27

KARAM

Saxony stood like sunshine on top of a snow-coated mountain, her mouth parted perfectly in the shape of Karam’s name. The surprise on her face was like an explosion. Sudden and disarming. Saxony ran toward her and the force of her hug when they connected felt like a train.

“You’re alive!” she said.

“Not for long if you keep squeezing me like this,” Karam said.

Saxony dropped her arms to her sides, and then quickly raised them to Karam’s cheeks and kissed her.

“I thought you died.”

“She’s got more lives than any of us,” Tavia said, appearing by her side with a smile. “You know you’re bleeding, right? You look like crap.”

Karam had missed her eloquence, but she sacrificed a reply in favor of turning to glare at Wesley, who was inexplicably standing in front of her.

“You are supposed to be a prisoner.”

“Sorry to disappoint you,” he said. “But I didn’t fancy being your damsel. I don’t need to be saved.”

“Your tune never changes does it, underboss?” Arjun asked. “You never need to be saved.”

Wesley shrugged. “I’m a lone wolf,” he said, and just about all of them turned to look at him with raised eyebrows.

“What happened in the forest?” Karam asked. “We came back and you were not there.”

“Ashwood found our camp,” Tavia said.

“Nolan?” Karam asked. “We were ambushed too.”

“Divide and conquer,” Wesley said. “It’s not a bad plan. How did you find us?”

“With this.”

Karam held up the ring and Saxony grinned.

“I knew you’d find your way back to me,” she said.

“Magical compass aside, what happened on the beach?” Tavia asked. “Where are the others? Where’s Asees?”

It was then that Karam became acutely aware that she’d been trying not to cry for days. That Arjun, standing like a warrior beside her, was taking slow and shaking breaths.

Saxony’s eyes narrowed, her frown deep as a knife wound.

“Everyone else get back inside and give us some privacy,” she called over her shoulder.

The rest of the army was still gathered around them with open ears and prying eyes. With a grumble, the strangers, those who were not family in the same way that the rest of them were, shuffled inside. Karam was thankful. She could not handle an audience at this moment.

Saxony looked between her and Arjun.

“What is it?” she asked.

“Our group was attacked by Ashwood’s men as soon as we reached Tisvgen,” Arjun said.

“I was being held there,” Wesley said. “They moved me from Creije a couple of days before I escaped. There were hardly any Crafters there, though. Just me, Zekia, and maybe a handful of others.”

“Which means that Nolan did tip Ashwood off,” Karam said. “There were so many of them on the beach by the time we arrived. Too many.”