Chapter 35
Chapter
Thirty-Five
HAVEN
With my eyes itching with fatigue and my ability to remain upright in question, I’d asked Teal to build me a cot out of vines.
He’d ignored Grayson’s derisive snort and, with a wave of his hand, coaxed vines from the frozen earth and knitted them into a narrow cot.
He’d even managed to make it comfortable.
With my ability to call objects no longer a secret, I’d called a pillow and the quilt from my bed at Grandmother’s.
Between the quilt, the new cloak, and Flynn’s fire, I was actually warm.
I should have been able to sleep. Instead, I’d dozed fitfully for a few hours.
Now fully awake, I stared at Teal’s vine ceiling and pondered his question. Why had I saved them?
It didn’t matter how handsome they were; they were still the men who’d ripped me from the only home I’d ever known. The men who’d failed to stand up for me. The men who’d left me to die from dehydration in Carron’s pit.
So why had I saved their lives?
Because I couldn’t stand by and watch them die. The realization grated.
Arguably, my life would be better without them. Yet I manifested swords and fought mythical creatures to keep them safe. Meanwhile, they’d left me with a sketchy innkeeper who’d sold tickets to rape me.
I’d begged Teal and Flynn to come and help me as I fought the assassins. They’d ignored me. Only Pierce, the one man I hadn’t saved, had come.
He’d also helped me call the cloak. Without it, I’d have frozen.
Flynn snored softly.
I swung my feet to the ground, wrapped my cloak more tightly around me, and stood.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Grayson’s low voice held a thousand unspoken accusations. Did I plan on running away? Joining the rebels? Betraying him?
“I can’t sleep.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“We both know you’re taking me to my death. Do you have to be such an asshole about it?”
He reared back as if I’d slapped him.
“Shields last a few months, then you burn us out and leave us to die.”
He didn’t bother denying it. “How do you know that?”
“You think the girls don’t talk? All those girls you treat like the dirt beneath the soles of your feet, they know they’re expected to die for you.
And you thank them with your derision. And that’s if they’re lucky.
If they’re not lucky, they’re raped or abused before they die. Hell of a system you have going.”
“The guard keeps Legacia safe.” He sounded so confident, utterly convinced of his idiocy.
“Do they?” Sarcasm dripped from my voice. “Seems to me, they keep men safe. Women in Legacia are at constant risk.”
We glared at each other for long seconds before he said, “Enough talking.”
I snickered.
“You may not need sleep, but my brothers are exhausted. Be quiet.”
I desperately needed sleep. Exhaustion hung on my shoulders like a mantle. I rubbed my tired eyes and wished for the umpteenth time that I could turn off my brain. “I do need sleep.”
“Why are you up?” Clearly, he expected an answer.
“Because, when I close my eyes, I see wraiths with long bony fingers ready to draw my soul from my body, wolven with razor-sharp claws and too many teeth, and a wyvern with venom dripping from its maw.” Truth and lies.
There was also the memory of Pierce’s lips on mine, the sharp sting of his rejection.
The vexing question of my attraction to men who treated me poorly. I deserved better than that.
A low rumble echoed from somewhere outside our shelter. I tilted my head, listening. I’d never been in a snowstorm before. Was that thunder? “Is there—”
“You faced the monsters and survived. Move on.” Grayson dismissed my question and my trauma with a few words and an impatient shake of his head.
I’d done better than survive. I’d prevailed. I pressed my hands together and raised my sealed palms to my lips.
“Are you praying?”
“Yes. I am. I’m praying that some monster comes and takes you.”
It was an unfortunate coincidence that a huge weight slammed into our little hut the moment the words left my mouth.
“What the fuck?” Teal was on his feet in the blink of an eye.
Pierce wasn’t far behind him.
The horses whinnied, their ears flicking back and forth. Caspian pawed the hard ground.
Flynn slept.
“What’s out there?” I asked. Couldn’t we go for more than an hour or two without something or someone trying to kill us?
“A basajaun?” Pierce guessed.
A second thump shook the whole hut.
“Could be.” Grayson rubbed his chin. “Could be.”
A beast was trying to break down the walls, and they didn’t appear overly concerned. I was concerned enough for all of us. “What is a basajaun?”
“A snow monster,” Pierce replied. “They’re harmless.”
The harmless snow monster ripped a hole through Teal’s vine walls and thrust a long arm covered in thick white hair into our refuge.
“Flynn! Wake up!” Grayson shouted. Now that the basajaun had breached the walls, he showed actual concern. “We need fire.”
Flynn grumbled from within the cocoon of his blankets and turned away from us.
Would it be awful if I kicked him? “Aren’t guards supposed to sleep lightly?”
Teal chuckled. “Flynn sleeps like the dead.”
The basajaun’s razor-sharp claws widened the hole it had made in the wall.
“Flynn?” When he didn’t respond, I launched a fireball at a paw the size of a dinner plate.
White fur caught fire, and the paw disappeared as a furious roar filled the night.
“Now you’ve done it.” Teal’s eyes danced with excitement. “You made it mad.”
“He”—I pointed at Grayson—“said he wanted fire.”
“I wanted it scared, not injured.” Grayson glared at me. “Now it’s dangerous.”
“How was I supposed to scare it when only its arm was inside?”
“Flynn would have found a way.”
“Really? Let’s wake him up and ask him.” I’d just about had it with Grayson.
Flynn let loose a snore nearly as loud as the monster’s roar.
The hut shuddered.
Pierce tilted his head. “Is it throwing itself against the walls?”
Teal, who was mending the hole, grimaced. “It is.”
I swallowed. “If it gets in, will it kill us?”
“It might try.” Pierce pulled a dagger from its sheath and let the light from the fire reflect off the blade.
“How big is it?” I asked.
Teal wrinkled his nose and waggled his hand. “Eight feet.”
The math was simple. “Its reach is longer than ours.” Pierce’s dagger would be useless. By the time he got close enough to use it, the basajaun would gut him.
Teal shrugged. “No magic.”
What did that even mean? The basajaun didn’t have magic? Or was he saying he wouldn’t use magic when he fought the beast?
“We’re due for a scuffle.” Teal’s excited grin made me want to deck him.
I was not due for a scuffle. Not remotely. I was still recovering from the last “scuffle.” The one Teal had slept through. I was tired of fighting monsters. Tired of fighting rebels. Tired of fighting, period. “You’re serious?”
Teal’s grin broadened, splitting his stupid, handsome face. “You haven’t seen me fight.”
He wanted to show off?
From the moment they’d taken me from my home, a certainty had settled into my bones.
If I wanted to live, I had to look out for myself.
I was never surer of that. I hadn’t met a single man (May, Alina, and Sara didn’t count; they were women) or beast who hadn’t tried to harm me.
And I was exhausted. So, no, I didn’t want to watch him fight.
I wanted a hot meal, a good night’s sleep, and an escape from my fate.
Something enormous landed on the roof, and the vines sagged beneath its weight as it tore at the hole that allowed smoke from our fire to escape.
“Two of them? I thought they were solitary creatures.” Teal directed his power at the roof. “Haven, what earth magic do you have?”
“Assume it’s like yours.” It was exactly like his. It was his.
“Then weave more vines. Finish closing the hole.” He gestured toward the wall.
I backed against the far side of our shelter and concentrated on thickening the vines on the wall across from me. Slowly, the hole the basajaun had ripped in our shelter began to close. I even added sharp thorns.
I finished closing the hole and rested against the wall.
Silence fell. The prickly kind. The charged kind. The something-terrible-is-about-to-happen kind. Pierce and I stared at each other, waiting for the next shoe to drop.
“What now?” I whispered. “Are they still out there?”
The wall at my back exploded, and a hairy arm circled my torso. Before I could scream, claws scored my skin, and the world went black.