42. Scent and Secrets
Scent and Secrets
Anara
Calder’s body and breathing relaxed; he’d finally fallen asleep.
Anara turned her face away from him, relying on her sense of hearing to relieve her sense of smell.
Bitterness and hostility oozed as a stifling stench through Calder’s pores.
Another smell beneath it teased Anara with its familiarity, but she refused to breathe deeply until she was once again in open air.
“The sun should be up soon,” Masai commented, his voice so low it was hardly a rumble.
She nodded, ignoring the way he stared at her.
It’d been hours of Anara looking into the trees and of Masai watching her, as if waiting to see if Anara would suddenly leap up and murder Calder despite their earlier agreements.
His irritating surveillance only made her want to do it more or, at the very least, peck at him until he looked away.
She yawned, showing off the wolf fangs she’d grown just for Masai’s sake.
“Relax, soft-hands, I’m not going to kill him. ”
“I didn’t say you would.”
“Then stop staring at me like you’re afraid I’ll eat him.”
“He might give you indigestion.”
Anara looked at him, eyebrows raised. A surprised laugh escaped her lips. “Did you just make a joke about violence? Are you even allowed to do that?”
He smiled, leaning back against the hands he folded behind his head. “I told you. I’m the Regent’s son; I do as I please.”
“‘Regent’s son,’” Anara mocked. “In another lifetime, you might have been a Prince upholding your kingdom’s power, but I suppose that means nothing to you. Not if you can have blind obedience instead.”
Masai’s eyes tightened even as his body relaxed further as if just to irritate her. “Do you always assume you know everything about everyone around you?”
“Only when I know I’m right.”
“You don’t even know me.”
“No, but I know your bloodline.” She jerked her chin toward Calder’s prone body. “That’s the outcome of your so-called peaceful surrender. Aeron went to defend your mother and your people, but they weren’t willing to defend themselves. He paid the price for your mother’s cowardice.”
Masai leaned forward. “My mother saved the lives of thousands of Smaragdians, mine included.”
Anara’s reply was halted by the scent of incense wafting from Masai’s skin.
A pendant necklace fell out from behind his collar, gleaming in the moonlight.
A golden boar, the symbol of Freyr’s protection and prosperity, stared back at her.
A woody yet spicy scent surrounded the metal.
She snatched it between her fingers, yanking it—and Masai—closer to her.
“What is this?” she hissed.
Masai’s eyes, so very near to her face, burned in indignation. “Let me go.”
Anara sniffed the metal, knowing her proximity would only increase Masai’s unease. “I wondered how I wasn’t able to smell you when you followed me in your palace, but I remember this scent. You’ve put some type of incense on the pendant. It dampens other smells.”
Masai ground his teeth together, the sound jarring in Anara’s ears. “Smaragd has always used nature to our advantage. We have nectars for healing, sleep, and luck.”
“And for disguising your scents?” she accused.
He shrugged, still held tight by Anara’s grip on the pendant. The warmth of his skin permeated the air between them. “We’re not violent people, but we will protect ourselves however we can. Here I thought that’s something you would approve of.”
Anara growled. “Not when you’re enabling the Empress along with yourselves.”
Masai’s eyebrows tilted together. “What are you talking about?”
“Before we left Perle, a draugr attacked us. It was wearing a pendant that disguised its smell. Where else would it have gotten one? Didn’t you say you’re the one making them?
” Anara dropped the pendant, its chain hanging over the thin scar on Masai’s neck.
Her nails sharpened to claws that scratched along the truck bed.
“I should’ve let the draugr kill you and save myself the trouble. ”
Instead of fleeing from her reach, Masai shook his head.
Underneath the heavy incense, she caught a whiff of his natural scent.
It was surprisingly earthly and floral, most likely due to the flowers he distilled into nectars.
“You’re wrong. This was made to protect my people from her draugrs . Why would I share it with her?”
Anara’s nails shrank at the vehemence in Masai’s voice. There was no lie in his tone, but perhaps someone else in Smaragd was supplying the Empress.
At the far end of the bed, Calder stirred but did not wake. Sunbeams wove their way through the thick trees. The soft sounds of the others rising from their sleep near the campfire drifted through the leaves.
“Let’s pretend I believe you,” Anara whispered. “Then someone else in Smaragd is supplying the Empress. Who else would have the access and knowledge?”
Masai’s lips pressed together.
“Loki’s knot,” Anara swore. “Kiah is supplying the Empress, isn’t she?”
Silence spoke louder than his admission.
She glared into Masai’s eyes, so green like the godsforsaken forest Anara couldn’t wait to escape.
Through the trees came the others’ voices as they walked back toward Helga.
Not caring if she woke Calder, Anara jumped down from the bed.
Masai followed, slamming the tailgate behind him. Halla’s laughter drifted from nearby.
“What a great leader your mother is; you must be so proud,” Anara hissed so only Masai could hear.
He advanced toward her, erasing what little space there’d been, his cheeks dark with anger. “Whatever my mother’s doing is for the good of our people. What do you know about being a great leader? Your people are dead or monsters.”
Anara’s body shook. It’d been so long since she’d lost control of her galdr in anger, and she fought it now, knowing if she didn’t, Anara would finish what the draugr had started on the lakeshore. Masai was so close; it wouldn’t take much effort.
Darien emerged first from the nearby trees, followed by Larissa, then Halla and Kai. All four stopped at the sight of Anara and Masai.
“. . . Is everything okay?” Darien’s eyes darted from Anara to Masai then to where Calder stirred in Helga’s trunk.
“Fine,” Anara said, her body still trembling with the pressing transformation.
“Fine,” Masai echoed, stepping back.
Anara couldn’t wait any longer. “We should go; I’ll scout from above.”
Larissa’s words were lost to the air as Anara launched herself into the sky.
If only she could as easily lose the thoughts of her mind as well.
But Masai’s words summoned images from her vision that plagued her sight, coating it in the flames that had devoured Rubin.
The screams of her people as their bodies broke under the curse of Shiko’s blood rune chased her in the wind.
The heat from the fire that had poured from her mouth left Anara with the taste of ash on her tongue.
She flapped harder against the wind, as if she could outfly the demons in her mind.
It had taken them hours, but they were nearly out of Smaragd.
Anara glided more often than she flapped her wings, refusing to shift back to her human form for rest. She would tell Larissa and Darien about Kiah, but there was little they could do now.
They already knew Kiah had chosen to act as Regent for Shiko; it shouldn’t surprise them that she would actively supply the mad woman with whatever she wanted.
They would deal with Smaragd after they reclaimed Safír.
A growing obstacle down the road caught her eye, souring Anara’s mood further.
She dove nearer for closer inspection. Two sentry vehicles had parked horizontally across the road, creating a roadblock for anyone crossing the Smaragd-Perle boundary line.
With a frustrated caw, she turned back the way she’d come.
She hadn’t realized how far ahead she’d flown until she spotted Masai on his motorbike and closed the distance between them.
She cawed loudly enough to be heard over his engine. He skidded to a stop, cutting the sound. Anara felt the familiar and somewhat painful stretch and twist as her body transformed into its natural shape.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
Anara landed on her feet beside him. “Besides your constant presence?”
Masai only smiled. “I’ve heard attraction can often portray itself as aggression. Is there something you want to tell me?”
Anara would’ve shoved him off his bike right then and there if Helga hadn’t pulled to a stop beside them.
Larissa rolled down her window, her brows pinched in concern. “What’s going on?”
“Sentries.”
Darien hopped down from the tailgate, joining their huddle away from Calder’s prying ears.
Halla leaned over Larissa’s lap to stare at Anara with excited eyes. “Did you say centaurs?”
“ Sentries , Halla.” Larissa shoved Halla back on her own seat. “Centaurs don’t exist.”
“It’s not impossible; we literally just met the goddesses of fate,” Halla muttered sliding down in her seat. Kai snickered beside her.
“Sentries?” Larissa asked, ignoring Halla.
“Roadblock ahead.”
Larissa tugged at her braid. “Any way to get around it?”
Masai shook his head. “The forest is still too thick up to the border for the truck to pass through. Any other roads will mean hours of backtracking without the guarantee that they’ll be sentry-free either.”
“Kings and Queens,” Larissa muttered.
Darien drummed his fingers against Helga’s hood. “It’ll take too much time to find another way.”
“So we go through it,” Anara agreed. “There’s four strong fighters with us and maybe six or eight of them. We might be outnumbered, but they’ll be outmatched.”
Larissa glanced back at Halla in the passenger seat, who stuck her tongue out. “Stop looking at me like that, Lara. I’ll be fine. I can take care of myself.”
“I’d rather it not be an outright fight if we can prevent it,” Larissa said slowly, even as her fingers reassuringly gripped her gun.