Chapter 30 #2
That’s why he’s been relentless with his teasing. His flirtation functioned like a shield. A way to protect his vulnerability without harming her. Because the alternative? The alternative was rage.
Felíne stepped back from him, allowing him space. “Thank you for the medicine,” she said, changing the subject.
Something passed over Kal’s features too briefly for her to identify before they rearranged into a mask of neutrality. “You’re welcome.”
“How did you get my things, anyway? I thought my pack was still back with the Stillwater Watch.”
Kal’s brow lifted. “You have an admirer.”
She glanced at him questioningly.
“Stonehaugh.”
Felíne had nearly forgotten about the stalwart guard and felt a pang of guilt. Kal hadn’t been the only one who’d helped her. Without Beaumont…
“Clever of him to suggest the rat,” Kal mused, and Felíne’s gaze shot to his. Of course, he would know.
“Did he tell you?”
Kal shook his head, marbled dapples of light from the treetops landing on the planes of his face like angel kisses. “He didn’t have to.”
That’s right. Felíne wasn’t supposed to have known what she would face in that arena. Beaumont Stonehaugh hadn’t outright told her, but he’d killed the rat and given it to her to use as a distraction. The adversary wants blood, he had said. It won’t be picky about whose it gets.
“I thanked him,” Kal continued. A wrinkle furrowed his brow. “His distraction bought you time you might not have had otherwise.”
“I hope I have a chance to thank him myself,” she said.
“I imagine you will. But we need to fix a few things.”
A sneaking suspicion crept into her awareness. “Such as?”
“You have no fighting skills to speak of. If you’re ever attacked again, a dead rat won’t save you.”
He hadn’t said it with any malice, but Felíne bristled. “Sorry to disappoint, Battle Master,” she retorted. “Fighting for my life wasn’t part of the Prima’s royal education.”
Kal’s eyes went full black, his visage darkening dangerously. “It should have been.” Felíne startled at the sudden change in demeanor. “Especially considering what the Prima is meant to face.”
All the color drained from Felíne’s cheeks. The Primordial Male. That’s what Kal meant.
“Don’t worry,” he said, resolve bleeding through the choler. “I’m going to fix that.”
Kal’s fixing of whatever that was included dragging Felíne through a dense section of Stillwater Wood until her feet ached, and her breeches had been snagged in a dozen places by the grabbing underbrush.
“What is it that you’re fixing, again?”
“Your ineptitude with a weapon,” he replied. “Careful. That vine will leave you covered in welts the size of lemons.”
Felíne snatched her hand back from where she’d been about to rest it on the trunk of a vine-covered tree.
“How is that being accomplished, exactly?”
“Stop complaining,” he chided. “We’re nearly there.”
Felíne grumbled as she trudged after him. They pushed through another tangle of ferns that grew nearly to her chest. She stopped, stunned by the scene before her.
What must have recently been a dense, overgrown section of the forest was now a sight that sent chills feathering down her spine.
Whole swaths of the wood had been cleared away.
Not cleanly, as though by someone who’d prepped the land for building, but brutally, violently.
The decapitated remains of once-proud trees tipped haggardly, their tops ripped off mid-trunk.
The jagged stumps thrust awkwardly from the soil at odd angles.
Unearthed roots lay tangled and exposed among the low-lying foliage.
Monstrous gouges had been carved in the earth, scattering the corpses of small plants.
Flowers lay wilted and dying. Savage claw marks scarred those trunks left standing.
Felíne stared. Whatever creature had hewn such a vicious path through the forest had done so in a bloodthirsty rage. What if it was still nearby?
“Kal…”
Kalevar continued past the ruined wood as though it didn’t exist. Felíne scurried to catch up with him.
“Kal?” She tugged on his elbow. “Kal!”
“What now?”
Oh, like he didn’t hear her? “What do you mean, what now? Am I hallucinating? You can’t tell me you don’t see this!”
He spared a glance toward the area she indicated with a frantic sweep of her hand. “It’s nothing,” he said.
She blanched. “Nothing? That is not nothing. Whatever did that is probably still out here!”
A muscle spasmed in the tight line of his jaw. “It is.”
Felíne held up a hand, drawing a breath of forced patience. “I’m sorry. You know what did this?”
He nodded curtly, dark eyes serious.
What was wrong with him? How could he be so nonchalant? “And we’re just traipsing through its territory?”
Kal turned to resume their trek. “It’s not a problem. Come on.”
Oh, no he didn’t. Not again. “This is a problem!” she hissed.
She had a difficult time believing that a grimalkin could perpetrate this level of destruction.
That meant a creature even more fearsome made its home here.
“You might not be worried, but whatever recently brutalized this section of the forest could kill me!”
He deadpanned over his shoulder. “It certainly could.”
Felíne did not appreciate his tone.
“Perhaps if you keep pestering, it might be pushed to violence once more.”
What? “Kalevar Barringer Kaine.”
Kal’s progress halted at the sound of his full name.
“What happened here? What did this?”
Kal’s hands flexed at his sides. He unhinged his jaw. “I did.”
Felíne turned wide eyes to the wreckage, then returned them to study the carefully calm man standing before her.
“Now that your curiosity has been satisfied, can we please continue? Or does the lady require a demonstration?”
An image of Kal in second form, tearing through the forest in a murderous rage, flashed in her mind’s eye. He must have done this the day he’d stolen her from the arena. After he’d learned who she was.
With you, there is no control. Only chaos.
How close had he come to losing that control? She surveyed the ruin beyond their path. Within a hair’s breadth. This section of woodland had taken the punishment for her betrayal.
“That won’t be necessary,” Felíne said, voice surprisingly smooth. “Please. Lead the way.”
Kal nodded and continued.