Chapter Ten The Cleary Wood
CHAPTER TEN
THE CLEARY WOOD
We should not have taken this road,” grumbled Caelan, as though she hadn’t heard him the first time. Dressed like a shadow atop an onyx warhorse he’d addressed as Ciz, Caelan looked more like the All-God of death incarnate than a traveling companion.
Ash appeared small by comparison, the dapple gray stallion practically dancing beneath her, so delighted to be outside the city limits that her backside was starting to bruise in the saddle. Ash had been the one constant in her life, a friend when she had none, a star on her darkest nights.
“The Kraken blood will sail out of Port Talluah in less than eighteen days,” Reya said, every word an exercise in patience.
And that was just an estimate. “It will take us fourteen to get there on this road, and that’s provided there are no delays.
I need time to scope out the ship if I’m to have any chance of going undetected.
Thus, I’m not willing to risk adding an extra day by another road. ”
“For any of that to be relevant, you have to get there alive,” Caelan said as they passed another signpost off the shoulder listing the distances to various destinations. Reya noted how he excluded himself from that foreboding prophecy.
Lavender fields of wild lupine danced in the summer breeze as far as they could see.
They’d passed through the Southgate tunnel just before dawn.
From there, they’d followed the Sovereign Road past open plains, sprawling farms, grand estates, and scenic villages.
Edris had grown small behind them, glinting like a diamond tucked into the snow-capped mountains.
Not only did she have to work around an army of mercenaries, she had to trek halfway across the empire to do it—with him. Reya would be surprised if they managed to reach the coast without trying to maim or kill each other.
“There will be Blood Watchers combing the woods,” Caelan said.
“It was all over the city that they’re looking for someone.
” Reya knew exactly who they were looking for—which was why she’d told Stellene to make for the harbor.
If the Sage had followed instructions, she would be halfway to Delthia by now.
“If we head east at the next village, we can double back to take the Highland Road—”
“No.” The word flew out of her mouth. The Highland Road was steeper and thus less popular, but it would also require them to go through Old Etellina, where she was not prepared to return.
Dragging her nails across her scalp, she quickly smoothed her expression into a more neutral one.
“Blood Watchers stalk the mountains, too,” she said quietly.
Reya had been running from the magic-born bounty hunters all her life.
As if summoned by the thoughts, light curled from her fingertips in time with a sharp ringing in her ears. With a muttered curse, she shoved her hands into her pockets and tried to breathe through the nausea, pretending she was somewhere else, in another body.
The day she’d put on the Kellstone necklace, she’d felt truly human for the first time in her life.
Where a raging sea had once threatened to drown her, there’d been only blissful silence.
Without it, sheer force of will was all she had to smother the power simmering in her core like a pot of water ready to boil over.
If she lost this battle for control, she feared she would never regain it. So she pushed that part of her down deep, burying it with all her worst memories.
Reya could feel Caelan’s gaze on her like the edge of a knife.
She was already exhausted by his superiority as he scrutinized her clammy appearance, the red strands plastered to her forehead with sweat.
She hadn’t eaten anything since emptying her stomach in his chamber pot, something he’d reminded her of twice.
“It’s only going to get worse,” he said.
“I’m fine,” she lied. A cramp twisted in her lower back, though her cycle wasn’t due for weeks. She ignored it.
“You need to train,” he pressed.
“I said I’m fine,” she bit out, and changed the subject. “But if you’re so worried about the route, go back to Edris. I don’t need your protection.”
He made a sound that was halfway between a scoff and a grunt. “You are in more need of protection than anyone on this continent.”
Says the male who’s currently dying. Reya ground her teeth. “Do you know how often I bring clients with me on jobs? You’re only here because the sooner I cure you, the sooner I get my coin back.” And because he’d refused to stay in the capital.
“You think I plan to let you out of my sight, thief?”
Reya was certain he meant “thief” as an insult—so why then did it sound like anything but when he growled the word in that tone of his? The one that said, I could take you to the ground right here and make you beg.
These were precisely the thoughts she didn’t need to be having about this male, much as her body wanted to entertain them. Caelan was a male who needed control, and while that spoke to every part of her, there was only pleasure in surrendering so long as it was earned.
She didn’t care that Caelan didn’t like her.
Liking someone was not a prerequisite for good bed play.
In fact, sharp pleasure was often a fringe benefit of sleeping with someone you disliked.
Getting taken to the ground by Caelan Halcyon would probably lead to the best sex of her life.
But Reya was not about to offer up her desire as another weapon for him to use against her when she was already bleeding.
He’d taken enough from her.
Worse, she was impressed. Caelan Halcyon had done exactly what she would have done, only he’d done it better.
He’d bested her at a game she’d spent the last decade mastering.
But he had no idea what kind of hellcat he’d leashed.
So long as their interests were aligned, she could be patient.
She could use this time to collect information.
She could use his fire as a shield in the same way he was using her to stay alive. She could focus on the job at hand.
Domwell St. Lucius wasn’t just any mark. He had the protection of the king and the wealth and resources to guard his assets. She needed to get on and off that ship without leaving so much as a footprint behind and pawn the blood before St. Lucius even realized it was gone.
Reya flexed the fingers Lennox had snapped in two, letting the fading bruises remind her of all she had to lose. Her brothers would suffer more than broken bones if she let herself get distracted again.
She could do it in fifty-four days. She had to.
They reached the edge of an ancient tree line, and Reya spared one last glance at the mountains she’d been named for. Then she clicked her tongue, murmuring softly to Ash as the evergreen canopy swallowed them whole.
The Cleary Wood was as old as the All-Gods and just as remote, a largely uncharted body separating Rhiterra from the south and the Riverlands to the west. Even its proximity to the Fae border hadn’t stopped the early kings of Rhiterra from ravaging the old growth trees to construct the Sovereign Road along the forest’s spine, the first and only direct route across the continent and the fastest way to Port Talluah.
Minutes dragged into hours, and twilight fell, painting the world in hues of violet.
She didn’t want to be the one to call a halt, didn’t want to let Caelan know just how exhausted she was.
When he finally pulled off the road with a rough “We can stop here for tonight,” she choked back a sigh of relief.
Campsites were scattered along the road for travelers. Judging by the disturbed brush and blackened wood in the stone circle, this one had recently been used.
Reya ignored the pang of longing in her queasy stomach when she saw Caelan’s dinner of bread, cheese, and salted meats. She distracted herself by brushing Ash down in wide circles.
He nuzzled her shoulder, grateful to be free of his bit, then gave her a stern look as if to say, Eat something.
“I’m not hungry,” she muttered. The stallion took the end of her braid between his teeth, tugging her toward her bag, and stomped to drive his point home before wandering off to graze.
Ash had always been different.
One day, I’m going to come home and find that horse sitting at my dinner table, Gwendolyn Connery had muttered once when she’d seen Ash carrying Reya’s basket of eggs back from the chicken coop.
Reya smiled at the memory.
“Get some rest,” Caelan said. “We’ll leave at first light.”
Too tired to object to his command, Reya unfurled her bedroll. But instead of sleeping, she spent the night staring at the sky though the pines, mapping her plans as meticulously as one might chart the stars. She memorized them like her favorite constellations.
When they broke camp before dawn, she hadn’t yet closed her eyes, despite Caelan refusing all her offers to take watch.
Eager to get an early start, Reya forced herself to eat breakfast, ignoring the looming acid in her throat and wishing she’d brought more supplies, if only enough to make a tea that might settle her stomach.
Not ten minutes after they left their camp, Reya yanked Ash to a halt, leapt out of the saddle, and retched up every bite.
Caelan waited for her to finish, blessedly quiet.
Humiliated, Reya wiped her mouth on her sleeve and pushed her sweat-damp hair back from her brow.
Her stomach was empty again, but she felt a little better.
Hours later, it was more than hunger that was bothering her. “Would you stop looking around like you’re readying to kill something?” she snapped when Caelan turned to glance behind them for the third time that minute. “You’re stressing me out.”
When he shifted his predatory focus from the trees to her, she’d never felt more human. “There’s more than just Dread Wolves out there, thief. If I told you all that remained from a time before the Age of Men, you would run screaming into the sea.”