Lᴏɴᴇʟʏ Fᴀʟʟs || Tʜᴇ Cʜᴏsᴇɴ Eɪɢʜᴛ Bᴏᴏᴋ Tᴡᴏ

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ sᴇᴠᴇɴ || ᴀᴍʙᴜsʜ

Navia

There are many pleasant ways to being woken up. Finding a sword pointed at your neck is definitely not at the top of that list. At least, not for me.

I tried to scramble backward, and quickly discovered my hands were tied. Sitting up, I looked warily at my attacker, trying to undo the knots, but quickly finding that they were to tight. I whipped my head around, trying to find my friends. They were also all waking up, if the surprised and angry noises from both animals and people were any indication.

I glared at the guard, who withdrew his sword and sheathed it, looking unconcerned.

"Is everyone here?" I half-turned toward Tyler, keeping one eye on my captor. "Is everyone okay?"

"Shh," Tyler responded, "they're Conquerors."

I returned my gaze to our captors— I realized now that it was a small army rather than a few simple men. They each had a gleaming golden C on their breastplates. "Oh no. How'd they find us?"

Tyler shifted, wincing. "I don't know. They might've been following us. Can you figure out how to untie me?"

I scooted over, twisting my wrists and tugging at the knots around his hands. "Who was standing guard?"

"Me." Tyler winced again, and I noticed then the faint trail of blood from his hairline. "They knocked me out. When I came to, we were all tied up."

My fingers slipped on the knots, which were still tight as ever. I swore.

Tyler sighed. "It's fine."

I shook my head and started trying to undo it again, my wrists starting to ache from the strain. I surveyed the group to distract myself from the pain.

"Tyler!" Horror laced my tone.

He shushed me urgently. "What is it?"

"I thought you said everyone was here." I whispered, worried.

"I didn't... who's missing?" He twisted around, trying to get a better look, but stopped abruptly, air hissing through his teeth.

"Quit it, you'll hurt yourself." I chided. "Sabien. He's not with the group."

Tyler swore. "They must have dragged him off."

"What would they want with him?" I tried not to think of how it sounded. "Maybe he tapped into Eldya's powers, and is hanging around here, invisibly."

Tyler nodded, but he didn't look entirely convinced. "He'd give a signal, right?"

"Who would?" Zay interjected. She'd just come to, looking groggy. It quickly turned to anger though, as she assessed our situation.

"Sabien." Tyler and I whispered back.

"He's not with the rest of us?" She maneuvered into a sitting position, wiggling around to check. "Nope. Awesome. Love relying on the skinniest kid for our escape." She muttered sarcastically.

Tyler sent her a stern look, but Zay ignored it.

"Navia," she said instead, her voice lower, "they forgot to take the knife out of my boot. We can cut ourselves free if you can reach it."

I maneuvered down, my bound hands slipping in her left boot. My fingers brushed cool metal, and I pulled out a small dagger.

"Perfect." Zay grunted. "Now, could you—"

"Shhh!" Tyler hissed, his gaze fixed on something across the clearing.

We both froze. "What?"

"Look." Tyler nodded surreptitiously at a tree near the far edge of the clearing.