Chapter 21 Ride
Ride
Call me spoiled, but I have never slept on a cot before and it goes as well as I imagined it would.
I toss and turn to find a comfortable position, but one does not exist. Not long after I retreat, I hear Jasmeen enter the tent.
If she sees my struggle, she does not comment.
Soon, I hear her deep, steady breaths, and count them as if counting sheep.
It helps somewhat. Eventually I fall into a restless sleep.
It is at least dreamless. When that violet-orange ombre peeks through the crack of our tent entrance with the dawn, I sit up, abandoning all pretense that sleep may take me again.
I lace my boots and exit the tent. It appears most of the nearby campers are still passed out.
There are very few fae moving around. Several lie unconscious on the hard ground, exposed to the elements, like they partied too hard and couldn’t care less where they crashed.
I make my way to the edge of the forest and relieve myself behind a tree.
I’ve never gotten to piss outside before this trip, and it’s oddly freeing.
By the time I return to our tents, Glo is awake too and has retrieved a fresh pail of cold water.
We take turns splashing our faces with it. It’s refreshing.
“How did you sleep?” Glo asks with a yawn. It’s contagious and I mirror her.
“Not well,” I admit, stretching my arms high above my head.
Glo breaks some leftover bread and slathers green jelly on a piece for me before fixing one for herself.
We share my big rock, our shoulders almost touching as we sit side by side in a strange but comfortable silence.
We watch our neighbors as they begin to rise and stir, some life returning to the surrounding campsites.
Everyone appears quite haggard in the glow of the morning’s copper light.
A lanky sprite—a faerie-like Sanc with insectile features that Brynn pointed out to me in Mayhem—emerges from a nearby tent and emits a loud yawn that sounds more like a chorus of cricket song.
Glo waves at them when they notice us staring.
Despite her threats and how unmistakably terrifying she can be, Glo has grown on me overnight.
All it took was entrusting me with her secret crush and displaying her extreme loyalty for Brynn.
I appreciate her bluntness. I think she’s warming up to me, too.
“I would kill for a bath,” I admit after some time. Glo chuckles.
“Well, no killing required. The next rest area is an actual inn. With beds and washrooms. We’ll be able to wash up and have a real meal.”
I groan in exaggerated excitement and she smiles. “How far is today’s ride?” I ask with a mouthful of half-stale bread.
Brynn emerges from their tent, the sudden movement drawing my attention.
He is, once again, shirtless. He runs one hand through his messy locks, clutching a tunic in the other.
I choke. Glo thumps me hard on the back with an impish snort.
I stare at the dirt before my feet, finally swallowing the bite of leaden bread, as Brynn slips his tunic on.
“Good morning,” he says with a stifled yawn, oblivious. “How’d you both sleep?”
“Like shit,” I grumble thickly at my boots. Glo nods in agreement.
“Thea was just asking how long today’s ride would be,” Glo says. It is kind of her not to dwell on my suspicious coughing fit.
“Ah. It’s probably about six hours. Five if we keep a good pace. Either way, we will stay the night at Blackwood Inn. The next leg is much longer, so we’ll need a decent rest tonight.”
I’m tasked with waking Jasmeen. She sleeps like a rock. It takes some shaking, but she at last opens her eyes. I wonder if she’s accustomed to sleeping on uncomfortable cots like this.
“Rise and shine, Jas,” I say in mock cheer. “At least one of us slept well.”
Jasmeen sits up, stretching. “I can sleep anywhere,” she admits, and I recall how she fell asleep sitting upright against my back yesterday.
We gather our belongings in silence. When we exit the tent, Glo is busy checking that the coals of our campfire are fully extinguished. She offers a dazzling smile to Jasmeen, who returns it with one of her own. Brynn is nowhere to be seen.
“Vir went to retrieve and prepare the veilmane. He’ll meet us back at the path,” Glo says perceptively. She wears a smug expression. When I squint at her, she smirks.
Not long after, the three of us make our way to the main trail through the quiet—in stark contrast to last night—rest area.
We approach as Brynn finishes saddling the veilmane.
He pats Shadow’s large head, holding out a treat of pink sugar cubes under their nose.
He offers a handful to Moon next with an endearing smile.
I glance around for the goblin with the helpful block, but no luck. I step toward Jasmeen and Moon, extending a hand to help her mount.
“Actually, Thea,” Jasmeen says, and I freeze, my muscles tensing in knowing anticipation. “Do you mind if I ride with Glo today? I would love to pick her brain about conjuration.” She pauses, gnawing on her bottom lip. “The more I know about magic, the more prac—”
Jasmeen stops over-explaining, thanks to the dumbstruck gape of my mouth. I turn to find Glo grinning from ear to ear. Brynn has the common sense to appear indifferent, but his jaw twitches as though he stifles a laugh.
I nod once, swallowing my pride.
“Great!” Glo says, all but pushing me out of the way to help Jasmeen mount. She climbs into the saddle behind Jasmeen before I regain the ability to formulate thoughts. I loiter around Moon’s backside, working to compose my face, before trudging over to Brynn and Shadow. He raises his brow at me.
“I will not complain,” I say stubbornly, so that only he hears me, “because I know how much a ride with Jas means to Glo.”
“Oh? I can walk if you’d prefer,” he says. He does not bother hiding his wry amusement now.
“Don’t be daft,” I huff. “Your legs may be long, but it would take a week to get there. I am desperate for a bath.”
He chuckles and offers his hand.
“Wait—can I sit behind you?” I blurt. I do not like the idea of his hands around my middle, my backside squeezed between his thighs against his—my cheeks redden at the thought.
He cocks an eyebrow, his horns a bit lopsided with the movement.
“It will make me feel like I’m in control… I’m touching you, not vice versa,” I say too honestly.
“You prefer to be in control?” he asks, a wicked grin playing at the corner of his lips. “Guess I won’t complain, either.”
I gape at him, feeling as though the breath has been sucked from my lungs with a thin straw.
Without another word, Brynn puts a boot into the stirrup and swings his other leg over Shadow.
He offers his hand again, effortlessly pulling me up behind him.
I situate myself, keeping an inch or two between our legs.
But the second Shadow lurches forward, I’m forced to grasp the back of Brynn’s tunic to steady myself.
I squeeze my thighs against the saddle to avoid sliding forward.
“Comfortable?”
I can hear the smile in his voice.
“Not particularly,” I mutter to myself, knowing he hears me all the same. He mumbles something that sounds a lot like stubborn.
Brynn gestures for Moon to lead again, and Jasmeen, who holds the reins, obliges.
Glo’s hands sit comfortably low on Jasmeen’s hips.
Glo beams. She shakes a glittery red curtain of hair over a shoulder, and I am struck by the way it catches in the light.
They are already deep in enthusiastic conversation.
It would warm my heart if I wasn’t so ill-tempered from exhaustion.
“I don’t mean to be forward, Thea,” Brynn says after a half hour or so of awkward silence. “But you will be extremely sore tomorrow if you don’t just relax your legs.”
He’s right. My thighs already ache from the strain of keeping an inch of space between us.
I huff, but release, scooting forward into his back.
A relieved sigh escapes me involuntarily and Brynn chuckles.
Now that we sit close, that curious static electricity of our bond is warm and inviting—like a soft hum at every point that our bodies meet.
Maybe I could loosen my… rigidity. I trust Brynn enough—though I’ll likely never admit it to him. But he tenses quite dramatically when I at last yield, relaxing my arms and daring to wrap them around his waist. I might as well have shouted his true name.
“What?” I ask hesitantly into his back.
“Nothing,” Brynn says, relaxing somewhat. A tingle pulses on my wrist from our invisible link, and I wonder if he too senses it. Perhaps it stirs from our proximity.
After another half hour, it becomes a great effort to keep my eyes open.
Several nights of shallow sleep are catching up with me.
I rest my cheek on Brynn’s back between his shoulder blades.
He does not protest. I squeeze tighter around his midsection each time I slip into that odd sensation of falling.
Brynn must notice whenever I jolt awake, because by the third or fourth time it happens, he speaks.
“You can sleep if you’re comfortable,” he says over his shoulder, his tone unreadable. “I’m not going to let you fall.”
That is all it takes. As a precaution, I twist my hands into a wristlock around his middle. The warm buzzing envelopes me, settling like a lullaby in my bones. I wade into the dark waters of sleep at once.
“Thea? Thea. Thea! THEA.”
I awake with a start to Glo yelling and pinching my leg. I am still clutching Brynn—embarrassingly so. My arms are folded so tightly around his middle that it’s a wonder he didn’t complain. I let go and he exhales a light chuckle of relief. Glo stands below us, between Shadow and Moon.
“You didn’t have to pinch her, Glo,” Brynn scolds.
Glo shrugs and winks at me. She offers a hand to steady me as I peel myself from Shadow’s saddle with no dignity whatsoever. Once I’m grounded, she walks around Moon to rejoin Jasmeen. Brynn dismounts and stands before me, stretching out his long legs.
“Why didn’t you wake me yourself?” I demand, still groggy. I don’t even know how long I was asleep.
“You were really out,” he says. “And your death grip? Surprisingly tight for a mortal.”
“I—I’m—sorry,” I stutter, staring at my boots.
“Don’t apologize,” he says. “We’re about an hour and a half out now, but Jasmeen and Glo needed a break. I easily could’ve continued like that.”
My gaze snaps to his face. His neck and chest are flushed, and he wears a pinched look of confusion, as though surprised his mouth betrayed him. I cannot suppress a smile. Despite my efforts to play angry, I am not. I needed that nap.
I pardon myself for a break too, if only to compose myself.
Now that I am not weighed down by exhaustion, my thoughts are clearer.
My mind drifts to the riddle and what Brynn said about the second line.
As if struck over the head, I recall the new lines.
I was so distraught and distracted when I discovered them yesterday that I did not study them.
I barely remember what it said—other than mentioning Vir and fear, and something about if I don’t act, what I love will disappear?
That’s the basic gist, I think. I vow to refresh my memory once we arrive at Blackwood Inn.
I return to find my companions already mounted and ready to depart.
This time, Jasmeen sits behind Glo, who has kindly glamoured her wings away.
Brynn mouths I tried. My brow furrows at this, knowing he cannot lie.
I guess he’d prefer not to ride with me.
But I don’t protest when he reaches a hand down to help lift me up behind him.
We return to the forest trail, again following along behind Moon, Glo, and Jasmeen—who somehow haven’t exhausted all conversation topics after hours of travel.
After a few minutes, without asking for permission, I coil my arms around Brynn’s waist and rest my head again.
With my ear against his back, I hear him mumble what sounds a lot like infuriating and not fair.
“Excuse me?” I say, sitting up straight. I remove my arms from his waist, placing my hands atop my own thighs. “I won’t touch you either if you don’t like it.”
Brynn makes a noncommittal noise but does not speak.
“I think asking you not to manipulate me with touch drives you mad. I think it only makes you want to touch me more,” I tease before I can bite my tongue.
He shrugs. “Who’s to say you won’t manipulate me with your touch? I confess—I don’t think I’d stop you. Manipulate me all you want, Thea.”
There goes my stomach—it flips and is almost left on the trail behind us as Shadow glides along.
My cheeks burn crimson and I’m glad he can’t see my face.
But when he laughs, the sound low and smug, I know he hears my hastened heartbeat.
I’m unsure what drives me. The challenge in Brynn’s voice.
My lack of intimate contact over the last few months.
Delusion. But cautiously, I place my hands on his hips, much like when he lifted me onto Moon.
He says nothing. Ever so slowly, I walk my fingers from his hips to his stomach, mapping out every curve and dip of his lean muscles through his tunic.
He is so tense, he does not breathe. I lean into him.
I am too short to reach his ear from behind him, but he’ll hear me all the same.
“I don’t mean to be forward, Brynn,” I whisper, mirroring his earlier sentiment. He shudders under my touch, and I croon softly, “But you will be extremely sore tomorrow if you don’t just… relax.”
“Is that a command?” he throws over his shoulder, daring me.
“No,” I reply. “An innocent request.” I graze gentle circles into his abdomen with the tips of my fingers—the static buzzing ever present. Without warning, he grabs my wrists and twists in the saddle, but I am too flush with his back for him to see me properly.
“All right—you must stop,” he declares. I recoil at the bite in his voice, at his too tight grip on my wrists. My ego bruises at once, but he continues—
“Because if you’re going to touch me like that, I need to see you do it.”