CHAPTER 40 #2
“It’ll be a long, hard run.” Eldreth was at my side again, and his voice was low and steady. “I can carry you if you need it.”
“I can run.”
“Your back—”
“It doesn’t even hurt,” I panted, which was true. The real problem was that I hadn’t been able to keep down food in days. I was surviving on pure adrenaline for now, but as soon as it wore off, I’d be tapped and weak again.
Still, we ran. My pace was stilted as I dodged roots and bramble. Yaego looped back twice and returned clean reports.
“Maybe the boulder did its job,” Ivank muttered to Lispen.
“I don’t know,” she replied.
It must have been hours before Eldreth finally signaled our halt.
By that point, determination alone stopped me from collapsing.
Teke offered me a waterskin, which I drank deeply.
At our side, Raif unhooked two waterskins from his belt and passed one to Lispen.
Around us, others were passing around flasks I suspected contained choirsa along with nut crackers, dried fruit, and hunks of cheese.
Eldreth approached with a grave face and a handful of clean linen strips.
“We should use this rest to wrap your back.”
“Anyone have a spare shirt?” Bale asked from behind me.
“For you or her?” Teke asked. My shirt was wet and sticky against my back.
He shrugged. “Either, I guess.”
“I’ll hook you up,” Lex said, slinging an arm around my brother’s shoulders and leading him away. I didn’t like the grin on his face.
“Serae,” Eldreth said, drawing my attention back to him. There was something worse than pain in his eyes.
I nodded and pivoted, giving him access to my back. A trembling hand grazed over my hip, then slowly, the fabric of Bale’s tunic began to rise.
Eldreth’s sharp intake of breath startled me. Behind me, he dropped to his knees, then both of his hands caressed the skin of my back, working the tunic up higher.
“Incredible,” he whispered.
There was no pain, only the roughness of his bare hands smoothing over my skin.
Next, his mouth was on my back, pressing kisses up my spine.
When he reached my shoulder blade, he rose back to his feet, letting the tunic fall and turning me.
He took my hands in his. Then, one at a time, he raised my sleeves, revealing my uninjured arms. His smile broke my heart, and he brought my hand to his lips and kissed a trail from wrist to elbow, awakening my whole body to his touch.
“You’re healed,” he said. “Thank the Great-fucking-Dragon.”
His hands snaked around my hips, pulling me into him, and fuck if the hardness of his body didn’t set me on fire.
His lips were firm and demanding, and all I could sense was him as he kissed me like his life depended on it.
His fingers delved into my hair, cupping the back of my head.
His tongue danced across my lips, and I opened for him eagerly.
He tasted like warmth and cinnamon and home, and I couldn’t get enough.
His hands found the backs of my thighs, and he lifted me easily as I locked my arms behind his neck and wrapped my legs around his waist. In a few short steps, my back met the bark of a tree, and I remembered the last time he had me in this position.
If he pulled away again, I would die. Instead, he pressed into me, deepening our kiss further.
My need for him was desperate and wild, and I hated his leathers for blocking me from touching every inch of his satin skin.
“Martyrs fucking bones, really, Serae?” Bale’s voice rang out. Others around him chuckled.
“You should see the way they eye fuck each other in our training sessions,” Ivank answered.
Eldreth’s lips against mine slowed, and the heat that was building between us simmered. When we finally separated, I grinned so widely that my cheeks hurt.
“I missed you,” he whispered, placing a last, chaste kiss against my lips.
“We did leave some things unfinished between us.”
He smirked. “Keep talking like that, and we’ll really put on a show.”
“Promise?”
His eyes darkened. I bit my lip, and his gaze tracked the movement. He pulled me in again a few inches, but then his hands released me, and he took two steps away. He looked up at the moon.
It was hard to focus on running again after that, especially as Eldreth led the group, and I had to watch his tight ass and powerful thighs at work.
Fuck, that man’s body is perfect. And in leathers…
We ran for an hour at a time, taking short breaks in between.
The sun rose at some point, and still, there was no coastline in sight.
When morning was fully upon us, we rested to eat.
Lex and a man I hadn’t met both carried packs of supplies, which included fruits and oat bars that they passed around to all.
At first, I assumed the pack produced Bale’s spare tunic until I noticed Lex now wore nothing beneath his leathers.
Bale cut a striking figure in the black tunic, highlighting his dark locks and offsetting the gold in his eyes.
Lex kept shooting him furtive glances, and so did Helene, who had yet to speak much to anyone.
“At this rate, it’ll be dusk by the time we reach the shore,” a man with dark skin and eyes said to Eldreth. His blond hair was braided in three sections. “If we split up our strongest into shifts, we should be able to sail quickly through the night.”
Eldreth nodded. “Agreed. Thank you, Sellan.”
I looked again at the group, picking out the ones I recognized from the manor and Eldreth’s mixed training session, now that I could analyze them more closely.
So, this is Eldreth’s ranng. They were the first group I’d heard using his name instead of Wep, and they had an obvious camaraderie between them.
He caught me staring at him, and the corner of his lip quirked up. He crossed his arms, left over right, and his eyes lingered on mine. Then, he turned back to Sellan, who was grinning. They continued their conversation in hushed tones.
Raif approached them to get orders. He cast a glance over his shoulder back our way, and his eyes softened. Eldreth smirked as he watched, then snapped his fingers. Raif turned back to them with a blush staining his face.
I turned to Lispen, whose face was just as red as she stared at the ground. Teke, at her side, was nibbling the last bits of their fruit. They had rolled up their black sleeves despite the early winter chill and wore a black cloth to hide their white-blond hair.
“I can’t thank you enough for coming for me.” I meant it more than I could express.
“Don’t be stupid,” Teke said. “You’re part of our ranng.”
“Was there much trouble?”
Lispen frowned. “No. It was all easier than expected. Doesn’t feel right.”
“Quit baiting the dragon,” Lex interjected. “We got out, and that’s what matters. What I want to know is why you never told me about this absolute treat of a brother you have.”
“She thought I was dead,” Bale cut in from behind me.
“Ah, right.”
Bale threw a wink at me as he nudged my knee and claimed a piece of the log beside me. He leaned in and lowered his voice. “I see it between you two.”
“What?” I asked.
“That…fire. I never saw it between you and Tam. Friendship, sure, but not this.”
“Oh.” A blush crept up my face as I tried very hard not to smile.
“You’re lucky to have found it.”
“When did you become such a sap?”
He laughed, and the tiniest tint of mint green hope licked through the white flames taking over his lifelight. “Let’s just say a lot has happened since I was sent away.”
“When we get back, I want to know everything. You’re coming with us?”
His grin dimmed. “If your prince will let me. I can’t go home now—Father will lock me up again or chuck me back to the army. I pushed him too far, for all the good that did.”
I placed a hand on his knee. “It wasn’t your fault.”
He grunted. “Plus, I can’t leave you now. Who else will keep you two in check?”
Gerta chuckled, joining our group. She bypassed the logs, sitting on the leaf-strewn forest floor. My heart was full, seeing her again with Bale at my side and Eldreth nearby.
“Let them have their fun,” she said, beaming at me. “They’ve certainly waited long enough for it.” She unwrapped a perfectly round bun from a scrap of cloth and bit into it.
“Where did you get that?” I cried.
Teke burst out laughing.
When all had eaten their fill, we walked for a quarter hour before moving back into a jogging regimen. My muscles screamed with exhaustion, but I pushed myself on. It was past dusk when we finally emerged from the trees with the shoreline in sight.
“Shit! Eldreth!” Yaego, whose name I had learned over our lunch rest, shouted.
“I see it,” he responded, rushing forward at full sprint.
I ran several more yards before my eyes rationalized what I was seeing in the fading light. At least ten dark forms dotted the pebbled shoreline. There was no lifelight around them.
They were bodies.