Chapter 10 #2
“No chance. Someone else can take her, and I’ll keep my distance. No way, Antas. Not going to happen.” Dion sounded sharp, and I felt a weird sting of insult and rejection before I told myself I wasn’t too keen on spending more time than necessary with the brooding control freak either.
“I have to admit that I think it would be good for you to do it, Dion.”
“Stop it, Antas. Just let it go.”
“Well, take it to Fig. Maybe you can convince him to reconsider Thain’s offer to look after the woman. He volunteered pretty eagerly.”
Dion turned rigid while the way his arms tightened around me bordered on painful, and maybe I was mistaken, but it sounded as if he growled as soon as Antas mentioned this Thain.
Perhaps Dion had some kind of problem with him?
I needed to investigate in hopes of acquiring some ammunition for my battle against the man I was riding with.
“Don’t look at me like that. Fig wants you to do it. I showed you a viable alternative. It isn’t my fault you don’t like that either.”
“Whatever. The least Fig can do is talk to me himself.”
I chose this moment to yawn and open my eyes. Sitting straighter, I blinked a few times and turned my head to the man called Antas.
He was tall, maybe even an inch or two taller than Dion, and definitely older.
Where Dion appeared to be in his late twenties, Antas must have been around forty—but I’d always been horrendous at guessing people’s ages.
His hair was chestnut brown, and the ends landed just below his shoulders.
When his gaze met mine, I admired his eyes, which were colored in a stunning shade of forest green, and his stubble suggested that he mustn’t have shaved in several days.
The most noticeable feature, though, was his right eyebrow—or rather, the lack thereof.
Instead, a burn scar ran from his forehead down to his temple.
Whatever injury he’d suffered had just missed his eye by inches.
As I’d guessed, Antas looked calm, almost stoic, and carried an aura of reassurance that I immediately liked.
He shifted his attention to me and nodded in greeting. Although he didn’t smile, the absence of the polite gesture didn’t come across as unfriendly, more as if he saved his smiles for special occasions.
“Ah, you’re awake,” Dion said before anyone else could. “Just in time. We’ll be at the caves soon.”
He turned to Antas. “Antas, this is Nayana. Jama, meet Antas.”
The other man’s remaining eyebrow rose a fraction of an inch when Dion used his stupid mystery nickname for me, which made him even more likable in my book.
“Nice to meet you, Antas. Please don’t call me Jama. I don’t know why that one does so. He won’t tell me.”
One corner of the older man’s mouth twitched, and I chalked that almost-smile as a first win. “Good to find you well, Nayana. But I have to excuse myself. I am on scouting duty and will make sure the caves are clear and safe before you arrive.”
Antas didn’t wait for confirmation before he sped up his horse and left us alone again. Was he impolite or just very efficient?
“I guess the two of you are related?” I asked, and Dion frowned at me in surprise.
“How can you tell?”
“Your nose and lips have a very similar shape.”
“He’s my uncle.”
“So, does being an insufferable moron come from your mother’s or your father’s side? Antas must be from the other side of the family.”
“Very funny, Jama. Most of my family is dead. I became who I am completely on my own.”
Dion sounded neutral, but his response made me feel bad. If I’d known that most of his relatives weren’t alive anymore, I wouldn’t have joked about them. “I’m sorry about your family. If you want to talk about it—”
“It doesn’t matter, and it happened a long time ago. I was very young and barely remember most of them.”
“What happened?”
Dion didn’t answer. Instead, he pointed into the distance. “See, the caves are over there. We’ll reach them soon.”
I nodded. Message received: Dion didn’t want to talk about his late relatives. And although I was still mad at him, that was a wish I was able to understand and respect.
At last, we reached our destination and found the hidden caves where we’d previously camped. Surprisingly, Thain and Fig had already arrived, and I wondered how they’d beaten Antas, who only showed up shortly after me.
I managed to divert Nayana’s attention from the two males she hadn’t met yet and parked her together with my luggage in one of the caves to build up camp with Antas.
She agreed without objection, which surprised me.
But one glance at her and the lingering pity in her eyes told me she was still thinking about what I’d told her about my family.
As if I needed any sympathy, especially hers.
She didn’t take her gaze off my back during the whole time I helped set up our quarters for the night.
My uncle and I worked in silence, just as I preferred it.
My eyes shortly connected with Jama’s before I turned away and exchanged a swift look with Antas before stalking into the adjacent cave, where Fig and Thain were deep in conversation.
I ignored the redhead for the time being, even when he smirked at me.
I simply chose not to react to his provocation.
“Fig. Antas mentioned that you’ve requested to talk to me?”
“I’ll leave you two to it. I want to meet the woman we picked up anyway. Maybe I can help her work through some of the trauma she’s surely having after the entire ordeal.”
“Behave, Thain. If you can’t keep it in your pants for one day, you and I will soon have serious problems.” So much for ignoring the redheaded idiot.
I prowled closer to him, no longer willing to tolerate his escapades for much longer. I had more or less overlooked his antics for the longest time, but I finally reached the breaking point.
“Dion,” Fig cut in sharply in warning, and I growled at both of them.
But, of course, I was ignored. “Thain, I need you to gather wood and be on the lookout for Ireas. If he doesn’t arrive soon, you’ll have to ride out and see if you can find him.
You know he has a tendency to get lost, and the last thing we need is another situation like that in Sobara. ”
“I could take the girl with me.”
“Nonsense. She surely needs rest. You can talk to her later.”
“Have fun.” I grinned smugly at Thain, who narrowed his eyes at me.
Thain left with some colorful swear words I chose to ignore. Instead, I switched my attention back to Fig.
“You two should work out your issues soon. I don’t know what will happen in the near future, but no matter what, I won’t accept any infighting on my team. So keep it together, Dion.”
“I’ll keep it together when Thain stops bedding everything with a pulse.”
“Antas said that you didn’t talk much to the girl?”
I was convinced that everyone was out to annoy me today, and it was Fig’s turn when he’d completely ignored what I’d said and changed the topic.
With a lot of mental effort, I avoided showing him my teeth in anger, and I responded with a shrug instead.
“First of all, I had no idea you were expecting me to play storyteller, and secondly, I didn’t want to explain anything to her. ”
I regarded him with feigned indifference before inspecting the fingernails on my right hand. I’d cultivated the impression of being bored and aloof for a long time, and it drove the people around me insane whenever I put on this mask of mine. And in the end, that was their problem.
Fig took a deep breath as if he was trying to calm himself, which was interesting as he was the epitome of self-control—not unlike Antas—and the least affected by me. Had I finally gotten under his skin?
“Your arrogance will be your undoing one day. Maybe you can act like this at home, but here you’re under my command—you better change your cocky behavior and fast. We all can see through you, and by now, I’m not the only one who’s more than a little fed up, Dion.”
I gritted my teeth, but with a lot of effort I reined in the blazing inferno of my temper, clinging to the remnants of my own self-control. “So you want it to be me to tell her?”
“Yes. Also, I’m assigning her to you. You have the least responsibilities at the moment, so it’s time to make yourself useful. And that’s an order from your superior.”
I hated Fig implied I’d been more or less useless so far, and more, I loathed he was pulling rank on me—and most of all, that he was right.
And even if I’d feel like making an effort and fighting his decision, the thought of Jama being entrusted to Thain’s care was absolutely unacceptable.
I might not have liked her, but no one deserved such a punishment.
“Yes, sir. Understood.” For me, our talk was over, and I turned around with the intention of leaving.
“Dion, you aren’t dismissed yet.”
“What?”
My back was still turned to Fig. I heard him approaching, and when he was close, he placed his hand on my shoulder.
“This will be good for you. And even though you’re an annoying bastard most of the time, this mission is better for you than the alternative, don’t you think?
Cutting yourself off from everything isn’t even half of a life lived.
You just have to find the balance, and I think taking responsibility to care for the woman can help you understand that.
Who knows, maybe you’ll even like the person hidden beneath all your attitude. ”
“You sound like Antas.” My uncle loathed that I had an ironclad grip on my emotions—well, until recently at least—although it had made me extremely efficient in the past. But ever since we’d started this mission, my resolve had been gradually eroding, and I hadn’t been willing to dissect that particular fact yet.
Even now, I could feel the impulsivity I’d fought so hard to bury under layers and layers of pure self-control boiling in my veins.