Chapter 13
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
I ’m so sick of people thinking I am something to conquer, something to achieve. Riley is no different, even if his words and his touches are smoother; it’s all the same because it’s not about me, it’s about them.
I’m pacing back and forth in the forest, and it takes me a moment to realize that I am so worked up, I’m shaking. I take a deep breath and try to calm the never-ending tornado inside. Steeling my shoulders and straightening my back, I stride back to camp. Everyone is back and getting ready to settle down.
“There she is, we thought maybe you’d gotten lost!” Beans tries to joke while throwing an actual bean at me.
“Oh, I was just checking around to see if I was the only person here who didn’t know Riley was the Prince Ofnemoris,” I respond with fake brightness as I hurl the bean back at him.
Beans looks contrite and stands to offer me his seat by the fire. I wave him off and sit across from him in front of the fire instead. Riley starts to chuckle before I cut him a death glare that has him turning it into a cough instead, trying to hide his smile.
“Am I being played for a fool here? Should I not trust any of you?” I say to the fire and whoever is listening.
“For the record, I wanted to tell you when you got to Mama’s.” Bitty’s clear voice rings out as they make deliberate eye contact with everyone around the fire.
“Noted, Bitty,” Beans says wryly. “It was a calculated risk, and it was ultimately decided that it would be better if you didn’t know. You might have felt more pressure with Lyss’ sibling around, and perhaps not comfortable in the presence of the royal family who have purchased you. It was the wrong call, Mika. Please forgive me?”
I nod, unable to look at any of them. Beans isn’t the one I don’t want to forgive.
“Tovi tells me it was a group of Erduborn men harassing you at the bar?” Beans asks with sincerity.
Before I can answer, Tovi cuts in. “I went back to speak to the owner. He said the men you had been talking to had already left.”
“They were telling the truth about Riley, so what about everything else they said?” I ask.
Tovi answers me. “Of course we aren’t selling you to the king as his sex slave. We aren’t so sophisticated to have told you this entire strategic plan and discussed it daily for it only to be a ruse.”
“So, the princess is missing?” I venture, needing further confirmation.
“Yes.” Riley’s change in demeanor at the mention of his sister is instant. And the fire that was burning so hot inside of me only a moment ago extinguishes just as quickly.
And it occurs to me that it’s no wonder he’s been drinking. His sister has been missing for months.
The sun rises far too early the next morning. My mood is tempered dramatically when Beans and Tovi arrive with a breakfast of two giant, freshly baked, and still steaming loaves of bread.
One loaf is savory, with spicy pork mince woven through it and a sharp cheese browned on top. The other is the deep brown color of cacote, and much to my delight, has the nutty and sweet flavor to match. Beans cuts the bread into big, healthy-looking slices for us, and we all eat greedily, polishing off both loaves by the time we’re ready to leave.
Despite the early morning, Teorann is a hub of activity. We obviously aren’t the only ones hoping to be on the first barge. With our packs on and trudging toward the beach, the dirt gives way to sand, and the large trees of the forest begin to thin.
I smell them before I lay eyes on the bright pink and yellow flowers of a tree I don’t recognize. The air is filled with a rich and sweet scent, like honey, but with more spice and slightly fruitier. The perfume alone was enough to have me looking around in glee before I spotted the flowers themselves.
The trees are tall with big curly leaves and thin branches drooping downward. The flowers cluster together along the branches, slightly swaying in the morning breeze, and the five-petal blooms have a soft velvet look to them. They are mostly white and then ramp up the color to a warm yellow in the centers, some with a magenta pink along the edge of the petals.
I stop and reach up to run my hands delicately along a branch. The flowers caress my skin and bees dance in and out with heavy bags of pollen on their legs. A big hand reaches up and plucks a flower from the branch I’m staring at in rapture.
“Frasteria trees in full bloom are spectacular,” Riley whispers, sniffing the flower he picked.
“I didn’t even know they existed,” I say with wonder as I look around to see the rest of the group has left us behind, and Riley’s giant presence is far too close again.
I look at him. I mean I truly look at the man in front of me, with the new knowledge that he’s the prince and we are trying to rescue his sister. His face goes from peaceful and perhaps slightly amused to deflated and dejected as he sees me studying his face. My rage responds with a slam into my throat.
“I’m sorry, Firecat. I didn’t lie to you, and I never will, but omitting the truth of who I am was still a deceit. One that I had convinced myself was better for you. This is no excuse, and I truly hope you’ll forgive me.”
Riley tucks the flower behind one of my ears, moving his hand slowly toward my face this time, so he doesn’t cause me to flinch. Instead, I soften. But I’m unwilling to verbally accept his apology when I’m not sure that I can speak with the lingering heat from Riley’s fingers brushing my ear.
He then tips his head in the direction of the beach, a wordless reminder we need to hurry.
We reach the edge of the beach and I take one last look at the frasteria trees. We’re not the first to arrive, but luckily, we will all fit on the first barge across.
We’re waved straight onto the barge and told to sit for safety reasons, joined by a dozen or so other travelers. Two large men climb aboard, one Erduborn and the other Nemorisborn. After receiving a signal from the other side, the men begin to pole us toward Erdu, the large chain through the center making a loud clunking sound as each link passes .
Aware it will take at least half an hour to cross, we chat amongst ourselves about nothing important. My mind still reels that Riley, sitting to my left, is a prince. That line of thought leads me to the next until I land on something that makes me smile mischievously.
The barge is loud, so I know I can speak to Riley without anyone—save for Bitty—being able to hear. I lean closer to Riley and signal for him to lean down so I can say something.
“So, if you’re the second Prince Ofnemoris…”
Riley looks down at me, frowning in confusion.
“And the twin of Lyss…” I continue.
His eyes narrow at me.
“The twin of… Amarilyss ,” I say with my smile widening, and he rolls his eyes dramatically.
“That means, Riley, your name is…”
“—Aurelius,” he finishes for me, a glint in his eye that tells me I will pay for this later.
“ Aurelius Jasper Ofnemoris ,” I say slowly, annunciating every syllable perfectly, unable to hide my smirk. “It’s a lovely name, Aurelius. ”
He leans down, his arm coming around me to lean on the barge’s wall along my back, breath hot against my ear. “You might think you’re mocking me, Firecat, but I like the idea of my name on your lips.”
He pauses in place after his lips graze my ear on his last word, sending fire into my veins. Then he leans back to look at me with heavy lids, stopping at my mouth before returning to face ahead.
“Well,” I splutter. “I guess I won’t be saying it again.”
I let out an angry huff when I see him try to hide a smile as he reclines against the barge.
He knows he won. What he won, I’m not sure, but we both know that whatever it was, he definitely won. Asshole.
My cheeks are still burning, his breath and lips still tingling on my skin, when the barge reaches Erdu and we disembark. Not another word is spoken between us.
If anyone else, and I mean anyone else , spoke or tried to touch me like that, they would lose their ability to function. Somehow, I clam up and become awkward around Riley. This must be because I haven’t had sex in revolutions. I’m starved. That’s all it is. It doesn’t help that Riley is nice to look at. And to smell.When he’s not drunk.
I’m a creep. A sex-starved creep.
Erdu is a hot and windy place most of the time, but during windstorm season there are days when the wind picks up the sand and uses it to scrub everything raw—including flesh from bone.Luckily, this only happens a handful of times each windstorm season. All gorge and canyon towns are specially designed to withstand them. The native fauna has also adapted to survive windstorms, or they know how to hide.
Early settlers in Erdu tunneled out caves in the ground or the side of unoccupied gorge walls for refuge.When a windstorm is upon you, your best chance of survival is to find one of these and hope that it’s not already occupied as they can realistically only fit two people, three max.
I knew all this. What I didn’t realize was that we were entering Erdu at the start of windstorm season, the deadly season during which Oferdu people don’t usually travel because of the risks.
We sort through our supplies, making sure each of us has everything needed to survive if we become separated from the group. Tovi helps me shift a few things around so my hatchets are still secure but accessible, commenting on their beauty as she holds one.
Riley makes a joke about having to carry some spices and herbs, asking if I’m going to help carry some of the random junk he brought with him. Beans clips him upside the head as if he were a naughty teenager and not a 31-rev-old prince.
“I wouldn’t worry yet, there are still too many trees in this part of Erdu to worry too much about windstorms. Best to be prepared though,” Beans says.
I’m not reassured.
While not as dense as Nemoris, Erdu still has many trees in the south. As we travel, cracks in the earth and small cliffs begin to appear. The further north we go, the hotter it gets. Standalone mud huts are expertly built around trees for maximum safety against windstorms. Erduborn peer at us from behind curtains as we make our way through tiny towns.
We didn’t linger at Erdu Teorann after crossing the waters so early in the morning. Our first night was similar to our time in Nemoris, though we were far more alert during watch. A week after entering Erdu, we finally started to get a feel for the country. The days are hot, and the wind only makes them feel hotter as fine dirt sticks to our sweat.
Jundamara will be our first stay in a bed and breakfast type accommodation. It’s an enormous canyon town that was once a riverbed, now mostly dry with pockets of water that remind me of Sadori oases. Jundamara itself is built along the dry parts of the riverbed snaking through the canyon.
The B Riley matches the music perfectly with his movements. Of course he knows how to dance, he’s a fucking prince.
Again, he’s watching me, but I stare back as intently. I make note of every freckle on his face, deciding my favorite are the three clustered above his lip on the right side. He’s tucked his hair behind his ears, and it shows off his perfectly sharp jawline and proud chin. He’s attractive. Fuck . I’m attracted to this dickhead.
I didn’t realize I had leaned in so close, my hand resting on his chest.
He reaches up and covers my hand with his own, leaning down so I can hear his quieted voice. “I like looking at your face too.”
Riley gives me a twirl, then winks at me and walks back to the table.
I follow him, and Bitty tells us that both Beans and Tovi have retired for the evening.
“Another drink, Riley?” Bitty asks, finishing their beer.
Riley hesitates for a fraction. “Not tonight. I think I might call it and go to bed too.”
I can see his beer from earlier looking flat and untouched. Bitty looks at me hopefully, and I shake my head. “I’m happy to sit with you or dance some more, but no drinking for me.”
“You both suck.” Bitty whines with a pout, which makes Riley laugh. He kisses them on top of the head and says goodnight.
Riley’s hand reaches out to hold the back of my neck gently as he leans in. “Thanks for the dance, Firecat.” His thumb caresses the top of my spine before he lets go and backs away.
“My name is Mika ,” I manage to say as I roll my eyes at him, hoping to distract from my erratic pulse. He grins, mouthing goodnight with a smoldering look in his eye, spinning around to leave the smokehouse. I mumble goodnight under my breath. My world is spinning way too fast.