Chapter 7 #2
I could let it hit me and see if my resistance to some magic held. Or.
Or.
I pulled my falcata free in those heartbeats and spun away, dropping into a crouch as the spell raced over my head and hit…something in the distance behind me that howled and screeched. “Strong magic, witch. Pity your aim is shit.”
Lucky’s mouth opened into a round ‘O’. “I need to get my popcorn! Dave! Get the snacks!”
I didn’t know who Dave was, but I did wonder about the popcorn. Some poor farmer must’ve bartered him the kernels. Someone shoved a bag through the door, and I could smell it even at this distance. He’d popped them in fat and salt. The smell alone had my mouth watering.
But I had more serious things on my mind. I had no doubt Isla was going to have another go at me. “I only want a few answers from Veyyr, and then I’ll leave. Seeing as I saved his life, it’s the least he could do.”
“You didn’t save me.”
“You would not have dodge the sagryl’s tail if I hadn’t warned you.” I stayed where I was in the crouch, waiting, body relaxed as I could be. Sword in my right hand, left hand against my left boot where one of my daggers was hidden.
“Wait, you two fought…a sagryl together? Who had the killing blow?” Lucky bellowed. “Why does all the fun happen when I’m off shift?”
Fucking and fighting. It really was an ogre’s best day when they had both. “Next time, Lucky. And I had the killing blow,” I said.
“You did not!” Veyyr growled.
I shrugged. “I gutted it completely; you put a blade through its head as if that meant anything at that point. I made the killing blow.”
“Oh snap!”
What the fuck was I saying? Seemed I wasn’t the only one questioning what had just come out of my mouth. Veyyr stared at me with something akin to horror. “There is no next time, woman.”
“Agreed. So, answer my questions, and I’ll go.”
Isla though through all this had only gathered herself. “You will die for hurting him.”
Where was the ice-cold bitch that had crawled out of the Rift? The one who’d been able to keep her mouth shut, say as little as possible, the one that knew survival meant leaning on her training, and striking first?
Veyyr showed up and that bad ass, ice cold survivor took a back seat to some smart mouthed woman who could not seem to help the words that fell out of her mouth. Could I blame the ogre for starting it? Not really.
Which might be why I dug my hole deeper.
“I’d think you’d be more upset with him.
” I frowned and stood up and leaned on the point of my sword.
“If he’s your…Veyyr?” I made sure to drawl the name, implying it meant more than just a name to her.
A possession. I flicked up the tip of my sword, pointing it at him.
“He did have his hands all over a pair of tits, so I don’t know why you’re mad at me. ”
Her mouth opened and I waved a hand. “To be clear, they weren’t mine. Much bigger.”
Lucky howled with laughter, choked on a bit of popcorn.
Veyyr reached for Isla. “Isla, think about it. She’s doing this on purpose. To make you angry.”
Oh, I surely was. And it was working.
Veyyr had his hands on her arms, the little bit of his blood leaking down her bare skin.
Get a hold of yourself, Mallory! This is not survival. This is walking a razor’s edge for trouble. You won’t always have this resistance to magic, you know that. That spell could have peeled you apart.
I let out a slow breath and nodded, more to myself than anyone else, reining in that side of me. “Isla, forgive me, I am sorry. We have gotten off on the wrong foot.” Sure, she’d tried to peel me alive, but I’d injured her mate, and I could understand that protective nature.
I touched the ring on my left finger. Wherever he was, I had someone to protect too…if he was still alive. My eyes flicked to Veyyr. “I am sorry, Veyyr. I’ll leave, just…tell me what you know about me. Even a single name, I would take.”
On cue, Sorrow, let out a long caw from his perch on the bars of the jeep.
“Turd man.”
Veyyr’s jaw ticked as he wrestled with Isla, his wolf-blue eyes unable to meet mine as he spoke. “I don’t know you, Mallory. Now kindly fuck off.”
The lie was so obvious I wondered how no one else commented.
“Boss, if she saved your life, the code…” Lucky spoke around a mouthful of…damn it, that popcorn smelled unreal and my nose twitched.
My mouth watered to the point that drool pooled under my tongue. Fuck it. I strode over to him, my hand out. He held his paper bag of popcorn to his chest. “No way! It’s mine!”
I stopped in front of him and looked up, pointing with one finger hard enough that I jabbed it into his chest, forcing him back a bit. “Listen. I’m the one who got a spell tossed at her, saved your boss, and quite frankly I’ve had a rather shit week. Give me some popcorn. Please.”
He blinked down at me, his eyes as violet as his skin. “We aren’t ever fucking, are we?”
“You will not be fucking her, Lucky.” We turned in tandem to see Veyyr glowering at us, Isla slumped in his arms as if he’d knocked her out. “Because she’s leaving.”
“Too dark now,” Lucky shrugged. “She should at least stay till morning. Safety and all. The code. You know. Saving your bacon.”
Veyyr shifted Isla in his arms. “Fuck. Fine.”
Lucky leaned down and whispered, “I think you’re staying longer than tomorrow, because if nothing else, I’ve not seen the boss so riled up in…I don’t know how long. I like it. Makes him look alive.”
I whispered back, “You want me to stay, so I can irritate your boss?”
Lucky kissed—fucking kissed—the top of my head. “Oh yeah. We are going to drive him nuts. You and me, bestie.”
Bestie.
Something in my heart twanged sharp and tight, a reminder that there had been a soul in my life that held that title. Bestie. Best friend. Maybe even lover. I reached up and snagged a handful of popcorn. “Only if you share your food.”
“And you’ll show me that kick ass move you used to avoid the spell? Like how did you even move like that? Liquid grace and all that shabam!”
I put the popcorn in my mouth and sighed as I crunched it up, the fat and salt drawing a groan out of me. That was a deal I could make.
Popcorn for training? There was no losing, not for me.
Even if it felt like the last thirty minutes had been a fucking surreal dream, I was going to roll with it.
Lucky clapped a hand on my shoulder and turned me around. “Come on, bestie, let’s go get something more to eat!”
I looked up at Sorrow and he bobbed his head in agreement, then gave a low cackle, his clucking laugh. “Come on, bird, for what it’s worth…we’re here for at least the night.”
Veyyr’s attention was all on Isla, acting for all the world like I no longer existed.
You are no one. My throat tightened on the popcorn.
Lucky led me away, chattering about some other thing they’d cooked up. I could have sworn Veyyr’s eyes followed me as soon as my back was turned, the weight of them like a touch on the back of my neck. Not a nice touch, to be sure, more like one that would strangle me if I let it.
But the image of Isla and Veyyr together, of him holding her so her head didn’t loll, stuck with me long after the popcorn and homemade nut brittle was gone. It stayed with me long after I lay quiet in my own cabin away from the others.
Even over the sweating fear of sleeping and forgetting…that image wouldn’t leave me. For some stupid fucking reason, it bothered me.
It wasn’t Isla’s beauty that cut me I realized finally—but the way he held her. Careful. Gentle. Like she mattered.
I knew in my heart that no one….no one had ever been that careful with me and that was the reason I’d reverted to a fucking teenager, lashing out, poking at both of them with my words and bravado.
Even though I couldn’t remember a thing, I knew that kind of…
I wasn’t even sure I’d call it love, but that kind of attentiveness was rare. Especially in this world.
Maybe that is part of your past, Mallory.
Maybe you were once that sharp tongued, strike first type.
What if you had to learn to control yourself as part of surviving this world?
In moments of true distress, you would lean on your training, but in moments where the danger isn’t as intense, and the wounds are emotional, you revert.
I didn’t know whose voice it was resonating in my head, but it felt like my own which left me groaning.
“You know what, Mal?” I whispered to myself as I let my eyes close and sleep start to take me over. “You can fuck off too.”