Author's Note: Apologies, forgot to schedule this.
Drake was all too aware of more armored soldiers watching his small party of “bounty hunters” as they approached Fort Graystone. Almost all of them were men, and he understood why a lot better now than when he’d first come here. If you didn’t have a rarity in this world, or a rarity powerful enough to get picked up by a manor, you made your way however you could.
Since the Eidolons gave men the shaft in regards to rarities in general, many often took work as sellswords taking contracts from the manor lords. Pretty much any manor lord had the coin to hire disposable mercenaries for tasks they chose not to leave to their blood thralls, and to most manor lords, these men were just that. Disposable.
He suspected most of the soldiers in this company didn’t even know who they had cornered in this fort, or if they did, they justified it by telling themselves they’d send the money they earned home to their families. Despite his and Valentia’s attempts to file down what he still considered a conscience, outright slaughter wasn’t his only option.
Fortunately, none of the gathered soldiers looked to be in the mood to challenge them. A number actually seemed encouraged by the fact that seven bounty hunters with rarities had shown up to deal with “the Asp”. They were probably hoping their long vigil here would soon be over. With Sky dead, they could all head home with their ill-earned coin. If Drake’s plan worked today, everyone might even get what they wanted.
Soon they were in sight of the front of Fort Graystone. It stood across a stretch of open ground, a blocky gray structure that hunkered like a stone giant against the cliffs. There was no cover for at least fifty paces between the closed doors of the fort, which meant even the fastest warriors who emerged would be riddled with arrows before they crossed half of it. It was obvious why Sky and her warriors hadn’t tried to escape.
The soldier who’d met them on the road had left long ago, probably to return to his post leading to the fort. It was another soldier who greeted them. He was an older, muscular man who had multiple visible scars on his face and neck. He also had an extra big shoulderpad that was red as opposed to brown and a nifty-looking eyepatch.
This must be the captain. Life was rough out here. This dude had obviously seen some shit. “Name?” the captain asked.
Drake once more looked him dead in the eyes. “There are some who call me Maverick.”
“Real name,” the man said grimly.
Drake wasn’t going to give that up yet. “You have all the information you need.”
The captain scowled. “I can’t let just anyone face the woman holed up in there. How do I know you can handle her?”
Drake jerked a thumb behind him. “I have them.”
The captain looked his party over with his keenly evaluating eye. Lydia and Valentia, no doubt, cut intimidating profiles, and he hoped he did as well. As for the kids and Nicole, they’d do all right. He hoped Gaby wasn’t offering her nervous grin. He didn’t look back to check.
The captain finished his evaluation and frowned at Drake. “What’s your plan?”
“Get inside, take care of business, leave. Does it need to be more complicated?”
The captain chuckled darkly. “I’m not sure it’ll be that easy, Maverick.”
Drake shrugged. “If you can’t afford us—”
“No,” the captain interrupted. “We will pay you what that bounty offers if you manage to kill the Asp. Though you understand, in that case, you’ll all have to split it.”
More double speak. Even if they were really bounty hunters and they actually did survive a fight with Sky and her bodyguards, they still wouldn’t get paid since the bounty was for the Asp, not Sky. This captain was obviously an asshole.
Drake considered letting the veiled truth slide past, but the real “Maverick” wouldn’t do that. He had to push. Every conversation he had outside his manor taught him more about this world’s speech. Just because people couldn’t lie didn’t mean deception wasn’t common.
“Is the Asp still in the fort?” Drake asked.
The captain scowled. “You think we’d still be stuck out here if she wasn’t?”
The captain hadn’t said “yes”. Instead, he had answered with a question. People in this world could ask any questions they liked because asking a question wasn’t a lie, but it was still a tell. If they wouldn’t give a straight answer, they were almost certainly hiding something.
“You didn’t answer my question,” Drake said. “Did you actually see her go in there?”
The captain scowled. “I didn’t see her do anything. My scouts saw her enter the fort, which is when they sent others to post the bounty. Do you have any idea how this works?”
Drake scowled back. “I’m not taking my people in there without knowing what we’re up against. I need to know the Asp is still inside.” That’s what a bounty hunter leader would say.
The man’s scowl grew to a glare. “If you’re too soft to take the job, then you can walk right back the way you came. There’s plenty more waiting to fill your shoes.”
Another redirect, and more pressure to take the job. This captain had been doing this awhile. Still, Drake would push. He would push until it made sense not to.
“So what can you tell me? What have you been doing the past six days?
“Standing watch here,” the captain growled. “No one here has seen the Asp leave the fort, and we’ve been here for six days. Since she entered. That’s all I can tell you.”
So no one here had seen the Asp leave? Easy. All these soldiers had simply closed their eyes while she left the fort. Still, Drake would let this one slide as well. He’d let the captain feel he’d outsmarted him and then outsmart him in return.
He made a show of considering his options. Finally, he nodded. “I assume we can trust you to have our backs?”
“No,” the captain said. “If we could go inside that fort and kill her ourselves, we wouldn’t need you folk, would we? We wouldn’t be paying you to kill her. So you go in, kill everyone in there, come out and you get paid. That’s the deal. Take it or walk.”
Drake had made enough of a show of arguing with this man about this bounty. And better yet, he hadn’t had to lie once. This man thought he was deceiving “Maverick”, which made it all the easier for Drake to deceive him. This was almost fun.
“You’ll want to give us some room,” Drake said.
The captain smiled grimly. “May the Eidolons guide you.” He didn’t look to mean it.
Drake smiled back. “Trust me. You’re going to be shocked at what we can do.”
That was pushing it, but Drake couldn’t resist some more doublespeak of his own. Fortunately, the captain looked amused instead of suspicious. Boy would he be surprised.
“Now pull back your men,” Drake said. “I don’t want to harm any of you by accident.”
Watching them with obvious curiosity, the captain of the mercenaries made subtle motions with his hands. Any nearby soldiers backed up a respectable distance, clearing a path and some space about Drake and his party. Fort Graystone sat ahead, tightly closed.
Drake glanced at Carl, snapped his fingers for attention, and pointed. “Kaboom time.”
Carl grimaced as he walked up beside Drake. “It really is called firestone... sir.”
Drake had asked his people not to call him ‘lord’ in front of the mercenaries, and Carl, at least, had remembered. He hoped the others wouldn’t slip up before they got inside.
“I know,” Drake said. “Now, give me some meteor kabooms.”
Carl set his booted feet slightly apart like he was about to do a lift and curl, lowered both hands and curled them into C’s, and took one deep breath. As he breathed in, actual chunks of earth tore themselves free of the earth and roiled together in a ball of fiery rock.
Drake watched with keen interest. That did look to be a fairly useful rarity. If he copied it, he’d bet he could easily make a rocky fireball three times that size.
Carl raised his curled hands and the molten ball now spinning between them, brought one back like a shot-putter, and tossed the ball of flaming rock with one heave of his hand. The rock blasted away with far more momentum than just that motion could offer, suggesting Carl’s rarity was in play as well. It even made a faint shriek as it arced down toward the fort.
Carl’s meteor exploded against the door of the fort in a shower of smoke and flames. The nearest mercenary gasped audibly at the show. While Carl’s meteor kaboom charred the wood and left a noticeable chunk of wood missing, it would take a lot more fireballs to take down that door... which was exactly what Drake had hoped for.
“Again!” Drake shouted loud enough he was sure the mercenaries would hear.
Carl breathed, summoned, and tossed. Each ball of molten rock slammed into the door in almost the same spot—the young man’s aim was incredible—and then shattered in all directions. Bits ignited the dry grass. Soon the entire area ahead of the door was cloaked in reams of roiling smoke caused by a dry grass fire.
That smoke obscured the front of the fort and much of the area above it. It would be Sachi’s cue to slip out of her hiding spot, wherever that was. She had actual cover now.
“Advance!” Drake roared. “Bring that door down!” He charged in like an idiot.
As over sixty mercenaries watched in what he hoped was slack-jawed disbelief, Drake charged across the open ground between the ring of mercenaries and the distant fort... and into the smoke. His people charged right behind him, with Lydia on his left and Val on his right. The sound of huffing and boots pounding behind him assured him the rest of his crew was following close behind, though one of them did start coughing.
Yet no one shot them in the back. The archers waiting to kill anyone who emerged were likely too busy gawking at his recklessly stupid charge to bother ending it prematurely. Drake hoped everyone watching was waiting with bated breath to see them fall.
“Now!” Drake shouted from inside the smoke. “Bring those doors down!”
That was the vocal cue he’d agreed upon with Sky. He hoped he’d shouted it loud enough for them to hear it inside the fort. He couldn’t shout much louder.
Ahead, a loud rumble announced the doors opening. That sound was clear enough the captain would recognize it. They would have only moments before the man realized Drake had pulled the wool over his... eye. Hopefully, by then, everyone would be inside.
Drake pushed into a huffing sprint. “Go, go, go!”
Magnum was heavy. His backpack with its share of feathersteel armor was heavy. His whole body was heavy, and from behind him, he heard the captain roar three words.
“Loose! Loose! Loose!”
So the old one-eyed asshole had already figured out they were here to help Sky.
Drake was already inside the fort, huffing hard, with Valentia and Lydia right beside him. The moment he spotted a woman in dark-colored leather armor crouched in an alcove just off the open doors, he dived in beside her. He had no idea who she was—Mary, Ali, or Kari—but he did know she was with Sky.
He ignored the dark-haired woman’s shocked glare. He couldn’t flee until he knew all his people were safe. Three people sprinted past—Robin, Carl, Gaby—and then he waited.
Sachi must already be inside. He had to assume she was already inside. When dozens of whistling arrows followed by a tortured cry came from the smoke instead of Nicole, Drake dashed back out again. He had only heartbeats before the next volley.
Valentia howled from behind him.
Drake found Nicole stumbling along with at least three arrows in her back. He went low, slammed into her stomach, dumped her over his shoulder, and then spun around. He sprinted back toward the door as the terrifying whistles of more arrows sounded above. Was he fast enough? He better damn well hope so.
Above Drake, ice crackled as the moisture in the air expanded and froze. An icy sheet crackled out above them like an umbrella. Arrows shattered the ice as Drake charged inside.
Ice, metal, and wood clattered against his back and stung, but even that thin sheet of airborne ice had been enough to stop the arrows in midflight. Even the brief collision with the ice had reduced them to dropping, not falling. Without the momentum they’d gained on the way down, they wouldn’t kill him.
Drake heard angry shouting from outside and the sound of gears grinding as the doors groaned closed. Sky’s people were cranking those doors shut. He slowed inside the safety of the stone walls as he realized they’d made it, then pumped his fist. “Fuck yes!”
“Ow...” Nicole reminded him from his shoulder.
She had been the only one not wearing any armor, and she’d volunteered to guard the rear since she could go invisible using penumbra. However, even when you were invisible, a forest of falling arrows could still puncture you just fine.
A thunderous boom announced the thick doors of Fort Graystone slamming shut once more. That locked the angry shouts of the mercenaries outside where they belonged. Valentia rushed him along with Lydia, and then Drake handed Nicole off to both of them for treatment.
“Robin! Gaby! Carl! Sound off!”
The shouted greetings of his JV team were a relief.
“Sachi!” Drake called. “Where are you?”
No one answered that.
“Sachi!” He spun back around toward the closed doors. If she was trapped outside...
A long, thin, fuzzy object curled affectionately around the back of his thigh. “That was impressive, lord.”
Drake glared at the huntress who’d once more seemingly appeared from thin air beside him, then slapped at the long tail she’d wrapped dangerously high around his thigh. She winked and sauntered deeper into the fort. He should have known better than to doubt.
“I do not like arrows,” Nicole proclaimed loudly from down the hall. “Arrows are dumb.”
The sound of booted feet in a cadence he almost recognized turned him back around. Sky approached at a determined pace and stopped a few paces away, glaring a challenge with her light blue eyes. Her pale face was streaked with dirt and blood caked her feathersteel. He pondered offering a hug and immediately decided against it.
“You could have died,” she said angrily.
Drake shrugged. “Comes with the job. How long you plan to stay mad?”
She forcefully gripped his left forearm in one strong hand. Surprised, he belatedly gripped her other forearm with his free hand. As he clasped arms with her and stared into his eyes, a genuine smile lit up her face. That smile felt good.
“You are going to make a powerful ally, Lord Gloomwood.”
Drake grinned back. “Same goes for you, Lord Skybreak.”
“Yet I cannot help but feel your antics are going to keep me awake at night.”
As Drake suddenly imagined a soft four-post bed, a lot less clothing, and nighttime antics aplenty, he cleared his throat and released Sky’s muscular arms. “How long do we have?”
The sound of a huge object slamming into the front doors of the fort made them both take a step sideways.
“About as long as it takes their ram team to batter down a fort’s door,” Sky said.
Author's Note: Apologies, forgot to schedule this.
Drake was all too aware of more armored soldiers watching his small party of “bounty hunters” as they approached Fort Graystone. Almost all of them were men, and he understood why a lot better now than when he’d first come here. If you didn’t have a rarity in this world, or a rarity powerful enough to get picked up by a manor, you made your way however you could.
Since the Eidolons gave men the shaft in regards to rarities in general, many often took work as sellswords taking contracts from the manor lords. Pretty much any manor lord had the coin to hire disposable mercenaries for tasks they chose not to leave to their blood thralls, and to most manor lords, these men were just that. Disposable.
He suspected most of the soldiers in this company didn’t even know who they had cornered in this fort, or if they did, they justified it by telling themselves they’d send the money they earned home to their families. Despite his and Valentia’s attempts to file down what he still considered a conscience, outright slaughter wasn’t his only option.
Fortunately, none of the gathered soldiers looked to be in the mood to challenge them. A number actually seemed encouraged by the fact that seven bounty hunters with rarities had shown up to deal with “the Asp”. They were probably hoping their long vigil here would soon be over. With Sky dead, they could all head home with their ill-earned coin. If Drake’s plan worked today, everyone might even get what they wanted.
Soon they were in sight of the front of Fort Graystone. It stood across a stretch of open ground, a blocky gray structure that hunkered like a stone giant against the cliffs. There was no cover for at least fifty paces between the closed doors of the fort, which meant even the fastest warriors who emerged would be riddled with arrows before they crossed half of it. It was obvious why Sky and her warriors hadn’t tried to escape.
The soldier who’d met them on the road had left long ago, probably to return to his post leading to the fort. It was another soldier who greeted them. He was an older, muscular man who had multiple visible scars on his face and neck. He also had an extra big shoulderpad that was red as opposed to brown and a nifty-looking eyepatch.
This must be the captain. Life was rough out here. This dude had obviously seen some shit. “Name?” the captain asked.
Drake once more looked him dead in the eyes. “There are some who call me Maverick.”
“Real name,” the man said grimly.
Drake wasn’t going to give that up yet. “You have all the information you need.”
The captain scowled. “I can’t let just anyone face the woman holed up in there. How do I know you can handle her?”
Drake jerked a thumb behind him. “I have them.”
The captain looked his party over with his keenly evaluating eye. Lydia and Valentia, no doubt, cut intimidating profiles, and he hoped he did as well. As for the kids and Nicole, they’d do all right. He hoped Gaby wasn’t offering her nervous grin. He didn’t look back to check.
The captain finished his evaluation and frowned at Drake. “What’s your plan?”
“Get inside, take care of business, leave. Does it need to be more complicated?”
The captain chuckled darkly. “I’m not sure it’ll be that easy, Maverick.”
Drake shrugged. “If you can’t afford us—”
“No,” the captain interrupted. “We will pay you what that bounty offers if you manage to kill the Asp. Though you understand, in that case, you’ll all have to split it.”
More double speak. Even if they were really bounty hunters and they actually did survive a fight with Sky and her bodyguards, they still wouldn’t get paid since the bounty was for the Asp, not Sky. This captain was obviously an asshole.
Drake considered letting the veiled truth slide past, but the real “Maverick” wouldn’t do that. He had to push. Every conversation he had outside his manor taught him more about this world’s speech. Just because people couldn’t lie didn’t mean deception wasn’t common.
“Is the Asp still in the fort?” Drake asked.
The captain scowled. “You think we’d still be stuck out here if she wasn’t?”
The captain hadn’t said “yes”. Instead, he had answered with a question. People in this world could ask any questions they liked because asking a question wasn’t a lie, but it was still a tell. If they wouldn’t give a straight answer, they were almost certainly hiding something.
“You didn’t answer my question,” Drake said. “Did you actually see her go in there?”
The captain scowled. “I didn’t see her do anything. My scouts saw her enter the fort, which is when they sent others to post the bounty. Do you have any idea how this works?”
Drake scowled back. “I’m not taking my people in there without knowing what we’re up against. I need to know the Asp is still inside.” That’s what a bounty hunter leader would say.
The man’s scowl grew to a glare. “If you’re too soft to take the job, then you can walk right back the way you came. There’s plenty more waiting to fill your shoes.”
Another redirect, and more pressure to take the job. This captain had been doing this awhile. Still, Drake would push. He would push until it made sense not to.
“So what can you tell me? What have you been doing the past six days?
“Standing watch here,” the captain growled. “No one here has seen the Asp leave the fort, and we’ve been here for six days. Since she entered. That’s all I can tell you.”
So no one here had seen the Asp leave? Easy. All these soldiers had simply closed their eyes while she left the fort. Still, Drake would let this one slide as well. He’d let the captain feel he’d outsmarted him and then outsmart him in return.
He made a show of considering his options. Finally, he nodded. “I assume we can trust you to have our backs?”
“No,” the captain said. “If we could go inside that fort and kill her ourselves, we wouldn’t need you folk, would we? We wouldn’t be paying you to kill her. So you go in, kill everyone in there, come out and you get paid. That’s the deal. Take it or walk.”
Drake had made enough of a show of arguing with this man about this bounty. And better yet, he hadn’t had to lie once. This man thought he was deceiving “Maverick”, which made it all the easier for Drake to deceive him. This was almost fun.
“You’ll want to give us some room,” Drake said.
The captain smiled grimly. “May the Eidolons guide you.” He didn’t look to mean it.
Drake smiled back. “Trust me. You’re going to be shocked at what we can do.”
That was pushing it, but Drake couldn’t resist some more doublespeak of his own. Fortunately, the captain looked amused instead of suspicious. Boy would he be surprised.
“Now pull back your men,” Drake said. “I don’t want to harm any of you by accident.”
Watching them with obvious curiosity, the captain of the mercenaries made subtle motions with his hands. Any nearby soldiers backed up a respectable distance, clearing a path and some space about Drake and his party. Fort Graystone sat ahead, tightly closed.
Drake glanced at Carl, snapped his fingers for attention, and pointed. “Kaboom time.”
Carl grimaced as he walked up beside Drake. “It really is called firestone... sir.”
Drake had asked his people not to call him ‘lord’ in front of the mercenaries, and Carl, at least, had remembered. He hoped the others wouldn’t slip up before they got inside.
“I know,” Drake said. “Now, give me some meteor kabooms.”
Carl set his booted feet slightly apart like he was about to do a lift and curl, lowered both hands and curled them into C’s, and took one deep breath. As he breathed in, actual chunks of earth tore themselves free of the earth and roiled together in a ball of fiery rock.
Drake watched with keen interest. That did look to be a fairly useful rarity. If he copied it, he’d bet he could easily make a rocky fireball three times that size.
Carl raised his curled hands and the molten ball now spinning between them, brought one back like a shot-putter, and tossed the ball of flaming rock with one heave of his hand. The rock blasted away with far more momentum than just that motion could offer, suggesting Carl’s rarity was in play as well. It even made a faint shriek as it arced down toward the fort.
Carl’s meteor exploded against the door of the fort in a shower of smoke and flames. The nearest mercenary gasped audibly at the show. While Carl’s meteor kaboom charred the wood and left a noticeable chunk of wood missing, it would take a lot more fireballs to take down that door... which was exactly what Drake had hoped for.
“Again!” Drake shouted loud enough he was sure the mercenaries would hear.
Carl breathed, summoned, and tossed. Each ball of molten rock slammed into the door in almost the same spot—the young man’s aim was incredible—and then shattered in all directions. Bits ignited the dry grass. Soon the entire area ahead of the door was cloaked in reams of roiling smoke caused by a dry grass fire.
That smoke obscured the front of the fort and much of the area above it. It would be Sachi’s cue to slip out of her hiding spot, wherever that was. She had actual cover now.
“Advance!” Drake roared. “Bring that door down!” He charged in like an idiot.
As over sixty mercenaries watched in what he hoped was slack-jawed disbelief, Drake charged across the open ground between the ring of mercenaries and the distant fort... and into the smoke. His people charged right behind him, with Lydia on his left and Val on his right. The sound of huffing and boots pounding behind him assured him the rest of his crew was following close behind, though one of them did start coughing.
Yet no one shot them in the back. The archers waiting to kill anyone who emerged were likely too busy gawking at his recklessly stupid charge to bother ending it prematurely. Drake hoped everyone watching was waiting with bated breath to see them fall.
“Now!” Drake shouted from inside the smoke. “Bring those doors down!”
That was the vocal cue he’d agreed upon with Sky. He hoped he’d shouted it loud enough for them to hear it inside the fort. He couldn’t shout much louder.
Ahead, a loud rumble announced the doors opening. That sound was clear enough the captain would recognize it. They would have only moments before the man realized Drake had pulled the wool over his... eye. Hopefully, by then, everyone would be inside.
Drake pushed into a huffing sprint. “Go, go, go!”
Magnum was heavy. His backpack with its share of feathersteel armor was heavy. His whole body was heavy, and from behind him, he heard the captain roar three words.
“Loose! Loose! Loose!”
So the old one-eyed asshole had already figured out they were here to help Sky.
Drake was already inside the fort, huffing hard, with Valentia and Lydia right beside him. The moment he spotted a woman in dark-colored leather armor crouched in an alcove just off the open doors, he dived in beside her. He had no idea who she was—Mary, Ali, or Kari—but he did know she was with Sky.
He ignored the dark-haired woman’s shocked glare. He couldn’t flee until he knew all his people were safe. Three people sprinted past—Robin, Carl, Gaby—and then he waited.
Sachi must already be inside. He had to assume she was already inside. When dozens of whistling arrows followed by a tortured cry came from the smoke instead of Nicole, Drake dashed back out again. He had only heartbeats before the next volley.
Valentia howled from behind him.
Drake found Nicole stumbling along with at least three arrows in her back. He went low, slammed into her stomach, dumped her over his shoulder, and then spun around. He sprinted back toward the door as the terrifying whistles of more arrows sounded above. Was he fast enough? He better damn well hope so.
Above Drake, ice crackled as the moisture in the air expanded and froze. An icy sheet crackled out above them like an umbrella. Arrows shattered the ice as Drake charged inside.
Ice, metal, and wood clattered against his back and stung, but even that thin sheet of airborne ice had been enough to stop the arrows in midflight. Even the brief collision with the ice had reduced them to dropping, not falling. Without the momentum they’d gained on the way down, they wouldn’t kill him.
Drake heard angry shouting from outside and the sound of gears grinding as the doors groaned closed. Sky’s people were cranking those doors shut. He slowed inside the safety of the stone walls as he realized they’d made it, then pumped his fist. “Fuck yes!”
“Ow...” Nicole reminded him from his shoulder.
She had been the only one not wearing any armor, and she’d volunteered to guard the rear since she could go invisible using penumbra. However, even when you were invisible, a forest of falling arrows could still puncture you just fine.
A thunderous boom announced the thick doors of Fort Graystone slamming shut once more. That locked the angry shouts of the mercenaries outside where they belonged. Valentia rushed him along with Lydia, and then Drake handed Nicole off to both of them for treatment.
“Robin! Gaby! Carl! Sound off!”
The shouted greetings of his JV team were a relief.
“Sachi!” Drake called. “Where are you?”
No one answered that.
“Sachi!” He spun back around toward the closed doors. If she was trapped outside...
A long, thin, fuzzy object curled affectionately around the back of his thigh. “That was impressive, lord.”
Drake glared at the huntress who’d once more seemingly appeared from thin air beside him, then slapped at the long tail she’d wrapped dangerously high around his thigh. She winked and sauntered deeper into the fort. He should have known better than to doubt.
“I do not like arrows,” Nicole proclaimed loudly from down the hall. “Arrows are dumb.”
The sound of booted feet in a cadence he almost recognized turned him back around. Sky approached at a determined pace and stopped a few paces away, glaring a challenge with her light blue eyes. Her pale face was streaked with dirt and blood caked her feathersteel. He pondered offering a hug and immediately decided against it.
“You could have died,” she said angrily.
Drake shrugged. “Comes with the job. How long you plan to stay mad?”
She forcefully gripped his left forearm in one strong hand. Surprised, he belatedly gripped her other forearm with his free hand. As he clasped arms with her and stared into his eyes, a genuine smile lit up her face. That smile felt good.
“You are going to make a powerful ally, Lord Gloomwood.”
Drake grinned back. “Same goes for you, Lord Skybreak.”
“Yet I cannot help but feel your antics are going to keep me awake at night.”
As Drake suddenly imagined a soft four-post bed, a lot less clothing, and nighttime antics aplenty, he cleared his throat and released Sky’s muscular arms. “How long do we have?”
The sound of a huge object slamming into the front doors of the fort made them both take a step sideways.
“About as long as it takes their ram team to batter down a fort’s door,” Sky said.
