A hand clamped over her mouth at the same time an arm caught her by the waist. She screamed but was forced to swallow it.

‘Not a sound,’ a familiar voice whispered into her ear. It was Blackmane.

He swung her to the other side of him and retreated behind a wide trunk just before horses came into view. Isabel was trembling all over, her chest heaving from her running efforts. Blackmane was a striking contrast of calm stillness. He kept a hand firmly over her mouth, the other pinning her to him.

‘Isabel,’ Hodge said. ‘I know you are close. I can feel you.’ He stopped his horse barely twenty feet from them. ‘Please. Let us not do this. Return with me now, and we shall figure this out together.’

Blackmane made it clear via his tightening grip that she was not to take Hodge up on that offer. A long, drawn-out silence followed as Hodge waited for her to show herself. She focused on quietening her breathing, afraid he would hear her.

‘I want men combing every inch of land within a three-mile radius of the camp,’ Hodge said to the guard riding next to him.

‘Yes, my lord,’ the guard replied as he turned his horse around. Then he cantered away.

Hodge remained where he was for some time, looking around and listening. They waited him out. What else could they do?

Finally, he pushed his horse into a trot and continued south—or possibly west. She really had no idea at that point.

When they could no longer hear the horse, Blackmane removed his hand from her mouth, one finger at a time. The moment the pressure on her ribcage eased, she turned in his arms and buried her face in his uniform. This man, whom she barely knew, was beginning to feel like the only safe place she had left.

‘Are you all right?’ he asked.

She nodded.

He hooked a finger under her chin and lifted her face so he could see her eyes. ‘I’m going to get you out of here, but I need you to do exactly what I say.’

Another nod.

He took hold of her hand. ‘Let’s go.’

Chapter 20

CHAPTER 20

It would have been so easy to shoot that crazed man from his horse, then cut his throat for good measure, but the warden’s orders echoed in Blackmane’s mind. So he let the man ride away, then headed north to the dense part of the forest where his mare was tethered. Isabel did well in keeping up, though he felt her beginning to tire during the second mile.

‘Not too much farther,’ he said.

Soon the forest would be crawling with guards, and they needed to be well outside the three-mile radius before then.

‘I am fine,’ she lied. The first words she had spoken since he found her.