Aela Darkwood's Arc

Chapter 14 of 22

The three of them ran until the diner's lantern glow was gone behind the trees. Aela's boots slid on wet leaves. She stopped where a fallen log crossed a shallow creek and put her hand against the bark to breathe. Rain dripped off her ears. Kalen crouched beside her, listening back the way they came. Lyra scanned the trees, one hand on her palm. "He's not on us yet," Kalen said. "Two minutes, maybe three." "I need to know what he thinks I took," Aela said. "If I don't, we run forever." Lyra looked at her. "You want to go back." "I want to ask him one question. Then we go." Kalen shook his head. "He'll grab you." "Not if you're closer than he is." She told them the plan in short pieces. She would double back through the trees to the alley behind the diner. Kalen would circle wide as a wolf and wait at the tree line, close enough to reach her in seconds. Lyra would take the far side with her palm ready. "One question," Lyra said. "Then you move." Aela nodded. She crushed a handful of leaves from a bush at the creek and rubbed them on her wrists and throat. The glow faded into her skin. Her scent flattened. She reached the alley from the far end. The trench-coat man was already there, standing under the back light, hand inside his coat. He heard her step and turned. His hand stayed where it was. "What did I take from you," she said. "Say it. One word. Then I'll know if it's mine." He studied her. Rain ran off his hair. "A knife," he said. "Witch-made. Wolf blood in the metal." Her stomach dropped. Kalen's knife. The one they had used on her ribs. The one that had cut her curse open. "Who's your client," she said. "That's two questions." "Who." "The witch who made it." He tilted his head. "By your face, you know exactly where it is." He moved. Fast. Her wolf shape came up her arms without her calling it. She turned and ran. A shape crashed out of the trees on her left — Kalen, in wolf form, hitting the man in the ribs and rolling him off her heel. Lyra's palm flared white on the far side of the alley and the back light burst. Glass rained. Aela did not look back. She ran until Kalen caught up to her, human again, breathing hard, and Lyra behind him. "The knife," Aela said. "He wants Kalen's knife. The witch who cursed me wants it back." Kalen's face went still. "Then she knows the curse is broken." "And she knows who broke it," Lyra said. Aela pressed her hand to the silver mark under her shirt. Running would not end this. The witch would keep sending him until she had the knife, or until she had them.