CHAPTER 23 #2
A loud snap echoes in the forest, and I reach for my bow as my head reels toward the tree line.
A boar roots through a pile of leafy debris below the low branch of a larch.
I knock an arrow, aware of the light clack of wood on wood beside me when Awri knocks one as well.
I draw, take in a deep breath, aim, and loose.
Awri is a quicker shot by a second, but she misses her mark by a hand.
My own arrow flies true, piercing the heart of the boar the next moment.
The sky has begun to dim by the time we’ve dressed and packed the animal onto the horses.
Awri gives me a satisfied smirk when she mounts, a smile I return as I scan the darkening horizon, my stomach turning in on itself.
The smile falls from my face, and I gasp.
Awri swears under her breath when her eyes follow mine.
“Mount, quickly,” she demands, “We need to warn the guard.”
With a fistful of mane, I swing into the saddle, and as if the tension in my body cracked in the air, the horses bolt for the palace at breakneck speed. I glance back at the La’tari warship sailing into the cove behind us and can’t help but wonder who is aboard.
Their reasons for landing here appear clear enough. If their mission involved anything but death they would have docked at the main harbor. Landing this far from town at dusk reeks of malicious intent.
It’s dark when we arrive at the front doors of the palace. Awri jumps from her mare before the horse has even halted its stride. My own mare, soaked in a frothing sweat, rolls the bit in her mouth nervously.
A young man collects her horse, offering to take mine as well while Awri vanishes into the palace after exchanging a few rushed words with a handful of soldiers near the entrance. One breaks toward the stables, while the others move quickly to spread word of the intruders.
I expect to see more panicked faces, but I suppose it is only a single ship.
The halls are their typical evening quiet.
Though, I have little doubt as the guards eye me warily, that tonight I am nothing more than La’tarian to them.
A foreign woman from a land that appears to be invading their shores.
The looks are enough to make me quickly discard the thought of procuring more of Kishek’s tea.
Tomorrow, when the news of the ship is not so fresh in the minds of the soldiers surrounding me, I will make enough to last the days it will take the king to arrive back in A’kori.
The consistent dulling of my demon makes me a little bolder than I might have been before finding the tonic.
I walk calmly back to my room to tuck myself away for the night.
Thoughts of familiar faces and war weigh heavily on my mind as I prepare for bed.
What happened to make my king risk war with A’kori by sending the ship to their shores in secret?
Have we ever really been at peace? I’m beginning to believe otherwise.
I pull on a dressing robe when there is a knock from the hall. The general doesn’t wait for me to answer before cracking the door and sliding inside, catching an eyeful of the delicate black night dress I wear, before I close the robe around myself.
“Have you come to arrest me for being a La’tari spy?” I quip, immediately regretting the thought I might have placed in his head.
He grunts as if I’ve just said something ridiculous, and I can’t tell if I’m relieved or annoyed that he believes me incapable.
“I’m taking a squadron of men to search for the vessel,” he says, “The others are joining me. I just came to assure you that you are safe within these walls and ask that you refrain from any of your evening escapades for the time being.”
“I’ll do my best,” I tease.
“No,” he demands, “You will promise me.”
I want to roll my eyes, to say something smart, to tell him he doesn’t get to make decisions for me, but the look in his eyes stops me.
Worry lines his forehead and creases the flesh of his brow.
I sigh, telling myself to let it go. I remind myself that before he came to make his demands, I was getting ready for bed anyway.
“I promise,” I say.
He puffs out a breath he’d been holding. “Thank you.”
I check the grounds the moment he leaves my room, and I’m not surprised to find it littered with guards.
It makes perfect sense that they would increase the patrols, but a small part of me begins to wonder if I’m now a prisoner of war.
It’s a question I don’t have to answer tonight, and one that will surely make itself clear when I leave my room to find Awri tomorrow.
The sprites are nowhere to be seen. Between the unrest at the palace and the male they are surely tending, I suspect it may be quite some time before I see their faces again.
Aside from missing the amusing presence of the sisters, I am eager to see them again so that I can speak with the male.
I have questions about Brax that I only trust him to answer.
If, in fact, it turns out that is where he comes from.
I sink into bed and whether it’s thoughts of the sprites, my conversation with Awri, or the presence of the La’tari ship, sleep evades me.
It feels like hours that I toss and turn.
My mind skipping like a flat stone across a clear lake from one thing to the next.
I hate it when my thoughts settle on the image of the beautiful female I met outside the general’s chambers.
Even worse, her face is the last thing I see before sleep finally takes me.
I’m jarred awake when the general barges into my room at stars only know what hour.
I’m going to have to find another lock for my door—a strong one that he doesn’t possess a key to.
I blink back the sleep from my eyes as he slips an arm beneath my knees, another around my waist, pulling me against him as he slides me off the bed.
“What are you doing? Put me down,” I groan sleepily.
“We found the ship. It was empty.” It’s all he says before walking toward the door and I push against his chest, wriggling until he sets me down.
I suck in a small gasp when my feet meet the cool marble in the hall, only to have the male glare down at them. My toes curl in on themselves in a futile attempt to withdraw from his glower. Putting his hand on the flat of my back he pushes me down the corridor.
“Stop,” I demand in frustration, planting my feet. “Where are you taking me?”
“Until we find the La’tari unit it isn’t safe for you on your own,” he says, “You will stay in my chamber for the time being.”
That wakes me up. I squint a glare at him, voicing my protest, “Absolutely not.”
“Until we find out who was aboard the warship, there is no safer place for you to be,” he argues, pushing against the small of my back assertively.
I step to the side, the male nearly tripping without the weight of my body bracing his arm. Turning back toward my room, my brow is drawn in defiance and annoyance, and I’m utterly unaware of which I feel more. I say over my shoulder, “I’ll take my chances. Thank you very much.”
“I’m not asking,” he growls, hooking my waist with his arm, hefting me off the ground, and throwing me over his shoulder as if I were nothing more than a sack of feathers.
The male is halfway through his third stride when I land a well-placed jab to his kidney and he grunts, falling to his knee.
I twist out of his grasp, my bare feet smacking against the cold stone when I land surefooted and begin marching back toward my room, a self-satisfied smile tugging at the corner of my lips.
“Enough!” he bellows. “You are coming with me and that is the end of it.”
My hands bawl into fists at my sides, the heat of my anger rushing to my cheeks as I again voice my protest at the incessant male. “No. I’m. No—” The word trails off in a scream when he hooks my waist, pulling me over his shoulder.
He positions my legs to hang against his back and clasps my wrists in one large hand. Each time I attempt to kick him, he shifts his shoulder beneath me, pitching my weight enough that I lose my balance and fail in my attempt.
“What?” I sneer, the guards in the hall eyeing the spectacle, “You’ve never heard a woman say no?”
“This has nothing to do with your refusal,” he hisses.
“You can’t get what you want by asking, so you just take it?” I snide, as he kicks open his door with a growl, throwing me into the center of his bed.
He points toward the pillows and yells, “Go to sleep!”
“I’d love to,” I spit, “as soon as I’m back in my room.”
“That is not happening,” he rumbles, “If they decide to attack tonight, you’ll be defenseless by yourself.”
I huff an incredulous laugh, scooting to the edge of the bed. He has no idea how incredibly wrong he is about that.
“If you’re that concerned, I’ll stay with Awri,” I say.
“That isn’t an option,” he says, the heat in his voice fading as he latches the door. “Her bed is already occupied.”
Interesting.
“Then I’ll stay with Riesh,” I say flippantly, as I storm toward the hall.
He’s too fast and hooks my waist from behind, tossing me back into the center of the bed as he growls, “Over my dead body.”
“Don’t tempt me!” I snarl.
His brow pitches down and he pins me with a dark stare.
Leaning against the mattress, one arm on either side of my legs, he says, “I will stay up until dawn, dragging you back to this bed if that’s what it takes to keep you put.
You are staying right here, where I can keep an eye on you whether you like it or not. ”
He doesn’t wait for me to agree before he stalks off to drag a large chair in front of the door.
When he plants himself in the dark velvet cushion, I give in.
I’ve never cared where I slept before, why should I let it bother me now.
If he is willing to keep his hands off me, I’m happy to let him spend an uncomfortable night awake, playing bodyguard.
I slip into the covers and put my back to him, wondering how exactly I got myself into this mess.
There is a shuffle behind me before the lights dim and the room fades to black.
My mind is a brutal and torturous thing when it conjures another image of the green-eyed female.
I brush a hand over the silk sheets, a pit forming in my stomach when I wonder when she last slept where I am now.
It’s too late when sleep finally comes to take me. I’ve already thought about his lips on her neck. Wondered if he touches her the same way he touched me. And for once, the bloody visions of my sleep are a welcome reprieve.