35. Henry #2
I feel exposed. Being here reminds me of the literal and figurative darkest moments of my life—of too much time spent in bed, my body strange and sick and restless at the same time.
I can’t think about that time without feeling the same stomach-plunging sadness I felt when I first woke up and found out that Holly was gone.
There are many things I’ve elected to share with Harlow for the sake of building trust, but this wasn’t one of them.
She steps out of the doorway, brushing her finger over my chest as she strides back into the sunlight and swings the door closed.
“Don’t look so grumpy, Henry. It’s a bodyguard’s job to know the ways in and out and any evacuation possibilities.
If he couldn’t get the information on his own, he would have already made it your problem.
” She nods to the trail. “Come on, let’s go.
Gaven will worry if I don’t check in when he’s expecting. ”
“Does Gaven normally keep up with you?”
She grins as she starts down the trail, again at an all-out sprint. “Yes, and he hates every moment of it, but he must be the healthiest fifty-something man in Lunameade. We’ve been doing this since I was young.”
I’d assumed her constant whining about running was just to get under my skin or to see as much of the fort as possible.
And while I do think those are added benefits to her, she really does seem happy now that she’s moving.
This is a part of her routine that I can grant her here—probably the only part.
We cut down the narrow trail, keeping the fort wall to our right and the houses and businesses to our left as we descend to the next level through the perimeter gate.
“Are there gates like this on both walls of the fort?” Harlow hardly even sounds winded.
“Yes,” I gasp. “These smaller gates stay open during the day, but they’re locked up at night to funnel everyone through the central path.”
“So you don’t need as much guard coverage,” she says.
“Yes. But these doors can be opened during a breach, depending on where and how many people we need to move, and the final fallback is the caves. There’s a heavy, reinforced door on the inside that gets locked in place once everyone is safely inside,” I explain.
I’m grateful she doesn’t say anything else, not just because I don’t want to think about my time in the caves, but also because I’m embarrassingly winded .
We pass several off-duty guards jogging in the opposite direction. They ignore Harlow and nod at me. That’s not a good sign, but Harlow continues on, unbothered.
“Interesting that you let the trees grow within the perimeter of the fort. Don’t you worry it will provide cover if the Drained get in?” she asks as she leaps over a large rock.
“It’s not always practical to go beyond the fort walls for wood, and people miss nature. We tried to keep it as present inside the walls as it is outside. Everyone who lives here deserves to enjoy the wild without the fear of being attacked.”
She bounds through the narrow gate to the next level, seemingly satisfied with my explanation.
We run through the next two levels in silence, nothing to distract me from my panting but the sight of her fine ass in those tight pants and the desire to beat her in this race for no reason other than pride.
Harlow casts a glance over her shoulder at me. “Have I ever told you your aura is different?”
The question is so out of the blue and so unnerving that I stop breathing for a second. “Different how?”
“Well, all auras are unique, but yours is—” She stops and glances at me again.
The longer it takes her to describe me, the more afraid I am of what she’ll say. I knew she could see magic, but I didn’t realize the level of detail and the way it could ruin all of my well-laid plans.
“It almost looks like a burnt purple. Most people have auras that float around them and are most concentrated a few inches from their skin. But yours is such a dark, warm purple, and it’s very concentrated in a ball at the center of you.”
As we finally come to the bottom of the fort trail, Harlow slows to let me pass. I turn left and lead the way through the busy cobbled street toward the center route back up through the fort.
The first level is mostly community gardens and farming because it’s the only level that isn’t completely shadowed by the mountain in the afternoon.
This is the least populated level of the fort, since it’s most susceptible to breach due to the expanses of agricultural land.
Most of the people who work those plots of land are unblessed, but there are a few interspersed magical families who help with growing crops and distributing sunlight, as well as those who have protection blessings from Vardek to help with our defenses.
A healthy smattering of newer guards is stationed in the barracks near the opposite fort wall.
Harlow looks at me expectantly. She’s waiting for me to respond to her comments about my aura.
“What does yours look like?” I ask.
She picks up speed to match my stride. “Like a golden cookie-cutter outline of my body. Like I could be one of the Divine myself.”
I bite my lip to keep from smiling at her casual blasphemy. I’ve been so focused on what she’s saying that I only now notice the eyes on us. And not just some of them. All of them.
Harlow smiles brightly and wishes them a pleasant morning as we pass, but all the warmth and teasing evaporates from her face as she notices just how many people are focused on us. Her eyes return to their usual intense vigilance, rapidly darting from side to side to search for incoming danger.
We continue up through the second, third, and fourth levels, met by a similarly cold reception. The people just continue to gawk at the two of us. Worse are the not-so-quiet murmured slurs. Maybe they aren’t loud enough for Harlow to hear, but it takes a lot of self-control for me to not react.
As we finally pass through the gates to level five, she cocks her head and smiles playfully at me. “I guess I was right about the rumor mill working as hard here in the fort as it does back at home.”
She hurtles up the steepest incline into level six and circles the manor with me on her heels.
Gaven leans against the solarium doors, his arms crossed like he’s on sentry duty. His face relaxes when he sees Harlow and she gives him a mocking salute.
“You were right,” she says. “The caves were exactly where you said.” She turns to me and jerks her thumb toward the trail. “Ready for round two? I’ll race you.”
I don’t know how she’s so unbothered. She had to have heard their words, though it’s possible this is what she anticipated from the start and it’s a relief their behavior finally matches her expectations.
Gaven lifts a hand. “You’re off pace. Is Henry slowing you down?”
I glare at the bodyguard. I can’t believe I didn’t realize he had magic. I sense something else strange about him that I can’t quite put my finger on. I don’t think I have the full picture yet, but I’d really like to before I try to kill him and am met with some unpleasant magical surprise.
“Gaven, start us off,” Harlow calls.
She’s bouncing on her toes beside me, the most energized and perky I’ve ever seen her—and, loath as I am to admit it, it’s actually very cute. If she weren’t such an unbelievable pain in my ass, she would actually fit in here. She has the right competitive spirit underneath all the snark.
Gaven pulls out his handkerchief, lifts it into the air with a flourish, and then yanks it down to signal the start. I take off, sprinting a few paces behind her on purpose. I’ll lull her into a false sense of security for the first few miles and take her on the uphill through town.
I shouldn’t be surprised how quickly she navigates the same trails as before. This is the reminder I needed that she’s not just a pretty girl to play my wife. She’s a calculating spy sent to get information out of me.
On the hill through the center of town, I pull ahead. It’s not until we enter the fifth level, when she charges ahead, that I realize she was holding back. Now I’m spent and she is fully sprinting. The sound of her footsteps triggers something animal inside me.
Not now. I don’t want to fuck my wife.
Except I really do.
The manor comes into sight, and I want to immediately drag her inside, up to my bed, yank down those tight pants so they trap her legs together, and fuck her like my life depends on it.
Instead, I watch as she races up to Gaven and taps his shoulder. I trot to a stop when I see Carter standing off to the side, whispering with Bryce. I know by their faces and their presence this early that something is off.
“What’s wrong?” I ask.
Carter glances at Harlow and then back at me. “We received a dove.”
Harlow’s head whips around. She lifts her sweaty ponytail off of her neck and walks toward my friends.
Until now, we have made a point to intercept every communication from her family without informing her. I try to puzzle out why Carter would volunteer this information.
He hands me the note, and I have to read it twice to understand the full gravity of the words .
I look up and meet Harlow’s expectant gaze.
“Well?” she asks.
I look at my friends and clear my throat. “There was a breach.”
Harlow stills. “Which gate?”
I shake my head. “They said everything is fine. There were a few deaths and a few injuries and a couple of women missing, but?—”
“ Which gate ?” Her voice is so calm, but there’s a lethal edge to it.
I look helplessly at Carter and Bryce. I know when I tell her, this rare lightness in her will be gone.
“Henry,” she says softly. “Which gate?”
“North Hold.”
She’s so still, I’m not sure she’s even breathing. Finally, she tilts her chin up to the sky and blows out a slow breath. “The brightest part of the day is in an hour. If we leave soon, then we can arrive in Lunameade a before sunset and?—”
I hold up a hand. “Harlow, we just got married. You’re embroiled in a scandal. We can’t go right now.”
“Why? What will happen? People will talk about me?” Her voice is edged with sarcasm. “I don’t care.”
I lean in close. “Harlow.”
“Henry.” She looks up at me, her eyes pleading. “That’s my sister’s house. I need to see that she’s okay.”
The tinge of desperation and fear in her voice unsettles me.
“Please, Henry?” Her face is soft, her eyes wild, like she’s waiting for me to back her into a corner by saying she can’t leave.
“So you do have manners,” I say, hoping the teasing will bring back the levity we’ve lost.
This version of Harlow doesn’t feel like a performance. If she’s playing me, she’s just about the best actress I’ve ever seen and her parents sending her here is truly diabolical. But if she’s not pretending, she’s just like me—someone who would do anything to protect her sister.
The only difference is that her sister is still alive. Much as I want to even the score between us, it’s useful to grant her something she wants if it will win her favor in the long term.
“Fine.”
Relief relaxes all the tension from her face .
Before she can speak, I press a finger to her lips. “But there are rules, Harlow. You will do exactly as you’re told when we’re in the woods, and when I say it’s time to come back, you don’t argue with me. I’m doing this at great personal risk.”
She nods and bites the tip of my finger hard. The sharp sting of her teeth sends a jolt right to my cock.
“Yes, sir,” she says, drawing away with a wicked grin on her face.
I wait until she’s disappeared inside the manor with Gaven close behind her before I turn to face my friends.
“What possessed you to do that? Our people will think you’re totally under her finger now,” Bryce says.
“If I try to stop her, she’ll find her own way, and if she gets hurt doing it alone, I promise it will be much worse for all of us,” I say.
Carter sighs and rubs the bridge of his nose. “Another journey through the Drained Wood for this girl. Naima is going to kill me.”
Bryce runs a hand through his dark copper hair. “Why can’t you just tie her to your bed and fuck her like a normal newlywed?”
“Because normal newlyweds don’t have a familial blood feud,” I counter.
“Look, this is a huge risk, and you don’t have to take it with me, but this will be very telling.
Her parents don’t protect the sister, but we could.
If I can show her that, I won’t need to wrangle her.
She’ll want to help us because it would mean getting her sister back. ”
“Are you so sure, my friend?” Carter squeezes my shoulder. “Carrenwell family ties run deep.”
“Only one way to know for certain.”
I pat Carter on the back and enter the manor, happy at last to have something Harlow wants.