“And she’s probably worried sick about you right now. That’s not going to help her recover her strength.”

Grace got right up in his face and poked her finger against his chest. Her expression was fierce, reminding him of the battle maidens from his youth who helped slaughter entire armies through sheer force of will. “These are my people. I’m helping, with or without your permission. You can either let me work with you, or I’ll figure out a way to be helpful on my own—even if it means drawing the Hunters away from the village by crashing through the woods so I’m easy to find.”

She’d do it, too. Torr could see she wasn’t bluffing.

“I should tie you to a tree.”

“Maybe. But you won’t. You vowed to protect humans, which means you’d be too worried about what might happen to me if one of those Hunters came slicing through it.”

“My vow also means taking you back to the village, where you’ll be safe.”

“But I won’t be safe there, because I won’t stay there. And you can’t make me stay if you’re not there with me. Even Brenya couldn’t make me stay. That means the safest place for me is by your side.” She cocked her head and smiled. “How’s that working for your vow?”

“Not well at all,” he said between clenched teeth. “You’re not playing fair.”

“No, I guess I’m not. I’d tell you I feel bad about manipulating you, but that would be a lie.”

“So you won’t lie, but you will manipulate.”

“To save your life? Absolutely.”

“You clearly have little faith in me if you think I can’t handle this on my own.”

“Actually, I’m sure you can handle it. But things go wrong. People get hurt. Remember your injured knee? I don’t want one little mistake being the difference between my entire village surviving or not. At least if I’m here with you, I can run away and warn the others that danger is on the way.”

She wasn’t going to budge. He’d seen this exact look on her face before, and while she was the sweetest, most selfless person he’d ever met, she also never let anyone get in the way of her doing what she thought was right.

Obviously she thought putting herself in danger was right.

“Will you do exactly what I say when I say it?” he asked.

“Probably not.”

Not the answer he thought he’d get. “What?”

“I’ve already played this game with Brenya enough times to know how it goes. First you get me to agree to something. Then you convince me to make some vague promise that seems harmless. Once you’ve got that, then you tell me to do something I don’t want to do and I’m forced to comply. I’ve scrubbed enough pots to have learned my lesson.”

“What lesson is that?”

“Don’t make promises to those more powerful than I am.”

He wanted to throttle her, or better yet, toss her over his shoulder and carry her back to the village, where he would tie her to a tree.

“You might as well accept defeat,” she said. “You can’t force me to do what you want without hurting me, which I know you won’t do.”

She was right, and while her trust that he wouldn’t hurt her was humbling, the fact that she knew his limits left him in a weakened position.

“You will do what I say,” he warned.

She smiled sweetly. “Anything is possible.”

•   •   •

Grace waited until Torr’s back was turned before she dropped her smile.

Her knee was killing her. She’d done her best to cover it up, but she knew she wasn’t going to be able to hide her pain for much longer.

They packed up camp, and she waved for Torr to lead the way back to the stream where they’d temporarily killed the Mason. If he was in front of her, she didn’t have to hide how hard it was for her to keep up.

Each step shoved a bolt of lightning up her spine, but she managed to keep up with the pace he set. When he finally stopped by the edge of the stream, she was sweating and shaking from the pain.

Something about his posture tipped her off to danger. He was too still.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“The Mason is gone. I don’t see even a single grain of sand.”

“We could go see if they’re back in that crater, making more Hunters.”

He turned and looked her up and down. “How are the cuts on your thighs?”

Okay. So he could see she was in pain, but hadn’t guessed why. She could work with that. At least he didn’t know she had yet another injury.

“They’re sore, but I’m okay. I can keep going.”

His mouth twisted a bit as if he were holding back a curse. “I’m going to help you into a tree. Then I’m going to run over to the crater and check things out. You will stay where I put you, or so help me God, I will find a way to convince the biggest, strongest woman in the village to sit on you and hold you hostage.”

Because her knee hurt too much to argue, she didn’t. “Fine. I’ll stay, but if you don’t come back fast, I’ll assume something went wrong and come find you.”

“Agreed,” he said. “I’ll be back within an hour.”

Torr helped her climb a thick tree. The dense canopy of metallic blue leaves hid her position well.

He loped off and was back inside of fifteen minutes. His expression was grim.

“What?” she asked.

“I was too late. The Masons are gone, and I have no idea which way they went.”

Chapter 20

Brenya greeted Torr by grabbing his ear and dragging him into her hut.

“Nice to see you, too,” he told her between gritted teeth.

The older woman’s tone was crisp and frosty. “You were gone too long. I worried.”

He stepped back, nearly ripping his ear off to get her to let go. “I’m sorry about that. We ran into trouble.”

“Of course you did. Why else would I have need to send you if not to deal with trouble?”

“We got slowed down a couple of times. First there was Grace’s near hypothermia to deal with, then my busted knee. And both Grace and I felt it necessary to stop and warn the women in the southern village about the danger the Hunters pose. We did the best we could. Just be glad we made it back in one piece.”