Chapter 39
Cold, empty, and tired. Still so, so tired.
That’s how I feel when I wake again.
I look toward the entrance and see a dark body still blocking it. They must have switched again in the night.
Hushed voices sound from around the corner. Even though my body is protesting, I stand and walk toward them.
When I round the corner, Raef, Meela, Rhydra, and Gaethri all turn their eyes on me.
“Stop looking at me like that,” I tell them. They’re looking at me like… I’m some hero. I don’t like it.
“You saved all of us,” Rhydra states. “You’re a warrior.” Then she subtly dips her head.
“I can barely hold a sword,” I scoff.
“There are many different kinds of warriors.” She looks at me with something like respect in her eyes. And a look that warns me that I better not argue with her again.
“That was truly badass,” Raef adds, nodding in agreement.
Meela walks up to me, surprising me as she hugs me gently.
It’s strange at first, but then I wrap my arms around her, and my hold gets tighter and tighter as I realize I almost lost her.
“Okay,” she mumbles against my hair, trying to pull away.
I hold on for another moment, then finally release her.
“What happened?” I ask. A very broad question, as there are many things that went wrong, and many gaps I still don’t have filled.
Rhydra starts to speak first, and I notice a large chunk of her hair gone as she looks sideways at Meela. There’s also a large section of her uniform burnt off down the same side along her arm. I see very minor burns on her exposed skin. “Well—"
“Wait…” I cut her off and walk closer, inspecting her. “You need a healer.”
She shrugs. “Put some ointment on it from the medicine bag you packed. It’s working wonders. I should be fine.”
Now that I look closer, it does seem to be starting the healing process already.
“Too bad there’s nothing for that hair,” Raef says, making a face and looking at the very large, singed chunk on half of her head.
Meela smacks him in the chest.
“What? It looks badass, actually. I was just making a joke. Lightening the mood.”
Rhydra has a knife in her hand so quickly I didn’t even catch where she pulled it from, then she holds the other side of her long, wild mane, and she slices it off. She flashes a smile toward Raef. “There. Now it’s even.”
“Not quite,” he says, stepping closer. “Here, let me.” He pulls out his own knife as he approaches her, holding it toward her hair.
“Get that thing away from me.”
He halts, putting his arms up like he’s offended. “I was just going to help.”
“Well, what a nice sentiment. But not a chance.”
“Here...” Meela steps forward, glaring at Raef as she passes him. “May I?”
Rhydra nods, then sits. Meela pulls her red curls back and attempts to line up the cut and dispose of the blackened, dead chunks.
“Anyways,” I say. “What happened with you two?” I glance toward Meela and Rhydra. Meela’s eyes are narrowed in concentration as she works on her.
“We didn’t see much on the walk down. A few skeletons long dead, most of them burned.
Then there was a tangle of vines we ran into that blocked the entire passage.
So I thought maybe I’d just… burn them away.
Clearly, that didn’t work. And that’s pretty much it until we saw you and you saved our asses. ”
“So you never saw what was beyond that?”
She shakes her head. “I have a feeling it was nothing of value. And if it was a beast like what Gaethri and Raef fought, it would have found us in the night once we unleashed it, I think.”
I whip my head toward them in alarm. “A beast?”
Raef waves a hand in dismissal. “It was nothing.”
Gaethri grumbles. “Nothing? How about a large, winged creature three times my size that can’t fly but has sharp spikes along his damned wings! Almost took my eye.”
Now that he mentions it, there is a red scratch from his hairline down to his cheek. I wince.
I feel a warm presence behind me all of a sudden, and my heart skips before I look back. Then I finally turn, meeting Daegan’s gaze. So much passes between us in the shared look, but for now I simply smile softly, and so does he. We made it out alive with the sword, and that’s all that matters.
“It turns out, those vines were only meant to be cleared by dragon fire,” Raef says as he watches Daegan stand by my side, just a hair behind me, with his arms crossed.
“Yours was blocked by it too?” I ask.
“No. We never tried to torch them because all we had waiting for us at the end was that fucking creature in a dark corner. Of course you two got the glory of finding the sword.” He rolls his eyes, eyeing the sword that’s now strapped to Daegan’s back.
Daegan clears his throat. “It’s morning. We shouldn’t waste any more time in this cursed cave.”
“Agree,” Meela concurs, finishing Rhydra’s hair. It now sits just above her shoulders and is even fuller than before.
“Cute,” I nod.
Rhydra flashes me a disgruntled glance.
I smirk.
I turn and realize that Daegan’s chest muscles are on full display, with only the straps of his holsters crossing his perfectly chiseled muscles. At least he’s wearing his pants.
I clear my throat, holding his shirt out to him. His shirt I’ve been clutching onto since I woke up. “Here.”
Everyone seems to pass us in an awkward silence, leaving us behind like they’re intentionally giving us a moment alone.
“Thank you,” he says as he grabs his shirt. He has to unstrap some things before he can put it on, so I stand awkwardly in front of him as I watch him do it.
“For returning your shirt?” I chuckle. “You’re welcome.”
“No,” he grunts as he pulls it over his head. Then he locks eyes with me again, his gaze steady. “You saved us all. You were… incredible.”
I shrug. “I had no choice.”
He looks at me with a hint of amusement as he shakes his head, taking me in. And then his face grows serious again as he reaches out a hand and grabs mine, pulling me closer. “I was so worried about you.” His voice is low and gravelly now.
“I’m fine.”
He nods. “I know that now.”
His other hand reaches out to tuck a strand of hair behind my ear, and then he gently cups my chin, tilting my face up as he looks in my eyes with a hundred emotions swirling in his.
My breath catches. Everything about him throws me into a storm of emotions and desire and things I can’t put a name to. It’s maddening. I want his lips on mine again. I want all of him.
He leans in as my heart begins to race, and this time his lips touch mine so softly I almost miss it. I close my eyes, savoring the feel of his mouth against mine, his breath against my lips as he pulls away just a little.
I open my eyes and meet his gaze. He pulls me into his chest, hard, like he doesn’t want to let go. I breathe him in as I wrap my arms around his rock-hard torso, and he kisses the top of my head. What I really want is to be ravaged by him, but now isn’t the time.
And then suddenly, I remember everything between us and I get a little heated. I pull away from him, pushing off his chest with a little bit of force that makes him look at me with confusion.
“What’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong?” I repeat. “What’s wrong is that I’ve practically thrown myself at you several times, even jumped into your lap uninvited, and you’ve rejected me each time. And now what? What even is this? You’re acting like you care about me and you’re kissing the top of my head?”
My hands are now fists at my side, anger rising in me.
“I do care.” Wisely, he stands back, giving me more space from him while I unload.
“Forgive me, but that’s news to me. And honestly, I’m a little tired of the games.”
“It’s not games. It’s… complicated.” He rubs a hand along his jaw.
“It’s really not all that complicated. I’ve been right here this whole time. I don’t know why it’s such a dilemma for you, some internal battle you’re always having within yourself, but I’m tired of it being at the expense of my feelings. I can’t… I can’t get more attached. You’re leaving…”
“Elle, it’s hard to explain, but since the day I—”
“Hey!” Raef is hollering at the end of the tunnel. “We really should get going. You can have your lovers’ quarrel later.”
I glare at Daegan once more before storming past him toward the exit.
When we emerge from the dark cave into the gray sky of the outside, we find everyone waiting for us.
Somehow, the horses are still there. Even though a lot of the trees nearby are badly charred.
“We protected them,” Raef says proudly, seeing the wonder on my face as I look them over. He folds his arms with his chest held high.
“Thank you guys for protecting all of us last night,” I say.
“No one fucks with our transportation,” Raef announces proudly.
I laugh.
“Did anything else come?” I ask, avoiding eye contact with Daegan and glancing at the trees again.
He dips his chin a little. “Daegan took out a pack of maliths.”
Gaethri raises his eyebrows in surprise. “A pack of them? That easy?”
Daegan gives Gaethri a tight-lipped, curt nod.
“Okay. Let’s get back to the inn. I’m starving.” Meela climbs onto her horse, ready to leave.
Most of us ride in silence. I remain by Meela the entire ride, not once looking behind me.
“I know what you two did…” I confess.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Please. I may be na?ve about the world, but I’m not an idiot.”
She grins to herself.
“Okay. Busted. You two simply needed a little nudge, okay? It’s exhausting for us, having to watch you two pine over each other yet do nothing about it.”
I roll my eyes, mostly because I’m currently very annoyed with him. “I can’t believe you’d actually share a room with Raef for me.”
“Oh. I didn’t. The inn wasn’t sold out. That was a lie.”
“I know. But you really got your own room? I thought maybe…”
She shakes her head. “No.”
“Okay…”
Part of me is starting to think she might need a little nudge of her own, but I won’t push it. For now. I respect people’s boundaries, unlike others I know.
We make it back by midday.
When we enter the Dothron Inn, the innkeeper’s eyes widen when she sees us. She’s the same one as before. She rushes over to us, appearing eager.
“I thought… when you didn’t return yesterday before nightfall, I thought the worst…” Her eyes are wide with wonder.
“We managed to survive the night in the caves. Thank you for your guidance.”
She looks at us with much more respect than she did the morning before, when we set off on our journey.
We book rooms for the night again, figuring we won’t make it to the next inn in half a day’s ride. There’s also the issue of figuring out where we’re going next. What the plan is. No one has mentioned it since we retrieved the sword. Not that I know of, anyway.
After Meela gets our key, Daegan steps up to the counter. I’m already turning away to go with her when I hear him request one more room. I hear the quick exchange of currency and the key before he catches up to me, pulling me by the waist and stopping me.
“Where do you think you’re going?” he asks.
“With Meela…” I look back and find she’s left me behind.
“No,” he says, folding his arms.
My mouth hangs open in confusion. “No?”
“I don’t care how mad you are at me right now. You’re sleeping with me by your side tonight. And every night for the rest of the journey. I’m not letting you out of my sight again.”
I’m mad at him, I have to remind myself. It’s highly annoying that his demanding words have sent a spark through me, awakening something inside me again. I narrow my eyes at him, fighting the feeling. “Excuse me? You don’t get to decide that.”
“Just admit it Elle,” he says, his voice lowering. He leans in close to my ear. “You like sleeping with me just as much as I like sleeping with you.”
Fuck him.
He’s right. I do. But he doesn’t get to know that right now. I’m still mad at him, and he doesn’t get to pretend that I’m not.
I stand back, crossing my arms. “I’m good, actually.”
A smug, infuriating grin lights his face.
I scowl at him and turn away.
“Go spend some time with Meela,” he says as I walk away from him. “But I’ll be by to get you before bedtime.”
I turn my head and glare at him one more time before I catch her in the hallway. Who does he think he is? That smug bastard. He looks at me with a roguish, confident grin.