Captive Read Free

coming straight at her. Sarah crouched, muscles coiling, and
     when the bear was a foot away Sarah leaped into the air, tumbling head over heels
     and landing behind the Guardian.
    The bear’s momentum had been too great to instantly wheel around, giving Sarah the
     chance to sink two more knives into its flank. The bear turned and again bellowed
     its rage at her.
    At that moment Sarah would have given her right hand for Patrice’s sword. Her knives,
     while they could be deadly, weren’t causing enough damage to take the Guardian down.
    She had only one way to really cripple it, and she knew that acrobatics wouldn’t save
     her from the bear’s attack a second time. Sarah drew her knives and waited for the
     bear to drop to all fours.
    The second it did, and before it could charge, Sarah sucked in a quick breath and
     let fly with a knife, praying that it would hit home.
    The blade buried itself in the bear’s left eye. The Guardian roared in agony, raising
     a massive paw to swat at the blade. Sarah used the distraction to throw a second knife.
     That blade met its mark as well, burying itself in the Guardian’s right eye, blinding
     the beast. The bear made a sound almost like a wail and stood on its hind legs.
    Sarah turned from the Guardian and ran to Patrice. When she put her hand on the Guide’s
     shoulder, Patrice groaned and opened her eyes.
    “We have to get out of here,” Sarah told her. “Can you walk?”
    Patrice nodded. “Nothing’s broken.”
    Sarah helped her up. They didn’t make it back to the cavern as swiftly as Sarah would
     have liked. Patrice was clearly concussed and Sarah had to help her down the mountain
     slope.
    When they reached the narrow opening to the cave, Sarah attached the stashed climbing
     rope to Patrice’s harness.
    “Coming down!” Sarah called to Anika and Jeremy. “Open a door!”
    After she’d lowered Patrice, Sarah used the same root to climb back into the cavern.
     Making her way along the web of roots to her grappling gun, Sarah clipped it to her
     harness and set the mechanism to reverse.
    The cable spooled out smoothly and soon Sarah’s feet touched the ground.
    Jeremy had the portal open by the time Sarah reached the cavern floor.
    The Weaver had already taken Patrice through the shimmering door.
    “You first,” Anika said.
    Sarah didn’t argue. Heart racing, she rushed through the portal. She turned as soon
     as she was back in Haldis Tactical and was relieved to see Anika emerge from the light-filled
     door just seconds later.
    As soon as Anika appeared, Jeremy closed the door.
    “Good work, team,” Patrice said, her smile genuine if a bit strained. “Good work.”

2
    NEVER WOULD SARAH have thought that simply meeting her best friend’s gaze could compel her to reach
     for one of her daggers, but in that particular moment she found her fingers twitching
     toward the blade’s hilt. Across the table, Anika shifted her weight against the back
     of her chair but didn’t flinch from Sarah’s glare.
    Strikers lined both sides of the long, narrow table, the warriors’ stares fixed on
     Anika and Sarah. Since Sarah had joined their ranks five years earlier, at age sixteen,
     she’d come to expect these monthly mission debriefings with the Arrow—the Searchers’
     commander-at-arms—to be raucous, bordering on irreverent. Strikers were fighters at
     heart, perpetually restless, and didn’t take well to being cooped up in a meeting
     for hours at a time.
    Thus, the stunned silence currently holding her peers hostage made Sarah even more
     furious.
    At the head of the table, Micah, the current Arrow, cleared his throat.
    “Thank you for your candor, Anika.” Micah’s gaze shifted to Patrice, the Tordis Guide
     and Sarah’s immediate superior. “Patrice, since your team retrieved this intelligence
     and this will be your mission, I’ll let you make the call.”
    Patrice was frowning. She glanced at Anika but soon found Sarah’s questioning