25. Consequences
Chapter Twenty-Five
Consequences
MAGNOLIA
Hael didn’t come back to his cabin until the next morning. He froze in the doorway, scanning the room before his eyes landed on me.
“You could have slept on the bed,” he commented, eyeing me on the sofa.
“You could have stayed,” I shot back, then added, “you didn’t need to leave.”
“Yes, I did.”
I tried not to dwell on it because I was glad he left. I couldn’t have planned it better myself. I spent half the night searching the entire place from top to bottom, trying to scour anything I could use against him. The only problem was, I found nothing.
Everything about his place was bare—the absolute epitome of someone who lived alone.
Even his cutlery indicated that no one else dined with him.
Honestly, I was questioning how he even lived here.
It was pristine, I could give him that. Tidy, organized—although I imagined it was easy to be when you owned next to nothing of value and clutter was foreign.
It was disappointing. Not that I didn’t find anything to use against him, but that it didn’t look like a home.
I’d always wanted one. I spent my entire life on the streets before Dahes took me to his castle.
I used to fantasize about filling a house with everything imaginable just because I could.
I’d have paintings too—even though they’d cost a fortune—but it would have been worth it to fill the walls with color.
And I’d have a small fireplace, not that I would need one in Viven—every fantasy I had consisted of me living far away from the Dead Kingdom—and the temperature was short of heavenly here.
But fireplaces always felt cozy and warm to me.
They were my reminder of everything Moriann wasn’t.
But Hael’s cabin had nothing. No charm. No character. No color. Just variations of browns and gray. The floors and walls were the same wood as the outside. Even the table was wood, just a slightly darker hue.
I couldn’t shake the guilty feeling that crept up inside me for invading his privacy.
It always happened. Every time I brought someone back from a hunt, I couldn’t shake off the shame I felt afterward.
It only got worse after Dahes told me their so-called-crimes.
I knew most of the people I hunted were innocent.
And Hael—he did absolutely nothing wrong, yet I was trying to exploit him, and I swore he knew it. I left absolutely nothing out of place, but I still felt like it was written all over my face.
I spent half the night rummaging through his place and the other half going over the entirety of our conversation again and again.
“I can’t explain it, but I just feel like I can trust you.”
That’s what Arrik—Hael—had said to me. But I couldn’t be trusted.
Everything I was doing was to try to get him hurt.
Every conversation, every moment, I was using it to find a weakness so Dahes could make a deal with him, a deal to get him to fight.
I knew firsthand that you never walked away from a deal, and Hael had the audacity to say he was sorry to me last night.
Sorry because Cash brought me to a brothel.
I didn’t know what to say. I wasn’t sure if anyone had ever said they were sorry to me before.
I wracked my brain, going through all the years I’d spent on Moriann’s streets, but no one was ever sorry.
Ruthless. Brutal. Callous. Did whatever they needed to in order to survive, yes, but never sorry for it.
And he shouldn’t be. I was the one who needed to be sorry because as much as I didn’t want to do this anymore, I still had to betray him.
For Masin.
Hael hadn’t moved from the doorway, just continued to stare at me which made the guilt so much worse. “Come on,” he said after a moment. “I’ll take you back to Elion’s castle.”
Right. The ball was tonight, which meant there was a possibility it would be my last night seeing him, which meant I only had one more day to figure out what he cares about.
“Is this where you live?” I asked, not moving from the sofa.
He nodded.
“Like, all the time?”
He eyed me. “Yes. Why?”
I shrugged. “It doesn’t look lived in, is all.”
He surveyed his own cabin. “I sleep here, that’s it.”
“Where did you go last night?”
“Does it matter?”
“Did you go to a girl’s—”
He cut me off before I could finish. “No.”
I had no idea why that relieved me. It shouldn’t have.
If he had, it would mean my hunt was over.
It would mean he would be safe in Moriann and Dahes couldn’t go back on my deal.
It would mean that I’d finally get to see Masin after all these years.
So why was I happy that Hael didn’t see someone last night?
I started twirling my hair around my finger. Ever since I’d come to Viven, I’d been pulling my long strands in front of me. Exactly as Dahes hated.
“Then where did—”
He cut me off again. “Nollie, has anyone ever told you that you ask a ridiculous amount of questions?”
My hand immediately fell from my hair, and in the process, I ripped a few strands out, but I barely felt it. I opened my mouth, then closed it.
He took a step closer. “It wasn’t meant as an insult.”
I still didn’t comment because I wasn’t sure if it really was me. I’d been so dead with Dahes that I had no idea who I was anymore. Was I only asking questions because of the hunt? Or was it because it was the first time in my life I could without fear or retribution?
Suns, I didn’t want to go back to Dahes. I wanted to stay here. Even if all I had was a bare cabin with no character, it was ten times better than my room in Dahes’ castle. Hell, I’d even choose life on the streets again over my current situation.
It clicked then—that’s why I was relieved I hadn’t figured out Hael’s weakness yet.
It wasn’t that it’d bother me if he loved someone, but only because once I figured it out, it’d mean my hunt was over.
I’d have to go back. Dahes said he was going to check in again, and if he found out I already had his weakness, he would make me go to the location spot immediately.
And once I went there, a thatcher would take me back and my hunt would be over, and with it, my delusional fantasy that I didn’t sell my soul to the devil.
“It’s endearing,” Hael added.
I looked up at him. I hadn’t realized my gaze had fallen to the floor and I’d been staring at a crack in the wood. He was looking directly at me, like he could see through to my soul…
He took another step forward. I thought he was going to say something else, but then, “I have to get you back before Elion notices.”
I nodded, standing from his sofa before following him out the door.
The suns were bright as we stepped onto the slab of wood that made up his porch, and I couldn’t help but notice how different MonClem looked in the light.
It was beautiful. The tall mountains trapping us in didn’t feel smothering, but rather cozy and quaint.
It was probably because the cut out terrain was massive—able to fit all the dragons and their riders comfortably—and the mountains themselves gave the illusion of tranquility rather than cage-like entrapment.
My gaze snagged onto the open structure. I saw a Ferro rider morphing metal. I still couldn’t believe drakins had magic and that they used it to make all of our weapons.
I knew Viven supplied weaponry. It was one of the things Dahes traded in, but I assumed that meant they made swords the old fashion way.
There were a few craftsmen in Moriann, but our supplies were limited and the finished products were nothing like Vivenian-made weapons.
I only knew because the first time I held a dagger from Viven was when Dahes gifted it to me after my first hunt.
I squinted as I looked up. I thought I saw white clouds, but then it moved, and I realized it was a dragon—his dragon.
“Follow me,” Hael said, turning to look at me over his shoulder. “And put up your hood.”
“That’s not going to help,” someone drawled. I pulled my hood up anyway, and forced my gaze away from the sky and toward the voice.
A male rider sauntered toward us. I recognized him from last night—he was the one who got me out of the brothel.
Hael rolled his eyes. “What do you want, Jaxs?”
“To warn you that you’re in deep shit.”
Hael’s back straightened. “He already knows?”
The male looked at me before turning back to Hael. “Yeah. Laxin and Cash told him within the hour, fucking dicks. Elion has known all night.”
Hael nodded, then started walking toward his dragon waiting in the grass. “Come on.”
“You should take the tunnel. He’s going to go harder on you if anyone sees her on your dragon.”
Hael didn’t say anything, just kept walking. I was still by the door of his cabin, having no idea what to do.
“Fucking Suns,” Jaxs cursed. “Hael, take the tunnel, are you deaf?”
“Nollie,” Hael shouted over him. “Let’s go.”
The rider came running up to us, making the Crepito rattle, but beyond the sound, the white dragon didn’t do anything as he approached.
“Hael, listen to me. Elion’s already pissed, but thank the Moons, no one saw her leave with you at the brothel last night or how you freaking left.
But if you make a scene with her now, everyone’s going to know.
Don’t make your crime public knowledge.”
“Flying will be faster.”
“I don’t understand, what happened?” I asked, trying to sort through what they were talking about.
“Nothing,” Hael snapped, then looked over at me, like he was waiting for me to move.
“Uh-uh. Nope. Not happening,” Jaxs said, looking between the two of us. “Don’t even think about doing what you did last night.”
Hael’s jaw tensed, that was all the warning I got before he ran toward his dragon, jumping onto its hind legs before running the rest of the way up its back.
“I want to take the tunnel.”