Page 27 of A Hunt Bound in Blood
He looked at me with a grin, his white teeth wolfish. “I won’t let anything sneak up on you in your tent, don’t worry.” His eyes flashed with satisfaction when I scowled, then his flirtatiousness disappeared. “I’m sure there isn’t much out here you don’t know about. We’re skirting shifter territory right now, but in my experience, as long as we leave them alone, they’ll leave us alone. Do you have any experience with shifters?”
Mostly what I’d read, but I didn’t tell him that. “I’ve dealt with their representatives a few times when they came to the palace, but they keep to themselves for the most part. Communities spread throughout their territory.” Like demons and pretty much any species other than vampires, they were tolerated in the city, even though they were notoriously temperamental and in moments of extreme emotion were likely to display traits of whatever their animal happened to be. I tried not to let the hypocrisy bother me.
The only group of shifters not welcome were mutts—shifters stuck mid-shift. Most of them leaned towards their animal forms but either by hereditary quirk or some physical or psychological trauma, they were trapped in between, with all the worst aspects of their animal instincts on display, like an exposed nerve. I’d never encountered one in person, but from everything I’d read, they were nightmares made flesh.
“Not unlike the vampire furies out here,” Cammon said, and cold fingers brushed the back of my neck.
“Vampires?” I asked, trying to keep my tone professional. “They’re outlawed in Golthwaine.”
Cammon sneered. “Of course they are. The monarchy couldn’t risk having too many dangerous species walking the streets—why not pick one at random to ban?”
I blinked, surprised by his response but not fooled into opening up to him. “It wasn’t random. There was a rise in vampire-related crimes. They couldn’t be controlled.”
The look he gave me was scathing. “You really are the king’s woman if you believe that. We watched it from Karhasan. There was too much fear about humans being outnumbered by the other species, and Evaniel’s grandfather closed his eyes and pointed a finger at his options to make a point and keep the rest in line.” He shook his head. “Anyway, that doesn’t matter. The odds of us coming across a remote fury along our planned route are slim. As for where we are, the shifters keep the area clear of pretty much everything else. If we’re unlucky, we might bump into a giant or two, but at least they’re huge. We’re not likely to miss them and can make a tactical retreat without having to engage.”
He was right that none of this information was completely new to me. Still, the thought of sighting a giant was enough to make me surreptitiously check over my shoulder.
We walked a while longer, and with every step, I swore I found evidence of danger hiding in the shadows: eyes peering from among the trees, the piercing shriek of a bird of prey, a creeping vine snaking across the path. There was a smell in the air that tickled my nose, something that reminded me of wet animal. If this was how the outdoors usually smelled, I didn’t feel I’d been missing much.
“Why are you here anyway?” I asked, mostly to take my mind off the possible enemies lurking out of sight but also because something he’d said had caught my interest. Damn demon. “You say you don’t have any demons waiting for you back home, yet you don’t seem to have much love for our king. And if the rumours about you are true, you don’t spend a lot of time at your estate, usually off seeking one treasure or another, so it’s not like you fell madly in love with Golth. So why are you here?”
At the faint stiffening of his shoulders and the tightening of his jaw, I regretted asking.
“None of my business,” I said. “You don’t owe me answers, and frankly, I don’t want to hear them. As you’ve pointed out many times, you’re here to help me and that’s the extent of it.”
I pressed my lips together to cut off my babbling, but after a few beats of silence, Cammon’s shoulders dropped.
“It’s fine. I’m used to people knowing so figured you’d already heard the story. After all, how could I keep it a secret that I tried to kill the demon king?”
Cammon
XIV
I forced my jaw to relax and my hands to unclench. Glory’s question had taken me by surprise, and my body’s reaction had given away more of my tension than I would have liked.
I knew the stories that circulated about me and was surprised, given the circles she ran in and the king’s demand that I accompany her, that she didn’t. As my unintended fame as a treasure hunter had grown, so had the stories behind my presence in a foreign country. While not everyone knew I was King Rudael’s son, they’d heard about my supposed crime, and the gossip had added an extra veneer to my public image.
I turned to Glory and found her gaping at me.
“You didn’t know?” I asked, once more jerking my hands away from my neck. Because of the itch, I told myself, not because of any emotional discomfort.
“No.” She swallowed hard. “That’s—how—wow. I’m amazed you’re still breathing. Makes sense that you’ve stayed away, though. I don’t imagine you’d find a warm reception if you went back.”
My teeth ground together, and once more, I worked my jaw to unlock them. “No, I wouldn’t.”
With most people, I would have ended the conversation there and let them form their own opinions about what had happened. I didn’t care what they thought, and the stories they came up with were usually more exciting than the truth, which worked well for my reputation. But if this woman believed the worst about me, I worried the stick up her ass might grow even more rigid and the weeks stretching ahead of us would be that much more unpleasant.
Confident in my reasoning, I adjusted my pack, stretched out my neck to release the stiffness, and said, “It’s all bullshit, of course.”
A low breath escaped her. “You didn’t try to kill your father?”
I scowled. “Of course not. What kind of demon do you take me for? My kind might encourage humans to indulge in their baser pleasures, but we don’t tend to engage in patricide as a weekend hobby. And believe me, I had no desire to rush into my place on the throne.”
A furrow formed between her brows, and I caught myself before I could call that crease adorable. Nothing about this mage was adorable, and I would do well to remember it.
“Then why do people think you did?” she asked.
“Because my siblings made it look like I did. They attempted a coup, and it failed. But they were smart, and they’d arranged everything in advance to come back on me if things went sideways. My father suspected I had nothing to do with it, but there was no evidence to prove my innocence, so he exiled me. Now I’m here.”