Chapter 17 #2
At that, Daegan flicks his gaze to me, then to Raef again. Considering. Finally, he reaches for his flagon and holds it up. And now they’re both watching me, waiting.
I roll my eyes. “Yeah, you as a wraith would have been truly insufferable. I’ll toast to avoiding that.”
Raef laughs as our drinks collide, then we all take a long sip. The cold ale hitting my mouth and washing down my throat feels like the hard-earned relief of surviving everything that we did today. I drink more.
And more.
I finally set it down when it’s nearly gone, only to find Raef and Daegan watching me. Raef with a smug grin, and Daegan with… whatever he does.
I shrug. “It was a rough day.”
I don’t like the way Daegan is assessing me, the way his eyes are slightly narrowed like he’s trying to figure something out. He does that a lot.
“What?” I ask.
He takes another sip, and I watch his long neck twitch as he swallows.
I’ll wait, I guess.
He sets the glass down, folds his arms over the table, then looks into my eyes. “You’ve never been in any sort of danger like that before, have you? Have you ever used your powers to do anything besides make a bath or fill a canteen?” he asks in that smooth tone of his.
“Just the time an asshole of a dragon held a knife to my damn throat,” I spit back, meeting his gaze with more menace.
He doesn’t flinch, doesn’t look angry. If anything, his gaze… softens. Which makes me madder. “That body you saw the other day… it was your first? You vomited… you were shaken.”
Now I flinch. The image appears clearly again like it never left. It reminds me how I’m in over my head. I wasn’t raised for this. I’m not a warrior. I’ve never seen death.
Well, I suppose I have now.
And look how well I’ve taken it.
“I’m sorry,” Daegan says in a low voice. He might actually look sincere. His eyes are softer than usual. But which part he’s apologizing for, I don’t know.
I shake my head and bite my lip, looking away.
The adrenaline from the day is wearing down, the reality of everything setting in.
I was too focused at the time to realize it, but I felt true terror in those moments when I thought Raef was possibly dead.
My eyes begin to water, and I curse myself for being so weak.
I blink, trying my absolute hardest to breathe and make it go away before a tear falls in front of them.
There’s no way they’ll still want to help me if they realize how truly unprepared I am for all of this.
I shouldn’t have drank the ale. Historically, I tend to lean into my sadness when I drink it. It’s never a great idea. That’s why I usually go for pink wine. But I was already feeling all of these things, the ale just heightened it. And made it harder for me to put on a brave face.
“Why do you want to do this?” Daegan asks softly, his voice gentler than I’ve ever heard him.
“I don’t know,” I whisper, my eyes still locked in on some people dancing across the room. They’re simply blurs of motion, though. He doesn’t push, allowing me to have a moment.
“Okay,” Daegan finally says, his tone shifting. “If we’re going to trust each other completely, let’s share some things.”
“We’ll never trust each other completely…”
“Well, as much as we can,” he counters. “Because I think this… quest depends on it.”
“So you guys are going to… help me?”
Daegan turns toward Raef, and it seems an entire conversation passes between them in a flash. Then it’s Raef who turns to face me again. “I don’t think any of us has much of a choice. The witch sort of solidified this alliance, didn’t he?”
“There’s always a choice,” I mutter.
“Then… we’re choosing,” Raef declares.
“What do you say, princess?” Daegan folds his large biceps and watches me with a steady gaze as he awaits my response.
My mouth is slightly agape with shock as my gaze dances between the two former nemeses turned… allies?
And yet, an effortless, “yes” falls out of my mouth.
Daegan offers a slightly surprised nod. Raef beams.
“Okay. So, what kind of sharing are we talking?” I ask.
“I’ve never been in love,” Raef announces dramatically, holding a hand to his chest and winking at me.
I laugh. He’s full of shit. And as I grin at him, he winks.
“Raef,” Daegan says, rubbing a hand on his jaw.
“What?” Raef replies. He knows exactly what. I may still loathe Daegan a little, but I’m enjoying watching the dynamic between them unfold. Raef pushes Daegan on purpose, and I have to say, I think he needs it.
He simply side-eyes him and shakes his head, just barely.
“Neither have I,” I announce, winking back at Raef. I don’t know why I said that out loud. For some odd reason I’m starting to feel giddy, rather than sad. I should probably get some food into my belly.
Daegan’s gaze flicks to mine, and that heavy-lidded intense stare is back. He doesn’t find it funny, apparently. I’m sure he’s far more experienced than me, in every sense of the word.
All of it suddenly makes me feel self-conscious. He must see me as an innocent little flower that needs protection. I can’t fight, I’ve never seen most of the world, and I’d bet he can somehow tell that I’ve also never had a male in my bed. Or a female.
For some reason, though, he’s willing to trust me and even work with me as allies. I’m not sure why. Maybe they think I know even more than I lead on.
Daegan clears his throat and looks away, and an awkward silence settles over the table.
At last, the innkeeper returns with our steaming, delicious smelling food, and we all perk up again.
There’s hardly any chatter as we scarf it down, and the lightheadedness I was starting to feel from the ale is subsiding.
He returns to clear our plates, and we wait for our dessert with excitement. Raef and I do, anyway.
“Just wait. I came here with my father when I was younger, I still remember that delicious taste on my tongue,” I tell Raef.
He smirks.
Daegan glances at me as he leans back in his chair, saying nothing, of course.
“Do you ever smile?” I ask.
“Yes,” he says simply. With a straight face.
“He does,” Raef says, nodding. “I mean, you won’t find him strutting around Torrynth with a grin on his face for no reason as he takes a leisurely jaunt around the town square, but… he does.”
I laugh as the scene unfolds in my mind, then I take a sip of my second serving of ale that Raef talked us into during our meal. I was in a state of such bliss to finally have hot food in my stomach that I couldn’t refuse.
I glance between the two of them. My new allies. The ones I need to trust, and who I’m realizing I want to trust me. “No one else has ever even tried. In over a thousand years. Not that I’ve ever heard of, anyway.”
Daegan, realizing I’m about to say something important, leans in.
“What are we talking about?” Raef asks, sipping on his third drink.
“The witch…” Daegan starts.
“Besides the mystery person who killed the witch, yes. No one has tried this way, that I know of.”
“Many people have forgotten, you know.”
I stare at Daegan. “What?”
“It’s been a thousand years. To some, this is just the way the world is.
Not everyone has access to the biggest library on the continent.
In some regions, the knowledge of the world before the curse has been lost to time.
Or it’s a bedtime tale parents tell their children, not realizing how true it is. ”
“I…” I’m dumbfounded. “I had no idea…”
“Yeah…” he looks away, mindlessly watching the room.
“Okay, what happened with the witch?” Raef asks.
Daegan clears his throat, taking the lead on this one.
“The witch Ethmarel. The one who cast the curse all those years ago. After they won the battle at Torrynth, thanks, in large part, to the water elemental elves.” His gaze flicks to mine for a moment before he continues.
“The elf king Oshenor convinced her to cast the curse. How? I don’t know.
It’s said that she was desperately in love with him, and he manipulated her into serving him.
” He shakes his head. “He kept her close at his side for hundreds of years after that, until she outlived him. Not long after that, a random, nameless Dothronite killed her. It’s thought that they believed it would break the curse, but alas, it remained. ”
He glances at me again, and I nod. “Yes. That’s pretty much it. But no attempts to break it another way have ever been documented or heard of.”
“It’s possible that if an elf king were to hear any whisperings of that, he’d have it stopped immediately,” he raises his brows at me just a hair, and I feel the warning there. “Not to mention, it wouldn’t be in his interest to record any such attempts. It could give people ideas. Hope.”
I nod my head thoughtfully. “True, but you’d be surprised how unmotivated everyone in my kingdom has become.
They’re comfortable. Lazy. The curse is all any of us have ever known, and I believe it’s not even a thought for most of them anymore that there used to be a different world.
A…better world. I mean, we’re aware of the history, unlike what you told me of other regions, but…
no one cares. I’ve been exploring that library since I could read, and I’ve never found any hint of an attempt.
And no one even bothers to sensor any of it anymore.
We’re… arrogant. There used to be scholars who dedicated their time to studying the curse…
they all gave up long, long ago. No one cares anymore. ”
Raef and Daegan both make a face, but they don’t comment. Of course they think we’re arrogant, and probably much worse. It’s why Daegan hates me so much.
“Why didn’t the original elf king simply have the items destroyed forever? Seems like it would solve all his problems,” Raef remarks.