CHAPTER 34 Torj
CHAPTER 34
Torj
‘In the wake of magical wounds, reality itself stands vulnerable to corruption’
– Alchemy of Afflictions
‘I ’ M NOT SHARING a saddle with you,’ Wren declared, her nostrils flaring, her outrage palpable.
‘Wanna bet?’ In one effortless motion, he circled her waist with his hands and lifted her up onto the stallion’s back, fast enough that she didn’t have time to kick him. The feel of her seared into his palms and the fresh memory of her moaning his name rushed back to him with a pulse of longing.
He shut those thoughts down, hard, and swung himself up behind her, sucking in a breath as he cradled her backside between his thighs. Trying to ignore the warmth of her body, he reached around to take the reins, guiding his stallion, Tucker, towards the gates and glancing back to make sure Wren’s teammate, Dessa, was close behind. The redhead looked beyond uncomfortable in the saddle, but Torj had shared words with the stable hand to ensure her mare had a gentle temperament.
‘This is fucking humiliating,’ Wren muttered.
‘You should have thought about that last night.’
‘Like you’d be behaving any differently now, you brute.’
‘You say the sweetest things, Embervale.’
‘You haven’t heard anything yet.’
He urged Tucker onwards. The sooner they got to Farissa’s lesson, the better. Wren’s fidgeting in the saddle was doing nothing to quell the heated notions swirling in Torj’s mind, nor was the motion of the ride rocking him against her backside helping the growing hardness in his leathers.
Gods, whose idea was this again?
‘Stop moving,’ he ground out, feeling her tense before him.
‘I’m trying to get comfortable.’
‘This isn’t a fucking day bed, Embervale.’
‘You should have thought of that before you insisted I ride with you.’ She wriggled again, this time, her curves rubbing directly over him.
Torj ground his teeth, trying to will away his growing erection. It was all he could do not to slip his hand around her waist and drag her back onto his cock. Instead, he turned his attention to the trail leading out of the academy grounds and guided them towards the city, where a large infirmary lay.
To his immense frustration, Farissa had changed the location of her lesson at the last minute, disregarding all his security protocols. The Master Alchemist had argued that spur-of-the-moment changes of plans could be good for security, given that they could catch any attackers unawares. Torj agreed, to some extent; he just didn’t like that he’d not been consulted. Whether he liked it or not, though, Wren was his responsibility, and he meant to keep her safe at whatever cost.
He knew the place they were going. It was where his friends Talemir and Drue Starling had based themselves after the shadow war. Both famous warriors in their own right, they had spent much of their time there, helping the wounded, while so much of the midrealms was being rebuilt.
‘We should go to the Mortar and Pestle tavern on the way back,’ Dessa was saying enthusiastically. ‘Your friend Kristopher said it’s a great spot.’
Wren snorted. ‘I’m sure he did.’
‘Absolutely not,’ Torj told them.
Dessa cast a forlorn look in his direction. ‘You’re no fun.’
‘I’m not paid to be fun. I’m paid to keep the future Queen of Delmira alive.’
He could practically hear Wren’s eyes rolling in her head. ‘So far you’re not doing a great job,’ she said. ‘I’m dying of suffocation.’
Dessa laughed good-naturedly. ‘Was he your bodyguard during the war as well?’ she asked Wren.
Though Torj wasn’t sure how, he felt the cold wash over her.
‘Actually,’ he heard himself say, ‘it was Embervale who had my back in battle.’
Dessa’s mouth fell open. ‘ Really? ’
‘He’s exaggerating,’ Wren muttered.
‘Not even a little,’ Torj argued, enjoying the rise he was getting out of her. ‘I’d be dead without her.’ That much was true.
‘That’s incredible, Wren,’ Dessa said sincerely. ‘I’d love to hear about it one day.’
Wren elbowed him in the stomach. ‘He’s full of shit.’ Torj grunted in pain, and a huff of satisfied laughter escaped her. ‘Oops.’
Dessa continued to natter away, commenting on the architecture of the city, the fashions of its people, the luck they were having with the weather. She was a sweet woman, and Torj found himself hoping that Wren would warm to her eventually. He knew how lonely she had been after she’d lost her closest friends—
Tucker’s ears flattened, and Torj felt his stallion tense beneath him. Before he could react, the horse let out a shrill neigh and reared up on his hind legs, his front hooves slicing through the air.
Wren let out a cry of surprise, her body pitching forwards. Instinctively, Torj’s arm shot out, wrapping tightly around her slender waist and pulling her back against him. Wren’s hand grasped his, her fingers cold. Torj’s heart skipped a beat at the unexpected contact and the jolt of electricity that ran through him.
‘It’s alright,’ he told her gently as he tightened his grip on the reins with his other hand, his thighs clenching around the stallion’s sides as he brought the animal back under control. Dessa’s startled shriek from behind them hadn’t helped matters.
As the stallion’s hooves returned to the ground, Wren seemed to realize what she had done. She wrenched her hand away, and Torj could sense her embarrassment in the way she shifted awkwardly in the saddle.
He did the gentlemanly thing and pretended it hadn’t happened. He busied himself with scanning their surroundings, trying to determine what had spooked his mount. Tucker wasn’t usually a skittish horse, but Torj could see nothing out of the ordinary. The road around them was quiet, the only sound the gentle rustling of leaves in the breeze.
Torj turned his focus back to Wren. ‘You know,’ he ventured, so only she could hear, ‘you could be making this a lot easier between us.’ He was vaguely hoping to offer some sort of truce, something that meant she might actually talk to him like a human being.
‘And why would I want to make things easier for you?’
So much for that.
‘Because right now, I want to throttle you more than I want to protect you.’
‘I’d like to see you try, Bear Slayer. Remind me, how did that work out for you?’
‘You tell me.’ He drew her closer to him, so that her back was completely flush with his chest, so that the loose knot of her hair brushed against his stubble. He let his words kiss the shell of her ear, well aware that he was playing with fire. ‘You were the one moaning my name last night.’
He heard the little gasp of shock that escaped her, felt her whole body go rigid in the saddle. The way Tucker surged forwards beneath them told Torj that she’d clenched her thighs together.
The poisoner hadn’t been expecting that.
A beat later, Wren spoke. ‘I wasn’t the only one, was I?’ She inched backwards and pressed herself against the hard, throbbing length of him. ‘And it doesn’t feel like you want to throttle me now, Warsword.’
Torj bit down a moan as the friction triggered a rush of short-lived pleasure, his face growing hot.
‘You... vixen .’ The words rushed from his lips breathlessly.
Wren gave a dark laugh. ‘Challenge me to a game, Bear Slayer, and you’d best prepare to lose.’