Page 23 of Blood & Claw

Hands grabbed at her cloak again. Her skirts tangled around her legs.

They were too strong.

Her breathing seized.

Then she saw her assailant’s twisted face—and suddenly she wanted to hurt him, wanted to hear him scream.

Ailsa snarled and drove the knife downward. The move wasn’t calculated, just instinctual, and she was surprised when the blade sank into a thigh.

The man howled, his grip loosening.

She tore her knife free and shoved past him, shoulder-first, nearly falling as she stumbled through the gap.

“Grab her!”

Boots thundered against cobbles, but Ailsa ran. Up the wynd, lungs burning, feet screaming with every step.

Someone caught the back of her cloak.

She jerked forward, wrenching free, heart hammering so loudly she could hear nothing else.

The lane twisted sharply, and then, up ahead, she spied the wider wynd she’d walked up earlier.

She flung herself around the corner.

A cart rattled past, forcing her pursuers to check their pace, but Ailsa didn’t stop.

She ran blindly up the hill, breath tearing at her throat, until the shouts behind her faded into the gloaming that now settled over the fort.

Only then did she stagger to a halt.

The fight drained from her, rushing out as if a dyke had just burst.

She staggered, her knees nearly giving way beneath her.

Gods.

They’d nearly had her.

“I need to hire a mercenary.”

Ailsa’s request made Talia—the pie-seller who’d taken her in—glance up from where she was frying oatcakes on a griddle. Surprise flared in her blue eyes. “Really?”

“Really.”

Her pulse quickened then. She didn’t want to waste time on this. She’d planned to rescue Kayla herself, but the attack earlier, and her response to it, had left her shaky and on edge.

She hated admitting defeat. Even saying the words aloud made her feel smaller somehow.

But in the aftermath, she’d had to face facts.

Her reaction to the attack earlier had taken her by surprise. Aye, she’d escaped those men, but barely.

She wasn’t up to taking on those warriors she was hunting.

On her own, she was never going to get Kayla back.

Aye, it was galling. Frustrating. She’d berated herself all the way down to the market ground to meet Talia. But she had to be practical now.