,’ I shout, and scramble after her.

I freeze when I find Atlas holding her against his body with a knife at her throat. ‘Let her go,’ I growl, voice shaking with fury.

Atlas looks like he’s been robbed. He’s missing his coat and chest armour, and there’s a bruise over his eye. His hair is mussed, and blades of grass and leaves stick out of it. ‘You two have ruined everything.’ He shakes Agatha as she tries to speak, his eyes wild. ‘Shut up!’ he snaps at her. But then he nods at someone behind me, just as Agatha shouts my name.

The strike to my head drops me painfully to my knees and darkness swallows me whole.

Istick my head around the corner of the wagon and an arrow immediately flies in my direction. I fall back against the wheel, nearly toppling the small stack of boxes Sam, Levi and I are taking cover behind.

‘How many?’ Samuel asks, keeping his back to me, eyes locked on the trees.

‘Probably a couple of dozen hidden around the wagons. You?’

‘Eight at least, on the right,’ he says. ‘A handful are lying in the tall grass, waiting to pick us off.’

‘Three on my side,’ Levi adds. ‘Still no sign of Marian or Agatha … or our other guys.’

I mutter an oath. What was I thinking asking Marian to take on Coatl alone? A man double her size. And while she’s injured, no less.

That’s the problem – I wasn’t thinking. I was too busy drowning in Agatha’s emotions. All her hysteria and fear. It appears me wanting to save her and her wanting to be saved has opened up a channel between us, because whenever I’m within throwing distance of her, I pick up flashes of her terror. But being knee-deep in Agatha’s panic is no excuse. I deserve to be stabbed for sending Marian in alone.

‘We’ll have to make a run for it,’ I say, unwilling to wait any longer.

Sam grunts. ‘Be serious; we have three arrows left. We aren’t going anywhere without a fresh supply, which isn’t coming. I haven’t seen Lucky or the muskrats since the catapult launched that last explosive.’

Neither have I. Damn it all.

‘I saw Rufus cowering under a wagon,’ Levi adds.