Chapter 34 Evera
EVERA
“Stay here,” Neirin instructed, his sturdy hand at my waist as we stood in the inn’s kitchen at the base of the stairs. He wore the simple breeches he’d slept in and a loose cotton shirt Maerel had left outside the door, and I wore one of her dresses. It was plain and hung a bit too short.
Nodding, I stole a quick kiss. The silver of his eyes shone, and when he spoke, his words were full of depth.
“You’re the most incredible thing that’s ever happened to me. You know that?”
What response could I give to that? The fire crackled in the hearth, and I smiled wistfully.
Instead of replying, I wet the pad of my thumb and wiped a streak of ash from above his brows.
The coals of the fire were all we had to disguise his hair, and though it did darken it to a dusky ebony-gray, a better solution would be needed.
Walnut shells could be used to produce a dye, though the thought of permanently altering the stunning natural silver seemed a crime. It would grow out, though.
A man’s voice in the other room, at the bar, drew Neirin’s attention, and his hand left my side. A feeling of slick unease trickled through the bond as Neirin left me, hesitating only briefly before pushing through the split kitchen door and leaving me alone.
“What is this about?” Neirin’s tone, firm but not disrespectful, floated to me from the other room. I stepped closer to the door, careful to stay quiet and out of sight.
“A man of the guard traveling through here has been killed behind your inn,” the man said to Maerel.
“No one has acted suspiciously,” Maerel said. “If I knew something, I would tell you. It’s fair to suspect whoever killed the man has left town already, no?” Her words were clipped, irritated. The innkeeper was a convincing liar.
The man grunted. “And what of you? Where were you last night?”
“With me,” Maerel said, tone heavy with implication. “Kept me up all night. I doubt he heard anything either. I’m not quiet.”
Heat flushed my face, and I sucked in a breath. Though I understood the reasoning for her words, they still stung. Neirin was mine. Only mine.
“Is that true?”
Neirin’s response was nearly as convincing as Maerel’s. “You don’t think I’m sticking around here just for the cheap whiskey, do you?”
My heart sank.
I peered through the gap in the doors. The innkeeper’s arm was wrapped around Neirin’s waist, and his arm rested casually across her shoulders. Maerel reached up to him, and he kissed her. The air from my lungs left me in a rush, and I shut my eyes, leaning heavily against the wall.
The man, still out of my line of sight, dismissed himself. A moment later, the heavy front doors of the inn closed with a creak. Fire fueled me, and I left the concealment of the kitchen. Neirin turned to me and backed up as I pushed him against the bar.
I clenched my fists and set him with a stern expression, resisting the urge to strike at his chest. Knowing such an action was uncalled for, still, I huffed, my emotions getting the better of me.
Beside us, Maerel laughed, and I turned my anger to her. Neirin’s arm wrapped around my waist, and he pulled me against him, kissing the top of my hair. Damn him, I was trying to be angry.
“Are you jealous, love?” His words held a curl of amusement.
They were both teasing me. I set my jaw.
“Don’t be upset with him. He was only playing along. It was important that Aaron believed our story,” Maerel offered. “Though I will admit, I’ve wanted to kiss that man of yours since the day he walked into my kitchen naked.”
That planted an entirely new image in my mind. Turning in Neirin’s embrace, I scowled at him, and he grinned, revealing that damned dimple.
“I’m yours,” he reassured and brushed my lips with his.
My cheeks flushed. When had I decided I wanted that? To be his. But I did. I swallowed the knot in my throat. It was time to talk to Aureus.
“Walk her home, Neirin. Then we need to talk,” Maerel said.
Neirin’s smile faded. His chest rose and fell heavily once.
“Do you want me to stay?” I asked him.
Neirin nuzzled against my ear, and the affection of the gesture warmed my heart. It was impossible to resist the truth of it. I was falling for him.
“It’s alright,” he said, brushing another kiss to my temple. “Your brother is likely worrying about you. Let’s get you back.”
The brisk scent of fresh rainfall hung in the air as Neirin walked me back to my family’s shop.
Dew clung to the grass and dripped from the leaves of trees that bordered the road.
I held his hand, our fingers interwoven, and he stroked casually with his thumb.
Kicking stones into puddles, Calix walked a few paces ahead of us.
“Evera.” A gruff voice drew my attention.
Ruairc approached from the market, his brows drawn and his lips a thin line.
Neirin’s thumb stilled, but he kept his hold on my hand.
It was a statement, and, gods, maybe it shouldn’t have, but it made my stomach flip.
Though he tried to hide it and give me control, there was still a possessiveness to Neirin. Despite myself, I ached for it.
“Where have you been?” Ruairc asked, his gaze avoiding Neirin entirely.
“I spent the night with Hadrian,” I told him.
Ruairc’s expression sank, and a coil of satisfaction held me at his dejection. But there was a bitterness to it, too. Because, despite his plotting with my brother, Ruairc was a good man. And at one time, we’d been friends.
“Who is this man, Evera?” His question was sharp and laced with judgment.
Any trace of sympathy I felt for him fell away. “It’s none of your concern, Ruairc. You don’t own me.” I met his scowl with my own.
“And he does?”
“Evera belongs to no one,” Neirin said, his tone light but assertive, effectively ending the path of conversation. He squeezed my hand reassuringly, and my anger lessened.
The tense set to Ruairc’s jaw portrayed the hurt, the loss there.
An uncomfortable quiet hung around us, broken after a moment by the distant chime of a bell.
I raised my eyes to find Aureus in the doorway of our shop.
Relief etched his expression. That was about to change, though.
Gods, I was not ready for this conversation.
“I will be at the inn if you need me. I must speak with Maerel. Would you be willing to busy Calix for some time?”
“I can do that,” I replied, knowing he only asked in the way he did to assuage me. If it eased Neirin’s worries for the boy to stay with me, I could concede. After Calix’s intervention the day before, I could no longer deny his value; he had made an excellent guardian.
I rose to my toes and pressed a kiss to Neirin’s lips, uncaring of our audience. It was a goodbye but not a farewell. It was a reassurance that I would see him again soon. The slightest brush of his lips sent a spark through my veins.
Steadying myself, I offered Ruairc a half nod of acknowledgment for the sake of being amenable.
The cobbler’s eyes were cast aside, his brows tugged in, and his expression was tense.
He was lamenting a loss. I’d hurt him. The realization caused a pang in my heart as I turned my back on the two men and crossed the market, Calix in my shadow.
“Are you alright?” Aureus asked as soon as I reached the steps. His gaze swallowed me whole as he tried to assess my well-being. It was the healer in him as well as the caring older brother.
“I am,” I reassured him.
Aureus’s chest fell with a heavy exhale.
I stepped around him and entered the warmth of our shop.
Calix skirted in just behind me, looking around with an expression of boredom before finding something to meddle with.
The boy played well at feigning childishness. The observation left me feeling somber.
“Evera, you must explain.” Aureus followed me as I paced to the front counter.
“It’s clear that the man you’ve been with has been wounded.
All night I’m up worrying, and come dawn, soldiers are at the door speaking of the murder of a castle guard.
When Ruairc learned that you were off with Lark, I had to convince him not to go to the inn after you.
He’s been pacing the market all morning.
Evera, did Lark kill that guard?” He flicked his gaze to Calix. “And who is the boy?”
“The boy goes by Calix. He is training under Lark to be a routier.” A half-truth, but I had no better explanation.
The remaining of my brother’s questions I left unanswered.
I bit the inside of my cheek as I considered the possible repercussions of telling him the truth in its entirety.
Would Aureus go to the garrison? Turn Neirin in?
If he knew of our bond, would he respect it? If he knew of my feelings?
When I hesitated in my response, Aureus pinched the bridge of his nose. “There’s so much of Mother in you, and it frightens me.”
I drew my brows together. “Mother?”
Lowering his hand to his beard, Aureus’s glance turned to Calix again. Catching his implication, I sent the boy off with orders to practice his studies in the back room. Though in truth, I was unsure of the expectations of a routier in training, or whether the boy even knew how to read.
When he left, I pointedly set my gaze back to Aureus.
He studied me. “Mother loved us, Evera, but she made poor decisions.”
Shaking my head, I rose to her defense. “No, she did what she had to. To keep us fed.” It was what Aureus had always told me and what I remembered of her.
“No,” he said, forlorn. “She could have found another way. The situations she put us in were unacceptable.”
Heart thundering in my chest, I sucked in my bottom lip and waited for him to go on. Light from the window shone on his dusty blond hair. We bore such little resemblance to each other, but our personalities were in tune, as they always had been, a mirror of each other in expressions and tones.
“Why are you telling me this?” I demanded.