Chapter 8 #2
“No,” she said, trying to keep the anger from her voice and failing miserably.
It didn’t help that his lips were twitching in a smile.
She didn’t know what was worse, that he found her irritation amusing, or that even half a smile took his face from undeniably good-looking, to excruciatingly handsome.
Aelia spun back around before she could blush again.
She didn’t need to explain herself to him anyway.
So, they walked in silence, him hovering a few paces back.
The wind rustled the leaves overhead, the noise comfortingly familiar. The rain finally stopped, and the sun climbed high enough to break through the trees, dappling the path in speckled light. Life chattered and scurried all around them, busy preparing for the change of the season.
And all of it was lost on Aelia, her thoughts fixed unwaveringly on the infuriating presence at her heels. No matter how hard she tried to calm herself, to push aside her anger, he’d make some sound or another, and she’d be back to gritting her teeth, resenting every breath he took.
As the morning gave way to afternoon, he sped up a little to draw parallel to her.
“You pointed out yesterday that you don’t know my name. It’s Keeran.”
She ignored him, not interested in small talk with the man who’d held her back whilst her guardian was murdered, irrespective of his name.
“So where are you going in such a hurry?” he tried again.
Aelia slid her eyes over to him, a biting retort on the very tip of her tongue, when she caught sight of his face.
There was no sign of the cruelty she’d been so wary of when she’d first seen him with the flames.
The hard angles of his face seemed to have softened, his expression the most open she’d seen it as he held out a conversational olive branch to her.
Weak, pathetic little sucker that she was, she caved.
“I’m trying to catch up to the Astraea,” she admitted, only aware of how ridiculous she sounded after the words had left her mouth.
She could hardly walk, had nothing but a dagger she had no real clue how to use, and had been pinned against a tree before she’d even left the logging perimeter of her village.
To his credit, he didn’t point any of this out.
“Do you mind if I ask why?”
Aelia sighed through her nose, scrunching her lips as she thought about how best to answer.
“You’re going to try and get your friend.” It wasn’t even a question. When she risked a glance his way, she was surprised to see no trace of laughter on his face. So she nodded.
He was silent for so long she thought the conversation was over and was ashamed and confused by the relief she felt when he finally spoke.
“I want to find them too,” he admitted.
“Mind if I ask why?” she threw back at him.
“Because monsters like that shouldn’t go unpunished.” His irises turned black again, not just their normal dark, but black. She suppressed a shiver.
“And you can do that?” Sure, he looked like one giant walking weapon, but there were a lot of Astraeans with Beserkir.
“I’d like to try.”
It was just her luck that she found herself stuck on the road with a man who either had an ego so inflated that he was delusional enough to think he could take on a whole party of the most lethal predators in Demuto, or who actually could. She wasn’t sure which was worse.
“Why didn’t you when they attacked then?” she asked, leaning more towards the ego theory.
“There were too many, and they had the element of surprise. I need to shuffle the deck a bit if I want a winning hand.”
She was scrutinising his face, trying to get a read on him, when his gaze lifted to hers. If anything had her dropping the ego theory, it was that look in his eyes. It made her feel like there was something else, something other, looking back out at her.
Disconcerted, she glanced quickly away, hoping he’d let the conversation dissolve into silence. No such luck.
“Do you have a plan to free your friend?”
Anger, hot and heavy, reared up inside her again. Mainly at herself for not having a good enough answer, for not having an answer at all, but some of it was directed at him for putting her in a situation where she looked foolish.
Was that fair? No.
Did she care? Also no.
“Not yet.” She side-eyed him, daring him to say something patronising.
“That’s fair. It’s hard to plan until you know what you’re up against,” he said, without looking at her. “If they followed this road, I suspect they passed through Drias last night. We should be able to get a better understanding of where they’re headed there.”
“We?” she spluttered, nearly choking on the word.
It was his turn to side-eye her. “You want to go up against them on your own?” His expression emphasised the silent ‘How well did that work out for you last time?’ tagged on the end.
She didn’t answer, turning to look straight ahead, leaning forward against the weight of her pack. Sanctimonious prick.
It didn’t help that he had a point.
“You’re no good to your friend dead. Which is what you’ll probably end up being if you try this alone.”
“You’re trying it alone,” she bit back, eyes flashing.
“I’m trying not to, but for some reason, you’re being bloody difficult about it.
Something you appear to be particularly good at.
” His eyes flashed too, the anger in his trouncing hers in a heartbeat.
Whatever it was she kept seeing there, it wasn’t good.
It sent shivers down her spine every time she caught sight of it.
“You don’t need to be scared,” he said, surprising her. She had always found it hard to hide her thoughts, her traitorous face an open book for all to read. When she looked back at him, he was himself once more, and she caught just a glimpse of sadness in his eyes before he squashed that too.
“I’m not,” she lied. He snorted.
“You’re a terrible liar.” He smiled at her, his eyes back to a dark brown, the sunlight catching the amber flecks in them. “But I mean it, I won’t hurt you.”
“That sounds like something someone who was going to hurt me might say,” she said, wryly.
“It is a conundrum.” He skirted round a puddle that had formed in the middle of the path. “Don’t say it, and you’re scared. Say it, and you’re still scared but at least I feel better for trying.”
“Maybe stop breaking into people’s houses—”
“I did not break into your house,” he insisted, square jaw set firm.
“Alright, alright,” she said, holding back a smile. It might not be wise to bait him, but the road was straight and boring; what else was she going to do to pass the time?
Aelia certainly didn’t remember agreeing to travel together, but Keeran took it upon himself to assume that he’d convinced her and, to be honest, it would have been foolish to turn him down. Unless of course, her initial wariness proved to be correct, and he ended up murdering her in her sleep.
The forest thinned, the shade beneath the trees that she’d spent her life in giving way to bold rays of sunlight, until the woods disappeared altogether to become the vast plains that stretched all the way to Llmera, the capital.
The long grass seemed to be endless, disappearing into the heat haze that kissed the horizon.
Aelia turned and looked back at her forest, the trees in front of her enormous in their proximity.
The forest spanned for miles behind them until it met the mountain range that jutted from it with unforgiving severity.
The cold ridges sent a shiver down her spine.
She had known that the Jaws of Rach-Mah existed, but they hadn’t been visible from beneath the canopy at Callodosis.
Now they broke free from the horizon, their jagged peaks rearing into the sky to form the impenetrable wall that was the southern border.
The wind rushed over the long grasses, tugging strands of hair loose from her braid. She closed her eyes and savoured the feeling, a familiar caress in the new world she was venturing into.