Chapter Ten
Solana heard them before she saw them. Comfortable conversation, casual laughing, horses huffing and stamping.
The castle grounds were calm, the fresh air balmy, the city beyond the gates transitioning from the bustle of day to the anticipation of night.
She wondered what it looked like for them, so close to the castle and all its privilege.
In Qhilli, they rushed to bring in their children and make it to their homes before dark fully fell.
They shuttered their doors and windows and waited until the sun rose and once again banished the muki, along with the lingering fog, back to the Uku Pacha.
They slept fitfully, wondering if that would be the night the muki would learn they could open doors or shatter windows.
Swallowing the last of the arepa, Solana steeled her spine and strode through the wide-open doors of the stable. There were four horses gathered in the large walkway between stalls, and next to them, tightening tethers and adjusting straps, were six people, five of whom she recognized.
Oskar laughing at something Nikolas murmured in his ear.
Cora, with her bright smile and chiming laughter, speaking to the woman that had been the one to bind Sami’s hands.
A balding man stood off to the side with a leather apron wrapped around his generous waist and a drying cloth tossed over a shoulder.
And standing apart from them, a pillar among his peers, was Reyes.
Though his back was to her, she knew it was him by the shine of his hair and the breadth of his shoulders.
She had watched as he rolled them out after cutting her open.
As if it was hard work, being hunched over a body strapped to a table.
The way they moved was a very specific mental image she likely wouldn’t be free of anytime soon, which made her loathe him even more.
Solana cleared her throat to announce herself and held steady as five pairs of eyes swung to meet hers. “You made it!” Cora bounced over and swept up her hands. “I told Reyes you would be here. Come, meet everyone.”
“There’s no need,” Solana told Cora. “That’s Oskar and Nikolas, and I’m not sure what her name is, but I’m finding that I don’t particularly care.”
“The feeling is mutual,” the woman said. She turned her back on Solana and resumed readying her horse.
“That’s Suri, and this is Roiden, the king’s groom.”
The man that Cora pointed to inclined his head to her. “It’s a pleasure to meet you,” he said. Solana paused at his formality and the slight recognition in her chest, but she brushed it off and eyed Reyes.
“You’re late,” he said, arms crossed over his chest as he stepped up to stand shoulder to shoulder with Cora.
Solana shifted back so that she could look him in the eyes without having to crane her neck. “Nobody bothered to wake me.”
“Are you a child? Should we ring a bell to remind you of your responsibilities?”
“Perhaps you can tie a leash around my neck and tug me around,” Solana said. “It seems to work well for you and the king.”
Reyes leaned forward, but before he could say anything, Cora slid between them and placed one hand on each of their arms. “Let’s save the animosity for the true enemy, shall we?
” She walked away and left Solana to face Reyes’s carefully blank expression, but she had seen the disgust and displeasure.
He would have to learn how to tolerate her and she was not going to make it any easier for him.
“You’ll ride with me,” Reyes said. He turned away without sparing her a second glance and forced Solana to trail after him like the dog she accused him of being.
“What do you mean I’ll ride with you?”
“Do you know how to ride?” Reyes tugged at the footholds dangling off the saddle of the large black horse.
It turned and sniffed Solana’s arm. She stepped away before it could nibble on her cloak.
“Can you be trusted to keep your seat if a demon attacks? Can you keep your horse from trampling us if it panics?”
Solana heard someone snort and pressed her lips together.
Once upon a time, she could ride. She had memories of her father leading her pony around the stables, of learning to clean stalls and dress the horse and approach slowly and never from behind.
But it had been twenty years ago, a different life.
“I’ll ride with Cora, then.” But Cora was mounting Suri’s horse with an apologetic smile. Solana gestured at Oskar. “I’m sure Oskar won’t mind sharing.”
Oskar started to sign, but Nikolas pushed his hands away. “She can ride with me,” he offered. His teeth glittered in a bright smile.
“No,” Reyes said, the finality in his tone heavy enough to bruise. “It’s with me, or you walk.”
The five of them were watching her, waiting to see if she would be as difficult as she was sure Reyes had convinced them she was.
It might have been worth it to prove them all right, if only out of spite.
But three hundred ilyas and safe passage out of Supay were guiding her decisions now.
Her spite would have to be swallowed and saved for another time.
“Fine,” she finally agreed. “Let’s get this over with.”
To her surprise, Reyes gestured for her to mount first, which meant he would be at her back, his body wrapped around hers with no way out.
The thought made her stomach churn. She would rather die than show Reyes any hint of fear or hesitation, but the way he watched her made her think that he saw through the mask she donned.
“We’ll meet you at the gates,” Reyes said to the others.
Their horses shuffled out of the stables, rocks and dirt crunching under their hooves, and disappeared around the side.
Solana could feel Reyes at her back and stepped closer to the horse.
It was large, and the leather straps for her foot were higher than she could likely reach, but she had spent all her nights climbing and jumping and solving problems that arose.
Those problems didn’t typically huff and shift.
Something hit the floor at her feet. Solana glanced down to find a small wooden step stool and looked up to see Roiden going back to cleaning saddles.
Beside her, Reyes seemed to be paying more attention to rearranging his weapons than strictly necessary.
They were giving Solana a slice of dignity, of pity.
Without using the stool, she slotted her foot into the leather strap and swung her body up and over the horse. It shifted forward with a snort and Solana gripped its hair with both hands, ready to hang on for dear life if needed.
But Reyes was there, his long fingers stroking the horse’s neck. “Thank you, Roiden. We’ll board them on our own when we return. Go enjoy dinner with your family.”
Roiden grunted a thanks and strode out of the stables. When he was out of sight, Reyes ducked under the horse’s head and stepped up to Solana’s left.
Though she had been watching and waiting, the warmth of him surprised her.
She leaned forward with a sharp inhale and clutched the horse’s hair tighter.
The smell of him—smoky and clean—brought back flashes of him towering over her, his hands on her body, his gift flooding her until she could taste him.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” Reyes murmured. The words, gentle and deep, made her want to stab her dagger into his thigh just to hear him scream like she had. “I won’t ever hurt you again like that unless absolutely necessary.”
“That’s not as comforting as you think it is,” Solana said. “Your necessary is sure to be worlds different than my necessary.”
“Has anyone ever told you that you talk too much?”
Before Solana could respond, Reyes’s leg kicked the horse’s side and it took off, forcing Solana back in the seat and flush against Reyes.
She swallowed her surprise, leaned into the wind, and pretended like she was the one in control.
It was easy to do with the reins in her hands, but only if she ignored the heat of Reyes’s arms around her, the strength of his thighs pressed against hers, the glances from the others as she and Reyes thundered past and they filed in behind.
The gates opened wide enough to let them slip through, and then they were on Sonqo’s main road, storefronts closed for the night flying by on either side.
She knew that farther out toward the coast was where the wealthiest lived, with their luxurious homes that rose above the city, kept away from the main road and the working class that served them.
The road they were on would meander through Sonqo, then Iques, and straight into Qhilli, but it would narrow and thin until it was packed dirt and wet with runoff, indistinguishable from one alley to another in the callejon, where everyone served their city to survive.
Solana wondered where they were going and hated that she hadn’t thought to ask before.
As if hearing her thoughts, Reyes leaned forward and spoke directly into her ear, his hot breath sending a chill down Solana’s spine.
“There were two deaths at the Academy last week. We’ve been looking for their demon forms for a few nights now. That’s where we’re headed.”
The Academy was on the eastern coast of Supay, in the northern quadrant of Iques.
She had never been, but she’d seen it on a map in her father’s rooms. The whole layout of it had been as big as her thumb—almost as big as the castle.
When she was a child, she imagined it was filled with opulence, a verifiable well of knowledge and opportunity that would shape her and her future to a point of perfection.
As an adult, the place never crossed her mind.
She turned her head into Reyes. “Are these the same demons you said were apprehended?” she asked.
“A necessary lie, and a common risk of the Academy.”