Chapter 13
Chapter
Thirteen
ALLIE
A ll of my bravado and faked lightness vanished as soon as I heard the door click behind me.
The Commander had already seen most of the worst in me–even the shadows I tried to keep hidden from everyone, including myself. No point in wearing the ridiculous mask of a Clan lady around him.
The ruse might have worked on Mrs. Thornbrew–which I was already feeling guilty for–but the Commander could see straight through the bullshit.
He knew I wasn’t some damsel in distress.
I was the storm that could ravage this whole fortress.
We were enemies.
“Did it hurt?” his gravel voice broke the stillness so suddenly, I might have flinched if my body still had enough energy.
“What, walking barefoot around your frozen palace?”
“Pretending you don’t want to gut me where I stand.” That damn smirk of his was back with a vengeance, sharp and fitting too well on his face. “That must have taken a considerable effort.”
“Honestly, my cheeks still hurt from smiling.”
I opened my mouth and flexed my jaw, my face still half-frozen from the roof. Then my gaze slashed his way. My words and my stare were my biggest weapons at the moment.
The only ones.
A shiver raced down my spine as I watched him cross his hands in front of his chest. One flick of his fingers could freeze me where I stood.
“Don’t do that again,” I said, voice steady leaving no room for argument.
He raised one of his thick brows at me. “What, pointing out the truth?”
I stood tall and proud, even with this heavy fur-trimmed coat that weighed down my shoulders and barely grazed my knees. I had to tense my muscles to keep from shivering, even more acutely aware I was barefoot.
“Freezing me.”
The Commander’s eyes sparked again, but the blue was much darker this time. Something similar to regret passed his gaze as it raced the distance between us, stopping at my ankles.
“That’s why you’re standing so far,” he muttered.
I hadn’t moved an inch away from the door and was not planning to. “What, you expect me to hug you?”
Suddenly, his eyes jumped to mine, halting other sharp words from tumbling past my lips. I didn’t know what magic they held, but they sought too much and gave too little away.
“Unless you attack anyone in my city or Clan, unprovoked, I won’t,” he said and I detected no lie. “Promise.”
It was my turn to raise my brows. He didn’t just ask for politeness, he also gave it? Weren’t big, bad Blood Brotherhood brutes supposed to be hypocritical?
My shoulders relaxed more than I’d expected. I still didn’t move away from the exit.
Magic or not, this man was dangerous and I was in his bleeding territory.
He had the upper hand and we both knew it. For now, at least.
“You can’t use your Protectorate powers on me, either,” he said.
Almost as an afterthought.
As if he didn’t fear my magic–maybe because he knew I didn’t have a lick of it at the moment, a reality I still didn’t know how to face.
It was easy to grant that, since I was truly powerless at the moment–and didn’t plan on sticking around this frozen wasteland for too long. “Done.”
I could always use a bow if I needed to protect myself. A dagger, if I was truly pressed to defend myself.
“And I have another request,” I said.
Another raised eyebrow and watching me as attentively like that damn raven was his only reply.
“It’s a big one,” I went on, the words heavier on my tongue.
Because it would reveal just how desperate I was for information.
Real information.
The Commander kept watching me.
Waiting.
With my body relaxing slightly around him, my muscles couldn’t contain the shivers anymore. A tremble course through me, so powerful I had to clench my jaw to keep my neck from twitching.
His eyes sparked again. How in Xamor’s name did he do that?
He began moving toward me.
I held my ground, gaze steeling at his approach.
His massive body moved with ease, like a man who knew few things in this world could challenge him, while mine was cold, weak, and so out of its element that I had trouble keeping my fingers still.
The scent of him invaded my senses, that strange mix of leathers, embers, and too crisp mornings.
And all I could do was stare at him, eyes locked, wondering what he was doing.
I distantly wondered if I had the same impact on people back in Aquila whenever I walked toward them in all my might.
But I had been forcing confidence.
He embodied it.
The Commander’s hand reached out toward me.
I sucked in a breath, my entire body taut, mind racing with possibilities.
His hand kept going, completely bypassing me, and grabbing the handle. He opened the door, walked around me, and stepped out.
Like I wasn’t even there.
Which shouldn’t have mattered.
But it did.
I whirled around, facing him. “Hey, I was talking to you.”
“And I am convinced you can walk and talk at the same time.” He looked at me over his shoulder. “Or should I carry you to your room?”
“No.” I said primly, my cheeks flushing; it was only the heat in this imposing, stuffy training room after I froze on the roof. Nothing else. “I don’t need–”
The enormous hallway was no longer empty.
Warriors, each bigger and meaner than the next, marched around in their huge brown leather armors, trimmed with grey fur and too many weapons. They wore their daggers on notches sewn onto their chests, axes hung from their belts, and swords criss-crossed their backs.
Some stood guard in front of doors I made note of–those had to be important–but most simply walked like people with purpose, who were expected somewhere.
All of their gazes jumped to me, some more obvious and stern, others with open curiosity.
I held on tighter to my borrowed coat and hurried after the Commander, hating the way I gravitated toward him.
He was the enemy, but an enemy I knew.
All of these big, heavily armed people were all Blood Brotherhood and complete strangers.
Blood Brotherhood strangers, who still retained the menacing glower of the Northern Clans they’d severed from years ago.
They should have just stayed in that alliance.
Maybe now I wouldn’t have been stuck in their cold fortress if they had.
The Commander and I settled into a silent, sharp rhythm, like we were heading to war.
It felt too fast for my bare feet and too slow for his heavy boots. He’d slowed down, for me, and it only made me feel more lousy.
The only bright spot was that, for the first time in my life, I was the shortest person within view.
I’d never had an issue with my height–longer legs meant I moved faster and towering over people who thought they could cower me was a nice benefit–but it was surreal to be surrounded by so many tall people.
Yet the Commander managed to seem larger than them all, steps thundering, stare so unnerving, even his warriors stood up straighter as he passed, each nodding in his direction.
It was a curious sensation to walk alongside someone who commanded such attention. I was used to everyone staring at me.
It was…a relief. A bitter one, that reminded me I was in an unknown, foreign land, with none of my powers or titles, but, damn, did it feel good to not have the compulsion to seem fierce and in control all the time, because I stood next to someone even more fearsome.
For once, I didn’t have to carry the weight of generations on my back.
The last time I’d felt this way, I’d been a child accompanying Grandpa Constantine on his formal trips. I’d never gotten the same sensation with my former fucking fiance, truly one of the biggest mistakes of my life.
This strange land was making me feel things I’d never realized I’d been missing.
“What is this place?” I asked, cursing the cold in the hallway once more, as we rounded a corner.
“My fortress,” the Commander rasped.
I rolled my eyes. The number of warriors had thinned, but those who noticed my gesture openly stared with wide, shocked eyes.
Yes, I rolled my eyes at their precious Commander.
“I gathered as much,” I said. “What’s it called?”
“Aren’t names important for Protectorate spells?” he asked, not looking at me.
They were–more important than we wanted our enemy Clan to know. “I didn’t ask for your given name.”
He didn’t reply.
“Fine.” I sighed in annoyance, drawing more surprised looks. “ Where is this place?”
This damn city in this damn valley cradled by a crater that shouldn’t have existed.
“Somewhere up North,” he replied as we neared the same set of imposing stairs I’d avoided in my own exploration.
They somehow looked even grander now.
“Oh, stop, that’s too much information to handle all at once,” I said, trying not to fret over just how big everything around me was–the building, the people, even the doorknobs.
The Commander finally looked at me. “I can’t trust you.”
Good. I didn’t trust him, either. “You let me roam in your fortress.”
“And you can roam in my city as well, and the outskirts of the forest. But don’t go deeper, there are dangers too great to handle there, Huntress or not.”
Dangers–or a way out of this place.
“And the trolls aren’t to be trifled with,” he went on.
My eyes widened. “Did you say trolls ?”
Without replying, he went up the stairs, steps so slow, it was almost embarrassing me how much he tried to match my pace and not make a big deal out of it.
I must have been in worse shape than I realized.
With a gulp, I followed, holding onto the engraved banister.
Don’t wince, don’t wince, don’t–
I winced, the skin on my soles begging for relief, but I kept going.
Up and up we went, in that same deepening silence, until we reached a small hallway devoid of any warriors and with just two doors, side by side.
He opened the second one and waited as I wandered in, slow and alert. He’d said we were going to my room and a warm bath sounded amazing, but what if this was a torture chamber?
It wasn’t.
It was a lavish, light-filled bedroom, decorated in white and–shockingly–silver. No sign of the pretentious gold and red velvet the Blood Brotherhood loved so much.