Chapter 37 Miska
MISKA
It had taken days for their wounds to heal completely. I didn’t know why I’d expected a thanks or maybe a job well done, for I received neither. Instead, they had barely spoken at all since their argument. Now, it seemed I was the buffer between their ire, and I was growing weary of it.
“Where are we going?” I asked as I hoisted my basket over my shoulder. The weight of my pack was becoming too much, but I didn’t want to tell them. Not that they would help me.
They ignored me.
“Are we closer to where we need to go?” I asked again. We had been trekking through the forest for at least half a day, and I was thirsty.
Nothing.
I sighed loudly, trying to get their attention.
Nothing. I considered again if I should just slip away.
It would be more difficult now that they were both healed and alert.
I had almost slipped something into their food and escaped last night, but really, where would I go?
I didn’t even know where I was, and I had no way of getting home.
If I left and tried to make it on my own, the likelihood of being captured again was almost certain.
Kaden and Isaiah may be horrible, but they didn’t seem to want to go back to Nismera, and they hadn’t killed me yet.
They may be monsters, but they were at least the monsters that I knew.
“Can you please just tell me where we are going?” I’m tired. “I did help you both af—”
I was looking at their backs and not watching where I was going. My foot caught on a rock, and I pitched forward. My knees hit first, and I caught myself on my hands before I could land on my face. I hissed and pushed myself up, my left knee stinging.
Reaching down, I lifted my skirt to expose my stinging and throbbing knee.
Blood dripped from the scrape, and I carefully dabbed at the edges.
A low rumbling growl of a hungry predator filled the air, and my eyes shot up.
Kaden and Isaiah were staring at my knee, crimson bleeding into their eyes.
I swallowed and slowly lowered my skirt, tiny red dots seeping through the cream-colored fabric.
Isaiah stepped forward, but Kaden slapped a hand against his chest. Isaiah snarled at Kaden before he registered who he was looking at and stopped.
“We’re not killing her,” Kaden said, meeting his brother’s glare.
“I wasn’t going to kill her.” Isaiah shoved his hand off him. “Merely a sip or two.”
“No.”
“I’m starving,” he rebutted.
“And you think I am not?” Kaden snapped. “She’s the last Jade Healer. Not only do we need her in case we run into Nismera again, but we can also sell her once we are done with her. We would get enough from her so that we can disappear.”
My stomach dropped. The sting on my knee suddenly is the least of my concerns. “Wait. Sell me to who?”
Both ignored me.
“That’s your plan?” Isaiah asked. “Get enough money to disappear? After everything?”
“Yes, after everything. What is yours? Fight Nismera? You saw as well as I did. We are not enough.”
Isaiah scoffed, turning away from his brother. “I don’t run, not from her, not from anyone.”
“You do when there is no hope of winning.”
Isaiah looked as if Kaden had slapped him.
“We have lost, Brother, and not only do we have to worry about her, but what of Samkiel, huh? You’re a fool to think he isn’t looking for her as we speak,” Kaden said, pointing at me.
Isaiah cursed and started pacing, his boots digging into the ground. “I forgot about him.”
Kaden swallowed and slid his hand over his neck. “I wish I could.”
He noticed me watching him and dropped his hand from the faint scar.
His jaw clenched as he stomped toward me.
My hands scrambled for purchase in the dirt as I backed into the brush.
He stopped beside me, and I flinched, thinking I would feel his hand across my face, but the blow never came.
Instead, he lifted me by my elbow and settled me on my feet.
“Clean yourself up or you’ll have more than Isaiah to worry about. You would make a tasty meal for many creatures in these woods,” he said, and nodded toward my basket.
I took a hesitant step away from him and reached for my supplies. “I don’t want to be sold,” I said in a small voice, taking a leaf and adding a bit of the salve to it.
“I didn’t ask what you wanted,” Kaden replied.
Isaiah continued to pace in the background. He gripped the back of his neck, his eyes scanning wildly as if he hated Kaden’s plan and was desperate to come up with another. I took out a worn length of cloth and tied it around my knee.
“Who will you give me to?” I asked.
Kaden didn’t even blink. “Whoever pays the most.”
I frowned and repacked my supplies before standing. I lifted my basket to sling it onto my back, but Kaden snatched it from me.
“Hey,” I snapped, reaching for it.
“You already fell once because this is too heavy. I’m not having you slow us down when you fall on your ass again,” he snarled down at me. I took a step back as he hoisted it over his shoulder.
“You’re mean,” I said, folding my arms.
He flashed a smile my way. “I know.”
I stuck my tongue out at him, but he ignored me and spun toward his brother. “Would you stop your obsessive pacing?”
Isaiah skidded to a stop, practically running into Kaden. “I can’t leave her.”
Kaden’s face recoiled in disgust. “Nismera tried to kill us both, and I enjoy being fucking alive.”
This time, Isaiah recoiled. “No, not her. Imogen.”
My ears perked up. He knew of Imogen? She was Dianna’s friend.
I’d never met her, but Dianna had told me stories of how she and Neverra had helped her.
Dianna loved her and said that they were all basically sisters.
Dianna said that once we got them back, we would have a party of slumber.
I wanted to go home. I missed her so much.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Kaden said, pushing past his brother with enough force to almost knock him over.
“She is with Milani. I know that much,” Isaiah called out to him.
Kaden stopped so abruptly that his boots dug into the soil. He turned and slowly walked back toward his brother. “What’s your big plan? We storm her armada? The same armada that owns the entire southern realm, the same armada that blacks out the sky when she invades?”
Isaiah tossed his hands up. “I haven’t gotten that far yet.”
Kaden sighed, his jaw pulling tight. “Of course, you haven’t.
You want me to do it. There’s no plan here that would work, Isaiah.
There’s no way we could get close enough to save her without dying in the process.
Her armada is impregnable. You know this, and I am sure as hell not risking my life or yours over pussy. ”
Isaiah whipped his head toward Kaden at that word.
“Especially pussy you never even had.”
Kaden turned away and yanked my basket tighter over his shoulder. He tore at the low-hanging branches, breaking the ones in his way and tossing them aside.
“It’s more than that and you know it,” Isaiah called, stomping after him.
Kaden tossed a dismissive hand over his shoulder, but kept going. I grabbed my skirts and hurried after them.
“Ah, yes. Love at first sight, or whatever bullshit you still read about in those damn poetry books you’ve kept.
” Kaden barked a laugh. “Gods, you’re so lucky I never told your legion what you read in your spare time.
When you find her, will you compare her hair to a meadow of flowers or some shit before you die? ”
“You’re a prick,” Isaiah yelled at his back. “Those books looked pretty worn when you gave them to me, so I doubt I’m the only one who likes poetry. But then it’s laughable that you’d know anything of love. You love no one and nothing.”
Kaden spun, his hands clenching the straps of the basket.
“How can you, out of everyone, say that? I love you, do I not? And I loved—” He stopped and sucked in his bottom lip as if trying to recall his words.
He shook his head. “It’s not love, Isaiah.
You saw a beautiful girl who could fight and wield a sword.
You were lonely and horny and thought it was love. It was not.”
My brows furrowed. What did horny mean?
Isaiah’s chest heaved. “Is that what you tell yourself about Dianna?”
My basket fell, and I heard a pop as Kaden punched Isaiah across the face. Isaiah stumbled but quickly righted himself, licking at his busted lip. He didn’t look as if he were in pain. Quite the opposite, actually.
“You love Dianna?” I blurted, Isaiah’s words rattling around in my head.
Kaden spun and pointed his finger at me. “Shut up.”
I decided it was probably best to do just that.
“You know, I mourned you,” Isaiah said. “When I was locked in that dungeon, I replayed your death over and over, and I mourned you. I don’t know what happened or why you came back, but you returned an even bigger dick than before.
Maybe you should go back to being dead because you aren’t the brother I know. ”
Isaiah slammed against Kaden’s shoulder as he strode past him, but I was watching Kaden’s face.
I saw better than he probably wished just how much those words hurt.
I recognized that pain and wondered how many times in his life he had heard some variation of them.
Kaden was a monster, yet it seemed he was capable of feeling genuine pain.
I walked over and picked up the things that had spilled from my basket, repacking it before closing the lid. When I finished, I handed it back to Kaden. He took it without saying anything to me, and we set off after Isaiah.
The trees finally cleared, and we stopped at the edge of a small cliff.
Below us was what appeared to be a long, narrow dock.
Voices drifted up to us as people worked.
We all crouched, but continued to watch as they unloaded the ship hovering just above the surface of the water, a still open portal just behind it.
As the crewman passed boxes and crates onto the dock, one of Nismera’s royal guards handed the captain what looked like a sack of coins.
Dark mist formed on either side of me, and I gaped as Kaden and Isaiah morphed into identical copies of two of the crewmen below. We stayed low and quiet until the guards sorted the supplies onto transports and moved back toward the forest path leading to the palace.
As soon as they were out of sight, Kaden and Isaiah moved. Kaden gripped my arm and hauled me up with him, hurrying down the path to the beach below. When my short legs weren’t fast enough to keep up, Kaden lifted me and tossed me over his shoulder, knocking the wind from my lungs.
They darted across the sand in a half-squat until they reached the ship.
Isaiah went up first, climbing the rungs attached to the sides to haul himself aboard.
Kaden followed, seemingly unaware of the added weight of me and the basket.
People muddled about, too busy preparing for their departure to notice us as we moved to blend in.
Kaden set me on my feet, he and Isaiah staying close enough to hide me between their bulk.
A resonant alarm made my bones shake right before a transparent dome surged around the ship, sealing us in.
Cool air circulated, still carrying the scent of the water.
Crewmen began clearing the area, moving lower and deeper into the ship to continue their work, but we remained on deck.
Kaden and Isaiah shifted us deeper into the shadows, keeping me between them while giving themselves space.
I leaned against the railing and watched the water ripple below us. I had never been on a trading ship, but I had heard about them. They traversed space and brought stars within touching distance.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
Kaden came to my side, watching as we neared the shimmering portal. “Whitcliff.”