Call to Arms (The Girl In The Arena Book 1) Read Free

They brought with them the news that the Governor had begun to try to push past the borders of the Outside.
    Nobody knew why, there was nothing beyond the borders but the vast wastelands. It had been centuries since the great and heroic Blakely had brought his people from beyond the wastelands and into Arutela and nobody had ever been able to cross it again. Nobody ever came from there, or went into it either.
    Liam sighed and sat down. Everyone gathered around the fire relaxed. Reena did as well. She was tired from the long trek and the days spent running. Warrin’s group was not the first they had stumbled across but the first to have meat and fire.
    Outlaw rule was simple. What you had, you shared. Liam took out the twisted leaf with its scattering of pure white salt and the remainder of the loaf. The group’s eyes lit up and soon Reena was boiling a second small pot of water and stewing the werebane in it.
    The weather had shifted, the rain had stopped but the cold had grown worse. Reena was sitting close to the fire but she still shivered. Her wrap was drying, giving off a smell that made her wrinkle her nose.
    She was absorbed in her tasks, trying hard not to think of Talon and staring at the brown and crisp skin on the rabbits. All those things took her mind off what it should have been on, her surroundings.
    She was dipping Liam’s blade into the cooled and thickened werebane when she heard the first twig snap. At first she thought it was simply a small log in the fire but Liam went stiff beside her and then he grabbed her wrap, tossing it over her shoulders.
    She made it to her feet, running before she was even fully erect. Adrenaline coursed through her veins, and she ducked just as the sword crashed through the air over her head. The fire scattered, sparks leaping to the trees and there was a harsh and guttural scream that abruptly cut off in a gurgle. Reena did not need to look back to know that someone had just died.
    “You don’t want us, you don’t want us!” Warrin shouted. “That man there; that is Liam and the girl is his only child!”
    Traitor! Reena heard Warrin’s scream of fear and then the heavy thud of steel meeting bone. She ran faster, branches whipping across her face. Her wrap fell to the ground and she held her pack more tightly. The things in it were all that stood between her and death in the woods. It contained every possession she had ever owned and likely ever would.
    An arrow hit the tree she was running past. Bark flew, and a raven screamed, banking sharply as it came toward the earth. There were more screams from the direction of the fire. Her heart throbbed in her chest and she zigzagged across long tree roots that had risen up out of the ground, just waiting to trip her.
    She screamed when a hand grabbed her and yanked her up by her hair. She was tossed over a horse, face down. Her breath left her lungs in a long whoosh and her ribs ached. Her fists came up and connected with the tough armor and leather worn by the man behind her on the horse.
    He hit her, his hand leaving a trail of fire running down her cheek and into her jaw.
    She grabbed a section of his cloak and twisted it around his neck, hoping to strangle him. He punched her in her back right where her lungs were. She lost what little air she had been able to regain and slumped down onto the horse for a moment while she tried to think.
    His knees, above the leather thongs that laced up his legs, were bare. Her nails were sharp. She dug them into his skin and he screamed in pain and rage. Savage joy burst through her, and next she bit deep into his thigh. His hand twisted into her hair in retaliation. Her scalp burned and tingled, her eyes watered from pain.
    She fought on, she could hear the other soldiers laughing as she did, could hear them jeering and cheering. One soldier drew closer, close enough for her to see Liam lashed onto his horse.
    “You should have tied her!” The soldier whose horse carried her father