Chapter 28 #2
“Good,” Dae praised, clapping his hands together with a metallic thud, the many rings decorating his hands clashing against each other. “Now we’ll see if you can hit a target that isn’t twice as wide as your average Defender.”
I tilted my head at him, my eyes searching. He raised an eyebrow at me, giving me an expectant stare in return.
“I know you like to admire me, but this is taking it a step too far, wouldn’t you say?”
“Why do you still wear—” I gestured vaguely at his hands and ears. “All that?”
“All my jewelry?” He asked, spinning the ring around his forefinger in consideration. “Same reason you wear that necklace, I suppose.”
He reached out to caress the dainty crescent moon around my neck. “To remind myself where I came from. It’s a part of me that I can’t erase. It’s because I was born so deeply into the loyalist society that I joined the Rebellion.”
He showed me the top of his wrist. The black ink ran in intricate pictures from there and all the way up under his shirtsleeves. I’d never had the opportunity to study his tattoos before.
I focused on the one he was trying to show me. Wake up.
“This was one of the last ones I got before I fled the city.”
I ran a gentle thumb over the words. “What does it mean?”
“It was the last bit of courage I needed to finally leave. A reminder to myself to break free from the invisible chains my father had placed around me at birth. I never had a choice, either. You were forced to live your life hidden in the shadows. I was forced to live my life as one of the King’s tyrants. ”
A stray tear trickled down his cheek to settle in the stubble on his chin. I kissed it away, my thumb still gently stroking the words on his wrist that meant so much to him.
“I’ve had to do things I never want to admit to you. I don’t want you to ever hate me again,” his voice cracked.
I knew what he’d done, even without him telling me.
The red scars running down my back were a constant reminder of what the Defenders did to people like me.
But where Kenric felt glee at seeing me writhe in pain beneath his touch, Dae would’ve only felt regret.
I could see it in the sad, dark eyes that were staring shamefully into the ground.
“Hey, look at me,” I placed my hands on his cheeks, willing him to look me in the eyes. Multiple breaths passed between us before he finally raised his gaze from the ground to meet mine.
He’d only shed that single tear, but his eyes remained glossy, the deep regret visible between the flecks of hazel. “I won’t ever hate you again,” I whispered. “I’m not sure I ever did.”
He gave me a small smile, eyes flicking between mine as if to see if I was being truthful. “I knew you couldn’t hate all this,” he gestured to himself, the smug smile I’d come to appreciate playing on his lips once again. “Prudy.”
He freed himself from my grasp, then walked to the tree to pull the dagger from it. “You should keep this,” he said, running a thumb over the golden crystal before passing it to me.
“Dae, I couldn’t. It’s—”
“Yours,” he cut in, grabbing my hand and curling my fingers around the hilt. “I want you to have it. I brought it from home in hopes that it would protect me until I found a new one.”
His arms wrapped around me, and my free hand instinctively found the wavy locks at his nape. “And today, this place finally feels like home.”
“This is tight,” I grumbled as Anna finished tying the black leathery vest around my ribs. “How am I supposed to fight like this?”
She laughed, adjusting the long black pants she’d forced me into. Luckily, she’d let me wear my comfortable button-down underneath the vest and not another thing of leather.
“It’s supposed to protect your vital organs, Prue. It’ll mold to your body before we depart if you wear it daily, like I told you to do.”
“At least you don’t have these long stupid sleeves,” Amari grunted, staring at Anna as she pulled the shirt over her head.
“Relax, look here,” Anna said, picking up a longsword from the pile of weapons at one of the long tables that stood around us. Hannan had set up this station with Anna to get everyone who was traveling to Erobred prepared for battle.
I swung my arms around, loosening the fabric that restricted my breath. Anna laughed, pulling at a tight curl that’d strayed from the bun tied at her nape. “Here,” she said, handing me a silly-looking contraption of leather straps.
“There’s a lot of leather here, Anna,” I scoffed, trying to figure out what she’d just handed me. “Good thing Erobred isn’t known to be hot.”
She rolled her eyes at me and snatched the thing out of my hands to fasten it around my waist and down my right thigh. “Leather protects you. Linen does not.”
I fiddled with the straps around my leg, noticing the loops lining the outer part of my thigh.
“For your daggers,” Anna explained, her smile softening. “Felix told me that’d probably be your preferred weapon.”
I tried to swallow the lump forming in my throat.
I knew she and Felix had grown closer ever since the bonfire party, but the idea that I came up in their conversations churned my stomach.
“Has he said anything about me since—” the unspoken words hung heavily in the air between us. Since Felicity was killed.
Anna gave an uncertain shake of her head. “Not really,” she admitted. “I know he misses you, though.”
A dry laugh slipped past my lips. “He blames me for his sister’s death. I don’t think he’ll ever forgive me.”
I pulled the dagger from the pocket of my pants, which had been discarded on the ground, and placed it in one of the slots on my thigh. The golden quartz embedded at the top glittered faintly in the setting sun.
“That’s pretty,” Anna smirked, clearly thankful for a chance to change the subject. “I wonder what dreamy suncaster could’ve given you that.”
“Shut up,” I joked, feeling my cheeks heat from the recent memories of that dreamy man.