Page 95 of The Crowned Queen

An arrow whistled past Loren’s ear, punching through the boiled leather armor of the soldier in front of him. The man grunted, stumbling and giving Loren the opening he needed to drive his sword through the man’s belly.

Loren wrenched the blade free in the same motion, lunging for his next target before the human’s body had even hit the ground. His shadows lashed out at another, yanking the man off his feet and sending the arrow that would have found Brynn’s heart wide.

The camp was in chaos. Brynn’s fire flashed, painting the tree trunks in bursts of flickering orange before darkness rushed back in, a human scream of pain splitting the night. Across the clearing, Caela was fighting too—wielding blade and magic together as Naeva rained arrows down from above, driving the Arcanum soldiers toward him and his shadows.

Not that this was anywhere close to a fair fight. This was only a scouting party, equipped for stealth and speed instead of battle. If Naeva hadn’t sounded the alarm they wouldn’t even have known they’d been found until the full might of the Arcanum’s forces came down on them.

Except Araya had known. He’d thought it was a nightmare—Goddess only knew, she’d been through enough to haunt her for the rest of her life. But then Naeva had sounded the alarm.

Now he had to make sure that none of them made it back to tell Jaxon Shaw where she was.

Loren spread his shadows wide. Men fell, their screams cutting off mid-cry as the shadows dragged them to the ground—all except for one.

“Naeva!” Loren shouted, pointing.

An arrow thudded into the trunk of a tree—coming so close that the fleeing scout ducked, nearly falling. But the second went wide, vanishing into the darkness as the scout found his feet again, sprinting for the trees. Loren cursed, throwing himself forward. If that scout reached the trees, Jaxon Shaw would know exactly where to find Araya by sunrise.

But the scout had already put too much distance between them, and Loren’s shadows were split in a dozen different directions, too tangled in other fights to answer his call. Loren pumped his legs harder, reaching out with magic and body alike⁠—

The ground heaved under his feet.

Roots tore free of the earth. Vines snapped tight around the man’s legs just as he hit the tree line, slamming him to the forest floor. Loren skidded to a halt, his mouth gaping open as they thickened and spread, pinning the human to the ground.

The soldier thrashed against their grip, clawing at the dirt. “Please—” his voice broke, his wild gaze fixed on something beyond Loren and his shadows. “I’m sorry! We never agreed with what he did to you⁠—”

“You didn’t stop him either.”

Loren whipped around.

Araya met his eyes, her chin lifted. A blade gleamed in her hand, magic crackling in the air around her. More vines coiled around her feet—but they weren’t pinning her down or attacking her. They only brushed her skin, twining around and through the shadow at her side like they were greeting an old friend.

She’d told him. Over and over again she’d told him that the forest was speaking to her. That it had helped her. But he had been so focused on protecting her that he had dismissed her. Told her she was dreaming. Traumatized. That it was all just a figment of her imagination⁠—

“Please,” the human scout sobbed. “Cut them off! You have to cut them off and burn them⁠—”

Loren turned back to the human, steeling himself for what had to be done now. Araya’s fury beat in his chest like a second heartbeat, and he knew she wouldn’t look away. He supposed she more than any of them had earned the right to witness this.

“Were you going to tell Jaxon Shaw where to find my mate?” he asked.

The human’s eyes locked onto his, wide and desperate. “I won’t tell him,” he gasped. “I swear it. I didn’t see anything. Please⁠—”

But humans always lied.

Loren drove his sword through the man’s chest.

“Did you see it?”

“The roots—gods, they tore themselves out of the ground⁠—”

Loren closed his eyes, doing his best not to listen to the whispers as they all crowded around the table in the main cottage. His shadows pressed close around his feet, offering no counsel for once. And Araya⁠—

Loren’s jaw tightened as he glanced sidelong at his mate. She didn’t even look at him, her back ramrod straight and her hands folded on the table as their friends all whispered in awed voices about what they’d seen her do.

“—never seen anything like it,” Caela was saying. “I thought it was Loren’s shadows at first⁠—”

“But it wasn’t,” Naeva interrupted. “We all saw what happened. Those vines snapped around that man’s legs like a snare. If she hadn’t been there⁠—”

“She shouldn’t have been there,” Loren snapped, cutting the conversation short. He glared at Araya. “You could have gotten hurt⁠—”