Chapter 27
Derian
She emerges from the maze beaten and bloody.
Dark hair falls loosely in a curtain around her as she clutches the wound in her stomach, where a shard of stone is still deeply embedded.
She’s limping slightly on her left leg, and blood seeps from wounds on her chest and shoulders.
I’m particularly worried about the gash on her forehead, though.
She had to have hit her head hard based on the swelling knot that’s already forming.
The Eshari rushes to her side, allowing Huntyr to lean against her, but Huntyr only gives herself a brief moment before straightening and pushing away from the panther, unwilling to show any sign of weakness.
A kernel of something that feels suspiciously like pride flares in my chest. Smart girl.
She looks first to the other remaining competitors, Seraphina and Mara, who both escaped the maze relatively unscathed. Then she looks to Roland, as if trying to confirm that the trial is truly complete.
Then she looks at me.
I swear something sparks in the air between us.
A frown pulls at her lips, and there’s a flicker of confusion in her eyes, like she didn’t quite realize what she was looking for until she saw me.
Our gazes lock. Her blue eyes flash with some unnamed emotion, and fuck me, I simply can’t look away. After a moment, she turns back to the people in front of her, and it’s like the air around me deflates.
“Do you believe me now?” Cal asks under his breath, just as focused on her as I am. “She just killed a highly trained Fae!”
“I saw.”
More than that, I recognized.
It had, admittedly, taken me awhile to identify what it was that had changed in her. Even with all of Cal’s warnings, I hadn’t been ready to admit the truth of what that shadow that had fallen over her features was.
But then she killed Elise, and I recognized that hardness in her eyes.
There was no innocence in that expression.
No shock. No regret.
She’d killed Elise as if it were routine.
As if it were easy to watch the life fade from another’s eyes.
I know from experience that it takes quite a few dances with death before you stop feeling the weight of it.
Cal shifts next to me, frustration rolling off of him as he grabs my arm and forces me to face him. “It’s like you didn’t even listen to me this morning!”
Oh, I listened.
When he showed up at my door at dawn, sat me down, and told me what else he had learned about her past, what truth he’d started to piece together, I listened to every word.
Memorized them all.
I took in every piece of evidence he dropped at my doorstep and felt the truth of it all in my bones. When she finally delivered that killing blow to Elise, I swallowed down the fact that Huntyr Lachlan is an assassin.
A rather infamous one, if Cal’s sources are correct.
And still, even after knowing that without a shadow of a doubt, for whatever gods forsaken reason, it isn’t stopping me from facing the arena again, glancing at her every five fucking minutes while Roland speaks to her and the others.
It doesn’t stop me from watching her.
It doesn’t stop me from checking that she’s still standing steadily.
It doesn’t stop me from tracking her shallow breaths.
Cal rips at my arm, forcing me again to turn towards him, to turn away from her.
“She’s here to kill you,” Cal spits the words, as if he can force them into my ears. As if he can force me to take this situation more seriously. “Don’t you understand that?”
I watch as she subtly clutches her ribs with a trembling hand. The Eshari seems to notice too and nuzzles its head against her thigh, angling itself so that it stands between her and the others. Like a shield.
“An Eshari wouldn’t bond with her like that if she was a true threat to me.”
I’m not sure if I’m reasoning with him or myself.
As if the beast hears me say it, it turns and pins me with a glare that makes my magic crackle protectively.
Cal sighs, rubbing a hand over his face. He drags it down slowly, pulling at his tanned skin. “I’m not going to convince you to stay away from her, am I?”
Huntyr turns, following silently as Taric leads the three women back towards the fortress.
Even injured and favoring her left side, her hips sway with feminine grace.
I can’t move, can't think, can’t even breathe, until she’s out of my sight.
And the second she’s gone, the humidity in the air lifts as my magic relaxes.
And yet, even as the power in my blood settles, my mind still spins, concerned with whether or not she’ll make it back to her room, whether she needs medical attention, whether she’ll rest tonight as she should before the final trial.
I shouldn’t care.
I do.
Fuck, it’s unbearable.
“It’s only responsible for me to confirm your suspicions,” I tell Cal, leading the way out of the arena stands. “That’s my duty as a prince of the Fae kingdom.”
He grumbles under his breath.“I take it that’s a no, then.”
That was most definitely a no.
Already, I’m feeling that pull towards her. Again.
I’ve faced starvation, fought in wars, been deemed a monster by some of my own people, and none of it seems as painful as the idea of avoiding her tonight.
Especially since it’s the last opportunity I’ll have.
“You’re worrying over nothing, Caldren. Just because she managed to kill Elise doesn’t mean she stands a chance with Mara and Seraphina. By this time tomorrow, Huntyr Lachlan will be dead.”
The words taste like ash on my tongue and land heavily in my gut.
I’m going to have to watch Seraphina kill her tomorrow.
I’m going to have to sit in those stands and watch Seraphina brutalize Huntyr the same way she tormented Alexandria.
And then I’m going to have to marry the fire-wielding bitch and spend the rest of my impossibly long life replaying the memory of her killing the woman I—
The woman I… what?
Lust after?
Cal is silent beside me as we descend the steps and make our way towards the dirt path that leads back to the fortress. The scent of roasted meat hangs in the air as the fortress comes into view. Warriors are swarming back to their posts, bowing their heads respectfully as we pass.
“Fine,” he agrees. “At least allow me to go with you?”
I let the request hang between us.
Because I’m not quite sure that’s a request that I can honor.
I was burning alive when I said goodnight to her last night.
Even in the middle of the night, when I took matters into my own hands, the release had been hollow and unfulfilling.
Then she’d found me in my dreams and lit that fire once more.
When she strode into the arena wearing those skin-tight leathers, it took all my focus to concentrate on the trial and not spend the entire time picturing her naked.
So help me, something must be seriously wrong with me, because when she’d walked out of that maze covered in blood and looking like a fucking warrior goddess, I’d been so hard it was painful.
Cal wouldn’t be coming to interrogate her with me, because if by some stroke of luck Huntyr Lachlan offered to spread her legs for me tonight, I wouldn’t be a strong enough man to say no to her.
Cal glances at me suspiciously, as if he knows exactly where my thoughts are. “She’s not just another woman you can bed and discard. She’s our enemy. I’m serious, Derian.”
“I know you are.”
He lingers for a moment, watching me, before announcing that he’s needed to patrol the borders. He sends another warning glance over his shoulder as he leaves, and I’m careful to stand still.
Even as everything in me screams to turn around.
To find the path that leads to the barracks.
To her room.
To her.