Chapter 28
VALANCE
The old woman better have answers we liked. Answers that made sense in all areas.
The dark caress. My supposed becoming. Kormac’s apparent healing magic.
It hadn’t felt like magic—not the kind I’d come into contact with. Not even the strange silver magic the old woman used. No. His was different. So, so different.
I pulled my itchy robes back on, satisfied from the sex. A requirement after not dying by the hand of a bandit. Baffling as much as joyous.
I really did not know how to think anymore. We should sit and take stock and talk this through. But we’d done enough of that. Nothing good would come of it other than running around in circles, heads spinning all the way to Winter.
Until we met the old woman again, we would have to remain in the dark.
Goodness, when his ‘magic’ had touched me, filled me up, dragged me from the cold grasp of death, it had been exquisite. A connection like no other, linked to the purest of energies, a strange essence where there was no death.
I couldn’t wrap my mind around it, other than remind myself of its pleasure, the sex that followed butter on the bread.
Now I had bread on the brain.
“Let’s get those horses,” Kormac said, lacing up his breeches. He sighed after.
“What’s wrong?”
“She’s a friend of mine,” he answered. “The woman with the stable. I hate that we have to steal from her. But she wouldn’t understand. She’s Fomorian.”
“Staunchly unseelie?”
“Yes.”
I looked behind me, fearful of more bandits. “The word is out to cut me down.”
“There will be so many looking for you. We have to be careful.”
“And I’m sure Lasair is on our trail.”
“She’ll never give up.”
“What if someone gets to me first?”
“She’ll still want your body as proof. She’ll still travel for what she wants.”
“Then why not—” I stopped.
“Why not what?”
“Why didn’t she come to the palace herself?”
“She’s too important,” he said.
“To die?”
His face wasn’t a happy one, taking on shadows.
Lasair is nothing but a coward… I didn’t voice that. And it wasn’t strictly true. She was too clever to get herself caught. Too savage to be a coward.
“Say when, Kormac. You’re in charge.”
“I bet you’re not used to saying that.”
“Outside of the bedroom? No.”
He laughed, wiping at the side of his mouth with his thumb. “Follow me.”
It was nightfall by the time we reached the stable by the start of Acorn River—the same river leading to Riverleaf and the place of Daire’s death. My chest tightened, my muscles tense with anger, dropping a gift of fresh grief.
“My brother died here,” I said.
Kormac didn’t respond, only kept us low and hiding behind a boulder within the middle of a small field of thick grass. Cool and damp beneath my feet. I shivered, the temperature dropping as the moon arrived. At least there was no rain for now, the sky clear and rich with stars.
There were other fields around us, bigger for the horses. A small house sat at the edge of this one, a stable further away to its north. Trees surrounded the field. Not a forest, but a small circle of them, spaced apart before more meadow rolled around us. Some of them were apple trees.
We’d eaten rabbit and apples before arriving here. I’d watched Kormac hunt. Incredible. He was a beast attuned to the ways of the wild. Everything I would never be.
Honestly, I was somewhat jealous of him.
Smoke curled from the chimney of the house, the light of a fire in one of the bottom windows. It looked to be a cozy place, somewhere I would love to rest my head for the night.
“Wait here,” he ordered.
“What are you going to do?”
“Don’t worry.”
“I do worry.”
“Save your worry for now. I’ll get us those horses.”
We needed more than horses. Better clothing. Weapons. Supplies.
“I trust you.”
He stared at me for a moment, then took off.
I waited, the hoot of an owl coming from one of the trees. The wind rustled leaves, shadows stirred in the moonlight. Enough to set me on edge, my nerves a riot of aching.
Please hurry…