Frost Line Read online

  Beware.

  She had only her instincts to go on, but she never doubted them. The man had not had good intentions toward either her or the child.

  She pulled Elijah close to her and wrapped her arms around him, offering him the comfort of her touch, the knowledge that he wasn’t alone. In spite of the chill of the day, he was warm, his smallness making him feel soft and fragile to her. She didn’t want to let go of him. Poor child, his heart was beating so hard she could feel it under her palms. His distress was palpable.

  And in that moment, she knew she would do whatever she needed to do to protect him.

  She felt a warning tingle race up her spine a bare second before she heard someone approaching. The fallen, dead leaves on the floor of the forest made a quiet approach impossible. Whoever was headed their way was not the man she’d laid low, she knew that. This was another, someone more dangerous than a crooked policeman.

  She stood, spun to face this new danger, and pushed Elijah behind her.

  A Hunter was coming toward her. She knew it by his bearing, that erect, alert posture, the predatory sharpness of his gaze. One could always tell a Hunter just by the eyes, something other about them, even without the long knife he wore that was of a shape and metal peculiar to the Hunters. She had been expecting one, though truthfully not so soon.

  What she had not expected was that he would draw his weapon as he approached her.

  Despite her puzzlement, she kept Elijah firmly behind her. “Stop!” she commanded.

  He didn’t pause. The Hunter knew who she was, and didn’t care.

  “Do you have the deck?” he asked, finally stopping when he was mere feet away.

  Taken aback, she stared at him. He was here for the Alexandria Deck, not for her. That was … immediately relieving, that he didn’t mean harm to her or Elijah, followed hard on its heels by alarm because that wasn’t what it meant at all. “Who sent you?” she asked sharply. The magical deck was so powerful many of the Major Arcana would desire having it under their control, but who would send a weapon-bearing Hunter after it? There were a few who were capable, but with no more than a flash of thought she knew exactly who had sent this one. “Ah,” she said quietly. “Veton.” Of course. None of them would want it more than the one who would see the deck as an unending source of entertaining chaos.

  The Hunter smiled and tipped his head, without a sound telling Lenna her supposition was correct. She carefully didn’t glance at her bag, or make any protective move toward it. Did he realize he needed every card in order for there to be power in the deck? How much did he know?

  Still smiling, the Hunter moved closer. “Give me the deck, and I’ll gladly take you back to your home.”

  “And if I don’t?”

  “I hear you can be replaced.”

  Replaced? Impossible.

  Before she could respond, the Hunter lunged for her, his knife blade gleaming with magic, his face determined. Lenna shoved Elijah to safety and danced to the side, drawing the Hunter and the danger away from the child, rapidly trying to plot a strategy. The Hunter would make a much more fearsome opponent than had the human in Elijah’s kitchen.

  She spun to meet him and lashed out with a kick, but they were both moving so fast her foot barely grazed the Hunter’s back. He rolled away from the force of the kick and sprang back up, not only uninjured but not even stunned. And smiling.

  “Tell me where the deck is,” he said.

  “Lenna?” Elijah whispered, and then he said more loudly, “You leave Lenna alone!” With a cry he rushed toward the Hunter with his hands curled into small fists.

  Lenna’s heart almost came through her chest. “Elijah!” He didn’t have a chance against a normal adult, much less a Hunter! Forsaking her own protection, she threw herself at the child, tackled him, and went rolling with him across the icy ground. Dead leaves rustled beneath their bodies, and the snow and ice that crusted the leaves stung her face and bare hands.

  The Hunter laughed, coming toward them as she rolled up onto her feet and faced him again, once more with Elijah behind her.

  She had no delusions about her capabilities in a battle. She was fast, yes, with some skill, and she did have an impressive physical strength compared to the humans of this world, but she had no weapon and she couldn’t defeat the Hunter with strength alone. She might hold him off for a while, but in a physical match there could be only one end, one that didn’t favor her.

  “Let the child leave,” she bargained. She had to get Elijah out of danger. She could send him to a neighbor, or a friend. That wasn’t her plan—she didn’t really have a plan—but once he was out of the way she would at least have one less worry to occupy her mind. She didn’t have the skill to defeat a Hunter, but perhaps she could outsmart him, if she didn’t have to expend energy on protecting Elijah.

  “I don’t think so,” the Hunter said, his eyes gleaming with cunning. “Give me the deck, and I won’t hurt him. I will send you home, unharmed. Fight me, and …” He shrugged. “In the heat of battle, there are always innocent victims.”

  He would hurt Elijah to get the deck. She would gladly give him the cards to protect the child … if she trusted him. She did not. She had promised to help Elijah, which she couldn’t do if the Hunter took her back to Aeonia as soon as he had the deck, not that she trusted him to keep his word on that. He had been sent to retrieve her, yet obviously he was also working for Veton. From all she had seen, he seemed perfectly willing to kill her. At least, he was more than willing to try.

  Lenna didn’t know what would happen if she actually died. She had no desire to find out.

  She squared her shoulders. She had to defeat this Hunter. When he didn’t return with her, surely another Hunter would be dispatched to retrieve her. Somehow she had to help Elijah. The two things she needed to do—return to Aeonia, and aid Elijah—were at odds with each other, yet she was determined to do both. She had some time, and she would use every last second of it trying to keep her word to the child. She would do everything she could, and if in the end another Hunter didn’t come for her, she would find her own way home.

  She was certain the One had a contingency plan, too. Didn’t He always? Despite the dire situation, that thought made her smile.

  The Hunter was instantly suspicious, and she saw his grip tighten on the supernatural weapon in his hand. If she could be killed, that knife would be the weapon to do the deed. The Hunters had weapons to handle every situation.

  Quickly she said, “I don’t have the deck, but I know where it is.”

  “Take me there.”

  If she had trusted him … but she didn’t. She turned as if to start off through the woods, and as he reflexively relaxed at this indication of her obedience, Lenna seized this as her best chance to catch him off guard and threw herself sideways into him as she shouted, “Run!” at Elijah, and hoped he obeyed as willingly as he had before.

  Out of the corner of her eye she saw the child dart away, then all of her attention was focused on the battle. It was brief but fierce, and the outcome not unexpected despite her willingness to do the worst she could while the Hunter was logically hampered by his desire to keep her alive until he knew where the deck was.

  She managed to snap her head up under his chin and daze him a little, something that made him snarl like an animal. But he was too strong, too fast, and trained in battle, and in short order he had her pushed up against a tree, the cold bark rough against her back. He held her there, both her hands captured in one of his, the blade of his knife resting on the skin of her throat.

  Despite being pinned and barely able to move, Lenna lifted her chin as much as she could and coolly met the Hunter’s malevolent gaze. “Do your worst, and face the consequences.”

  “There will be no consequences,” he said with a curl of his lip. She felt a bit of satisfaction as she saw some blood on his mouth. Either she’d managed to land a blow or he’d bit his lip when she butted him under the chin. “Not to me, anyway. Yo