Blood pours down his arm, and I see red. It’s not enough. I want more. Every fucking drop from his veins for what he’s done to Ryah.
I lunge forward and grab her, pulling her back and holding her against me.
“I thought he was going to make me lose it,” she says in a shaky voice.
“Go back to the camp,” I tell her, trying to push her back in that direction, focused totally on the man in front of me. I’ve got three knives left. Three chances to kill him. More if I just stab this fucker to death.
Vern is gazing at Ryah like she’s prey. Like she’s a possession that had the audacity to leave him.
“Hey. Don’t look at her. Look at me.”
“No, Cale, I won’t let you—”
Vern has my knife clutched in his fist and there’s a manic expression in his eyes.
“Ryah, go.” I raise my arm to throw, but Vern’s decided he doesn’t want to be a stationary target any longer and feints to one side.
It doesn’t matter. I can still kill a moving target.
I aim again, and Ryah screams. Instead of lunging forward to stab me Vern tries throwing his knife, but he does it badly. It flips clumsily past us and lands in the leaves. Realizing he’s made a stupid mistake, he gives a growl of frustration, turns, and runs.
Ryah grabs my arm. “Please, just let him go.”
I shake her off and give chase. He’s not getting away just to come back and terrorize her all over again. He’s headed for the camp, out of confusion or on purpose I can’t tell, but I can’t have that man anywhere near the circus.
I reach the tree line and burst through into the open, in time to see Vern over by the horses. He clambers up onto a horse and kicks it viciously in the sides. The biggest horse of them all.
My fucking horse.
Jareth rears and plunges in terror and confusion, but somehow Vern manages to stay on his back. Another vicious kick has Jareth off like a shot, trying to leave this terrifying person behind him. Vern and Jareth thunder straight into the town and up the deserted main street.
I run for a horse and leap onto it’s back, and we go racing after them. I see Vern’s back, and only Vern’s back, as I close the distance between us. Vulnerable bone. Pierceable flesh.
Ryah has run down to the road and is waving her arms frantically. “Cale, don’t kill him. Don’t kill him.”
Her cry disappears into the wind and the clatter of hooves. I raise my arm, the blade held between finger and thumb.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Ryah
“Cale, no!”
I watch in despair as Dad and Cale pelt up the main street and are lost from view among the buildings, Cale poised to throw a knife. This time he won’t miss. This time it will
mean Dad’s life.
My screams have brought the others. Gorran and Arvid are pelting across the grass for their own horses, followed by Elke and Anouk.
I moan in terror and anguish, and run for a horse. I have to stop Cale. If he kills Dad, he’ll go to prison for the rest of his life. No court is going to look favorably on a man like Cale. He’ll be called gypsy scum. A vagrant who stole me away. I hate that everyone looks at Cale like he’s dangerous and untrustworthy when I know he’s the best man in the world. The only man for me, and I’m going to lose him. He doesn’t even know about the baby that might be growing inside me.
I try to mount up, but hands pull me back. “Ryah, no. Let Gorran and Arvid go.”
It’s Elke, and she locks her arms around me. I struggle like I did in Dad’s arms, kicking and screaming, until Anouk comes and takes my hands and looks into my eyes, her expression terrified.
“Ryah, you need to calm down. You’re going to make yourself sick.”
The pounding hooves of two more horses race up the road. The three of us watch them go, gripping each other’s hands.