THE SEQUEL TO 'LUNA OF ROGUES.'
Last Haven is scattered to the wind. It has been nineteen years since the castle burned - nineteen years of bitter warfare - and rogues are a dying breed. Defeat is starting to look inevitable.
Every rogue has a choic...
Another very gorgeous picture for you all today. It's Liam and Eva, of course, and once again you have LittleLoneWriterGirl to thank :)
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We peered out from behind the trellis as we pulled our shoes on and obscured the rest of the bloodstains with mud. I had no doubt that we looked like we were fresh from a rubbish tip — and smelt even worse, but I didn't care much if it kept us from getting arrested.
The house itself was in disrepair. We were in a poor part of town, and I could see that the paint was peeling and the gutter was falling off. In the downstairs window, I could spy an elderly man and woman sat in armchairs. They looked like they were reading.
"It's some old people," Joel said. "Let's just go inside."
"And give them a heart attack?" I demanded. It was true that we'd have to go through a house to get out onto the street, but it didn't have to be this one.
"They don't need to see us."
I just shook my head derisively and looked around for some back-up. Liam had barely moved since he'd come over the fence. And it wasn't the fresh bite wound on his leg that was bothering him — instead, he was sat there, one arm held awkwardly against his body. It was the same arm which he'd injured at Haven. He hadn't even tried to put his shoes on, and it didn't take me long to put two and two together.
"It is still bothering you," I growled. "Come here. Let me have a look at it."
I felt along the bone gently, watching him closely for a reaction all the while. I got one as my fingers brushed the skin just above his elbow. I murmured an apology as I pressed a little bit harder. There was a lump in the bone and a ridge which shouldn't have been there.
"Liam, this is broken," I said accusatively. "And you've been running on it all day."
He just gave me a helpless shrug, as if to say what else was I supposed to do? And he had a point. The bone had clearly tried to mend itself, but one of the fragments was out of place, and now it was all a big mess that would need surgery.
"It's been okay mostly," he said.
"You heard him. He's fine," Joel muttered. "Now can we please go?"
I looked from Liam to the house and back again and heaved a sigh. "Alright, but we'll cross into the next garden. They've got their door ajar."
We hopped the fence. There was no shrubbery to hide behind in the neighbouring garden, so we tried to be quick. I had the knife tucked into my waistband and the tracker clutched in my palm. We had bought ourselves some time, but I knew all too well that Lowland was barely ten minutes' drive from here. The flockies would call in some well-dressed, gun-wielding reinforcements before long.
The back door led into a gloomy kitchen. We padded through on silent, steady feet. Through the wall, I could hear the sound of children playing and an adult's waspish rebukes. Joel took half a loaf of bread from a countertop as he passed, and I didn't try to stop him. My stomach had been snarling at me for the better part of twenty-six hours.
