24. Bash
Chapter 24
Bash
T he future High Queen still had a shadow behind her hazel eyes, each ringed with a crown of gold around her pupils like they had known exactly what she was destined for all along.
Carefully, Eva pulled off her leathers, the fabric sticking to her skin from the sweat of our training session this morning. She had thrown herself into it with almost reckless abandon, especially when she and Quinn went hand-to-hand. When she had laughed for the first time in far too long as they had fought—the sound far too rare to begin with—I had to stop myself from granting her best friend my kingdom in gratitude.
Eva’s eyes met mine across our room. Her mouth hitched in a forced, unconvincing smile as she caught me watching her, but I couldn’t match it. As I stepped forward, she turned away, that smile fracturing. I hid my wince.
Obviously, whatever was consuming her had returned to haunt her.
It was an effort not to howl at the weight that was slowly crushing her. To demand answers about the dread leaking across our bond like she couldn’t hold it back. But after our discussion this morning and what I had only belatedly realized was her successful distraction, I had resolved to let Eva talk about the rest of whatever was worrying her in her own time—even if I desperately wished I could help carry her burden.
This war was already wearing on her, and the worst of it hadn’t even begun. I needed to find a way to help her before it did, though I found myself at a loss as to how to do so beyond giving her the reassurance I was there for her, and the time and space to process. Though time, as usual, wasn’t on our side, a thought that had me breathing through my own anxieties.
She disappeared into the bathroom without a word. I wasn’t sure if it hurt more that she still couldn’t bring herself to talk to me, or that she kept pretending everything was fine.
Was she really this haunted at the thought of facing Aviel again? Or was it memories of her imprisonment that wouldn’t let her out of their grasp?
After the way our last encounter with him ended, it should have come as no surprise that she clearly had little faith in our ability to win this. But I couldn’t entirely account for the fear behind her gaze when she didn’t think I was looking.
Steam wafted from the bathroom as she opened the door. When she walked past me to the wardrobe, I placed my finger on my palm, drawing a tiny heart in shimmering ink.
She stopped in surprise, and I couldn’t help my smile at the sight of her mouth curling up to form that perfect dimple as she looked down, then back at me.
“Just a reminder,” I said, grinning as she blinked at me.
“I hardly need a reminder of how much you love me,” Eva said, a smile still playing on her lips. “The whole anima bond and all.”
“Agree to disagree.”
The buzzing feeling under my skin settled a little as I clung to the brief reprieve of lightness between us, like it might chase some of the darkness away.
But that wasn’t quite right. Not when Eva was darkness, its velvet dim ever beckoning. Her considerable power had never scared me, that Celestial night the mirror to my own shadows.
She rolled her eyes, pulling on a cheeky lace thong that nearly made me groan aloud. “What now? To Adronix?”
“Not yet,” I said, holding up a thick piece of parchment. “It will take time for my rangers to mirror here en masse. And this came from the eastern kingdom.” I lightly slapped her ass as she bent down to pull up her pants, grinning as she yelped before being rewarded again with another brief smile, albeit paired with the roll of her eyes. “Come on, I’ll explain when we’re with the others. After you’ve eaten something.”
She hadn’t been eating well, the dip in her weight from her captivity all the more pronounced because of it. I silently resolved to make sure she didn’t miss another meal, even if I had to hand feed her all the way to Adronix.
Eva tugged on a dark green shirt and black leggings Quinn must have brought with her from the mortal realm. I watched as she deftly wove her chestnut curls into a braid before carefully sliding an oddly glimmering ring onto her right hand.
A tendril of her hair had already escaped from her braid, its loose curl framing her face. I arched an eyebrow as I tucked it behind her ear. “Should I be concerned about who’s giving you gifts?”
Eva rolled her eyes, splaying out her fingers to give me a better look. I caught her hand with my own, lifting it closer. A strangely familiar feeling emanated from the shadowy stone, one I couldn’t quite place.
“It was my mother’s,” Eva whispered. “Apparently, she left it with the sprite.”
My thumb brushed along the top of her hand in a soothing stroke. “Did the sprite say why?”
Eva sighed. “She wasn’t exactly forthcoming. But she seemed fond of her.”
The ring’s surface glinted, its gray stone almost seeming to ripple in the light. I frowned, trying to figure out what about it made me hesitate.
Eva’s mouth quirked as she pulled her hand away. “If the sprite had ulterior motives, there were easier ways she could’ve killed me.”
I arched an eyebrow. “Don’t get too comfortable. It could be playing a long game.”
She laughed softly, though something about it felt hollow. “I have no doubt about that.”