Page 27

CHAPTER 27

AURIA

T he morning after the incident in the caves, my lungs were already feeling better. There’d been a slight burning in my chest, but Doctor Quinn had assured me it was just the wheeze that would clear up soon enough. My ankle no longer hurt to put pressure on, the healing vial having sped up the process immensely. I was grateful for that as I put all my weight on it to swing my other leg over the bench at the breakfast table in the dining hall.

I’d felt queasy before breakfast and dipped into one of the shops on my way, refilling an ice vial near one of the chests holding an array of meats. I was already starting to feel a bit less sick as the time between using my magic lengthened, and I hoped it was due to my body getting used to not using it as often.

Our guards had retrieved their breakfast before returning to their house, opting not to sit with us. I wondered if it was because they were humiliated over the attack or they simply didn’t feel comfortable in Deadwood. Either way, they weren’t doing much protecting.

Lander sent me a wink from where he stood in line behind Paxon, the two of them filling their plate with an abundance of baked goods, fresh eggs, and herb-roasted ham. I’d been taking to eating at the house, but decided if I was going to make the best of my last days on this trip, I might as well do my best to enjoy the company of others as much as I could.

Paxon had found somewhere to launder his only outfit, the previous dirt stains no longer visible on the dark green fabric. He stuck out like a sore thumb among the people of Deadwood, though I assumed that was his goal. His ego would never opt to blend in with the masses.

Paxon didn’t spare me a glance as he seemed to be intently listening to the conversation just ahead of him, the set of his mouth strained. Lander reached to grab a pastry off the wood-carved platter to the side of Paxon, but then Paxon moved. All of a sudden, Paxon had the back of one of Deadwood’s guards to the buffet table, his fist gripping the man’s black shirt.

The commotion pulled everyone’s attention to the two of them as Paxon got in the man’s face, shaking him. “What the fuck did you just say?”

The guard seemed completely calm, and then I realized it was Hanklie, the same one who’d come into the infirmary the night before with the news of the bridge collapsing.

Two of the guards who’d been with Hanklie in line, a man and a woman, stepped forward like they were going to intervene, but Hanklie held up a hand, stopping them.

“I said your precious way home is gone, and you’re stuck here,” Hanklie answered with a wicked grin.

His cockiness was going to cost him, if the reddening of Paxon’s face gave any indication. I couldn’t let him make a scene by hurting one of Deadwood’s own. What if we were kicked out? Forced to survive in the elements, now with no way back to Amosite? After Paxon’s threat, I didn’t want to temporarily stay in Torbernite. It’d only give him the upper hand.

I quickly stood from the bench, flinging my leg over before hurrying to the scene.

“You have five seconds to tell me what the fuck that means,” Paxon seethed.

Hanklie let out a chuckle, despite the awkward position he was in. “I don’t answer to you, filthy scum.”

Then Paxon started counting, and I picked up the pace. I weaved between benches and chairs, people standing about with trays of food, all watching as Paxon ruined our chances of surviving out here and put a target on all our backs.

“Five,” Paxon said, gripping Hanklie’s shirt tighter, who only rolled his eyes in response. “Four.”

“You royal shits are always so fucking dramatic,” Hanklie spit, his slight accent hanging on thick to every word.

“Three.”

I elbowed past two people, careful not to dump the plates in their hands.

“Two.”

I had ten feet to go. Nine. Eight.

“One.”

Paxon reared his arm back, and I jumped for him just in time to hook my hands around his elbow and hold it back. But he didn’t bother to look at who grabbed him as he shoved me away, and I easily lost my grip. My foot slipped, and I stumbled to the left, right toward Lander. He dropped his plate to grab my arm, the ceramic landing on the floor in a crash, but in doing so, I slipped on the eggs and careened forward, landing right on my knees in the mess of berries, pastries, and other assortments of food.

I squeezed my eyes shut against the burst of pain in my knees, Lander’s hand still gripped tight on my elbow. I partly braced myself for the sound of Paxon’s fist landing true on Hanklie, but surprisingly, no such sound came. Instead, a familiar voice intervened.

“Hit one of us, and I’ll throw you to the fucking wolves before you can so much as blink,” Raiden threatened, his voice full of lethal intent, like he’d take great pleasure in doing what he promised.

I opened my eyes to find Raiden’s hand dwarfing Paxon’s fist, having stopped the hit inches before he landed it. Siara stood beside Raiden, eyes peeled, arms crossed, and a hip popped out. But as soon as her gaze met mine, she softened, dropping her arms to her sides.

Fuck, I didn’t want their pity. I just didn’t want to get kicked out of the one place we had found refuge for the time being. We’d gotten so lucky ending up here, and Paxon was ruining that. Was that his intention, so we had no choice but to go to Torbernite?

Siara moved past Paxon, making it a point to bump him with her elbow as she did. She bent to grab my other arm, she and Lander helping me off the messy ground.

“This backwoods hick said the godsdamned bridge collapsed,” Paxon defended, like that gave him the right to punch a fucking guard.

Raiden shoved him back by his fist, causing Paxon to let go of Hanklie and stumble backwards two steps. Siara bent at the waist, doing her best to brush the food off my pants, as if two men weren’t about to rip out each other’s throats behind her.

“That’s because it did,” Raiden said. “And if you want to fight someone over the fear you feel in being stuck in our town”—he stepped toward Paxon, looking all the more intimidating—“you fight me.” He leaned in, muscled arms flexing. “Little secret, I don’t go easy on pathetic royals.”

Satisfied with her work, Siara straightened, standing at my side as we both watched Paxon try to contain his anger.

“We were to cross that bridge in a matter of days,” Paxon hissed.

“You think we dropped the bridge on purpose?” Raiden accused.

Paxon’s hand flexed at his side, like maybe he’d gotten the bright idea to punch the fucking commander of Deadwood’s army. “I don’t know what this town full of outlaws is doing, but I’m not sticking around to find out.”

Lander spoke up now, unable to take any more of this. I was getting to that point, too, if it weren’t for the humiliation building in my core. “The guards still need time to heal, Paxon. We’re not leaving.”

Paxon spun on his brother, not sparing me so much as a glance. “You don’t call the shots.”

“And you do?” Siara quipped.

Paxon’s nostrils flared as he pinned a glare on her, but rather than continue the argument, he turned and stormed out of the dining hall, leaving the mess and havoc he created behind.

Once he was out the doors, Raiden checked on Hanklie, ensuring he was okay before turning to me. It seemed everyone’s eyes were on me, watching to make sure I wouldn’t crumble. I’d been shoved, fell in food, and was now standing here looking more like a fool than someone who’d tried to protect one of their own.

Though I wasn’t wearing a corset, the pants and shirt I had on suddenly started feeling all too tight, the walls suffocating as they boxed us in. I needed air. To be alone with no eyes on me. To change out of this godsdamned outfit, and stop reeking of breakfast and shame.

“I need a minute,” I quickly muttered before spinning around and finding a door at the back of the dining hall. I beelined for it, shoving through and into the warm air.

As the door closed, I pressed my back up against the building, setting a hand on my chest to find my heart was beating erratically. I took a deep breath, then another, counting to four in between. I let my eyelids drift shut as my head lolled back against the warm wooden slats, the rays of the sun seeping into my skin like an answered whisper through the wind that still howled.

Was this really the life I wanted to go back to in Amosite? Being talked over, having no power over anything, treated like I didn’t even exist?

Lander at least wasn’t being irrational about being stuck in Deadwood, much unlike his brother. It was a small positive out of an ocean of negatives.

“I didn’t think food fights were your scene, Princess, but you continue to surprise me,” Bowen said, startling me from my moment of calm.

My head snapped up, finding him standing a few feet from me wearing leathers, a belt full of daggers wrapped around his hips. “Bowen,” I breathed, adjusting my stance.

“Everything okay?” he asked, the spot in the center of his forehead creasing.

I gulped, nodding as I pulled a hand through my hair. “Yeah. Of course. Why wouldn’t it be?”

He stepped forward, and my gaze caught on a folded piece of parchment in his hand. “Well, you’re standing out here looking like you’ve seen a sandwalker, you’re covered in food, and”—his eyes fell to my pants—“you’re bleeding.”

My focus shot down to my legs at his observation, thinking he was playing a trick on me. Through the mess of food, I couldn’t tell what he was referring to. “It’s just berries.”

He shoved the parchment in the back pocket of his pants before he walked closer, only stopping once he was directly in front of me. Then, this man dropped to his knee before me, again , and wrapped delicate fingers around my thigh. I braced my hands on the building behind me, staring down as he prodded my skin through my pants.

A breath hissed between my teeth as he hit a sore spot.

“Right there,” he murmured, dropping a hand to retrieve a dagger from his waist.

My eyes widened. “What are you doing?”

“Checking your wound,” he stated, bringing the blade to my pants.

I tried to pull my leg back, but he held it firm with his other hand. The way he kept me rooted before him sent tingles flowing up my spine.

“You’re not going to dig in it, are you?”

He paused with the tip of the blade pressed against the fabric, as if he had so much control over the steel that he knew it wouldn’t pierce unless he wished it to. His eyes met mine. “No, Auria. Not unless I have to.”

Before I could protest once more, he sliced through the material. I waited for the bite of pain to follow, but none came. He studied me carefully. “You think I’d hurt you?”

“I don’t know what to think,” I replied honestly. He was hot and cold with me, day and night. One minute, he was behaving as if he was irritated with my existence, and the next, he was protecting me from falling rocks and an angry, decayed dragon.

He raised a shoulder before moving his attention back to my leg. “Your opinion of me hasn’t changed.”

“Should it have?” I asked.

With a small portion of my leg now exposed, he sheathed the dagger, pulling out a healing vial next. “You can think whatever you’d like, whether it’s wrong or right.”

I let out a snort as he uncapped the vial.

“Something funny, Princess?”

“You act so kind, yet you seem so…” I trailed off, trying to think of the right word.

“Charming?”

“Pernicious,” I filled in.

He frowned, dribbling a small portion of the magic over my minor cut that very easily would have healed on its own.

“You think I’m evil,” he stated.

“I don’t know what to think,” I repeated.

He looked up at me again, and I forced myself to look away, my knees threatening to buckle with the intensity of his focus solely on me. “Tell me what you’d like to think, and why you’re refusing to allow yourself to do so.”

I swallowed, hating how he’d just called me out so easily.

“I’d like to think you’re good,” I answered honestly. “But everyone I know doesn’t seem to think the same, so why should I?”

He stood, his towering frame pulling my gaze back to him. I tilted my chin up, the back of my head resting against the building. “Siara, Raiden, Flynt—they don’t think I’m good?”

“You know that’s not what I mean.”

He pocketed the vial, not moving to give me space. “Do others always influence you so easily?”

I scrunched my nose. “No.”

He looked down to adjust the sleeves of his leather jacket around his wrists, his fingers brushing my stomach as he did. “Then tell me what you really think of me.”

I tried not to breathe as much to keep my stomach tighter in an attempt to keep his touch away from me, but I was kidding myself. I was enjoying this. The little grazes of his fingertips. The way his body dwarfed mine. I didn’t want it to stop.

“A lady doesn’t share her secrets so easily,” I replied, tilting my chin up in defiance.

A smirk pulled at the corner of his mouth. “It’s a good thing no secrets are safe around me.” His eyes pinned mine in place. “Haven’t we been over this, Princess?” He leaned closer, setting a hand on the wall beside my head, and my lips parted on their own accord. I was pressed against the wall at this point, but I didn’t want to move, even if given the chance. “It seems to me you want to keep me here—dodging my questions even though you have the answers.”

“I don’t.” I attempted to sound convincing with my words, but failed.

“Then tell me what you’re thinking.”

My eyelids fluttered as my gaze skipped to his mouth for the flash of a second. Why did I want to know what his lips felt like on mine, and why did I care to find out how he tasted?

“I’m thinking about the paper you shoved in your back pocket,” I blurted, needing to say anything but what I was truly thinking. He did not need to know where my mind had just gone.

He arched a brow, dropping his hand back to his side. “Is that so?”

I nodded, humming my response. “Mhmm.”

He studied me, knowing damn well I was lying. “I guess it goes both ways, then.” He looked to the side, eyeing the door I’d come out of before moving his gaze back to me. “A man doesn’t share his secrets so easily.”

He turned away, moving toward the door to the dining hall. “I’ll have Siara replace the pants for you. Get home safe, Auria.” Then he disappeared inside, leaving me standing there with my heart racing for an entirely different reason now.