Chapter Twenty-Seven
Callum
His girl was real quiet as they slipped through the city in the early morning.
Light barely touched the temple before he smelt the woodfire burn.
Onlookers and bystanders emerged from their homes or businesses to inquire about the scent.
Smoke plumes grew denser and more alarming over the temple by the second.
By the time they slipped out one of the gates of Parandor, the paladins were evacuating the city.
People were practically pushed out the doors and allowed the outlaws to spill out into the Grasslands.
Avelina and Callum followed the train tracks for a long time before they lost anyone who tagged along.
Then it was another hour or so of them in complete silence before she broke first.
Atta girl, use that spine I worked so hard to grow in yer back.
“You were sending me back to Tala, weren’t you?” She stepped away from the tracks, out into the tall grass. He turned, watching her plop down on a ledge of one of the many boulders. She folded her arms under her chest and watched him expectantly.
“Yeah, I was,” he confessed. She scowled harder, face twisted up.
There was something brewing up in her skull.
He hoped it wasn’t a spell to kill him. Was it wise to play games with the warlock he’d rebuffed, pissed off, then dragged with him out into the middle of nowhere?
No. It wasn’t. But he purred the words anyway with a smug smile curling up on his lips.
“Ye know, I haven’t heard a single thank you, since we got outta that damn Stronghold. ”
Her eyes got real wide at that remark. Like she couldn’t believe his audacity. “You want a thank you?” She barked out a laugh.
“Yup, a little gratitude would be nice.” He stood in front of her, arms crossing over his chest.
“Gratitude?” she parroted in disbelief. Her pitch rose to a squawk, “For? What?”
“For savin’ yer ungrateful skin! I whisked ya outta there before they could fricassee you—”
She jumped to her feet. Utilizing the boulder to be nose to nose with him, he could practically feel the smoke plumes trickling out of her.
“Saving me? Saving me! You are the whole reason I was in danger. One, you know it’s not fricassee, we’ve talked about this, the Paladins were trying to spit roast me at best—”
He chimed in, “I wouldn’t put it that way, Darlin.”
She snatched him by the front of the shirt, yelling louder, “And for two! I’m not saying thank you for a single fucking thing until you apologize!”
“Apologize?” Callum scoffed fakely, baiting her. He dislodged her fingers from his shirt with a sneer, “For what?”
Avelina was a volcano with her lid rumbling.
Her hands trembled from rage, which was a far better step than the weeping she’d done when he first whisked her off that pyre.
Callum preferred her when she was vibrant, even when violent.
He loved to see her furious with him, her cheeks all splotchy and red, her pupils blown wide.
Avelina was a wonder to behold when she was spitting mad.
Would be a shame one day when it got him killed.
“Well, let’s see, for starters?” His warlock started listing them off on her fingers, and his face fell immediately. “You kidnapped me. Held me hostage. You tortured me—”
He cut her off, “Ay, ay, ay. I never laid a hand on ya, darlin. Well…not that you didn’t ask for.” Callum winked.
“Mental anguish and games are torture too, you asshole!” Her teeth clicked with how hard she snapped and he went quiet.
With a hard huff of air out her nose, she continued, “You tormented me. You took my things. You lied to me. You tricked me. You betrayed my trust. You left me! And all that, while my goddess was toying with me, making me fear for my life. She stole my fucking bones, Callum.”
He held his breath for a moment, unsure what to say. The words bubbled up in his chest before blurting out, “She stole yer bones?”
Avelina scoffed, tossing her hair lightly.
“Alright, she exchanged them. But she would show up and like, for example, she took my forefinger bone. Snapped it off and replaced it with one of her-her-her-her-uh crown bones, you know? And she’d give me new powers that way.
” All the while, she was waving a finger ringed with thick, coarse thread stitching. When did that happen?
She talked so fast with her shaking hands that it was almost like a skipped record as she searched for the right words.
Her hands were clawed around the space over her head and Callum could only imagine what she meant.
The goddess took her bones? The evil, madness lady took Avelina’s…
bones? His face was a lot louder than he was because Avelina roared with frustration again.
“Do not look at me like that’s the weirdest thing that’s happened to me since you fucking kidnapped me!”
Callum squinted at her. “Isn’t it though?”
“Oh! My! Goddess!” She threw her hands up.
Flinging herself off the rock, she moved toward the thicker grass.
He snatched her by the waist and hauled her back to the boulder.
Avelina’s back hit the stone with a grunt before she finally met his eyes.
Callum loomed over her. His forearm pressed against the heavy megalith over her head, caging her in.
The other hand cupped her side as gingerly as he could.
She was a pissed off rattlesnake. He needed to tread carefully.
“Darlin’—”
His heart stopped when he saw her eyes redden and angry tears well up.
She stomped a foot and jabbed a finger in his face.
“No! No, don’t you dare to try to smooth talk your way out of this.
I want an apology! I want a real, genuine, from the heart, acknowledging everything you did to me, fucking apology.
And I want you to mean it, Callum. Or I walk. ”
Callum furrowed his eyebrows. “Walk where?”
“Anywhere but here. And anywhere without you.” Her fingers snatched up the front of his shirt again.
His heart skipped a beat. Only an inch from her face, he could kiss her and wanted nothing more.
She was boiling point pissed off and he…
was in love with her. It hurt. Stung deep in his chest as he memorized every inch of her face.
Because he just wanted to be back to the way they were, before he threw her to the floor of his bathroom and made her hate him.
How easy it was to be before, when talking to her was like breathing. Where she grew angry and irritated with him, but she gave just as good as she got. Back when he should have said ‘I’ll go with you’.
He loved her so much that Callum swallowed his pride in one big, loud gulp. “Avelina, I’m sorry.”
“Not good enough,” she sniffled, ducking under his arm. Unlike him, his little viper wasn’t a liar. He knew without a shadow of a doubt she’d walk herself to death to get away from him. He’d grown a stiff spine in that lovely back of hers, and it made him proud to see her stick to her guns.
However, Callum couldn’t let her get away. Not when he decided that he couldn’t live without her. Avelina Dalethorn was his burden, his heart, his everything. No one could do right by her, no one else was good enough!
“Now, hold on just a second, will ya?” he bellowed.
Callum shot forward through the grass and snatched her.
She tried to fight. Arms flinging and teeth barred, she got him good across the cheeks with her jagged fingernails.
But Callum threw her into the soft, cushioned grass and pinned her flailing limbs beneath him. “Will you just let a man fuckin’ talk?”
“No!”
“Do you want me to apologize or not?” he snarled.
“No!”
“Avelina!” Callum warned.
“No! No, Callum! I asked you to come with me. Begged you, really! I gave you a chance to be with me, and you threw it in my face!” Her face was a blistered tomato as she thrashed back and forth to get free of him.
Funny, she’s not really fighting all that hard.
Despite her nails digging into his skin and her teeth that would sink into him without a moment’s hesitation, she didn’t even consider using her magic on him.
It filled his belly with angry moths, knowing she was holding back.
“Avelina, please,” he spoke softly and her body stiffened.
Her watery eyes snapped to his face, and he knew she was finally listening.
So, he took it slow. Callum lowered himself till he was only an inch from her nose.
His hair turned into a curtain, blocking out everything but her.
“Little viper, I’m sorry. Alright? I fucked up.
I’m a selfish bastard. I only wanted out.
Yer right, I was miserable. I hated every fuckin’ second being stuck in that swamp.
The second I took over the crew, I realized I didn’t actually want it.
And when I saw you, I thought, ‘this is it, my way out’.
I was gonna use ya to fake my death. And it woulda worked too if… ”
He trailed off, searching her face once more.
Watching that cute lower lip tremble, all pushed out and bitable.
If he let his impulses win, she might actually blast him across the tracks.
But he thought about it, stared at them, considered risking his whole life just to kiss her again while the next few words fell out of his mouth, “If I hadn’t fallen head over tail for ya, darlin. ”
“Don’t say that,” she croaked.