Page 40

Chapter

Twenty-Five

TATE

We sit at a table wedged between all the other patrons.

The Golden Boar is well-frequented, as always.

Sturdy tables crowd the room, leaving only small trails of scuffed wooden flooring for the serving girls to wind through.

Oddities from all over the continent decorate the whitewashed walls, and a bar takes up half of the back wall.

Music and the chatter of voices compete with each other in volume, so it’s impossible to hear anyone outside a two-step radius.

I watch Ara, who, to my annoyance, sits at the opposite end of the table, wedged between Tanner and Boko, and seems to enjoy herself. She hasn’t even once looked in my direction.

“You two are pathetic. You know that, right?” Jared asks me.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” I lie, which has recently become something I do quite often.

“Please tell me you at least had the decency not to screw Jen last night,” Jared says, and I nearly spit out the sip of beer I just took.

“Excuse me?”

“Oh, you heard me.” Jared leans in even closer.

“I know you’re in denial about this, but for me, it’s as clear as day that you want her, and she wants you, aaand we are not at the academy at the moment sooo…

” This time, I choke, and Jared laughs while he claps my back.

“Unless you really aren’t interested, then I could offer myself to help the poor girl—”

“Don’t finish that sentence,” I threaten. “How do you even know Jen approached me last night?”

“Oh, I heard the girls talking about it, and after I put two and two together, I realized so did Summer. It would at least explain her change of mood last night,” Jared whispers.

Fuck .

“I would clear that up if I were you, or it will come back to bite you,” he advises before he turns to Miller next to him, giving me time to mull over what he just said.

Up till now, staying away had seemed like a pretty good idea, but just thinking about her turning to someone else makes my thoughts murderous.

On the other hand, starting something with her would be utter madness.

I watch her talk to Tanner and realize Jared is right. The way she hangs on his every word raises my hackles and turns my mood sour.

What the fuck are they talking about?

Miller draws Tanner’s attention away from Ara, and I relax. Yeah, I have to talk to her, but I’ll have to catch her alone first.

When Ara excuses herself to the bathroom, I seize that chance and get up as well.

Boko delays me by asking to get him another beer on the way back, and I swallow a groan.

Now that I've decided to face her, I’m eager to get it over with.

I wait in the hallway to catch Ara when she comes back out.

It’s darker back here, and the voices from the dining room are only a subtle hum in the background.

I have no idea what to tell her. All I know is I want but can’t have her, and to the mists and back, I don’t want anyone else to even come close to her.

Ara closes the door, and our eyes meet the moment she turns. A mix of hurt and anger flashes over her face.

Fuck.

She tries to hurry past me, but I stop her, using my body to cage her in against the corridor wall.

My hands rest on the wall next to her head.

Our bodies don’t touch, but they may as well be because I am aware of her every breath.

She could duck out, but she doesn’t, and I decide to take that as a good sign.

Damn, she smells good.

She crosses her arms and leans back against the wall, her eyes blazing up at me, her mouth in a defiant little pout.

Shit. I want to kiss the stubbornness right off her lips.

I shake my head at the thought and try to form the words to make her see…

“This would get you into trouble,” I tell her and fight the urge to lean in, her fiery eyes burning into mine. “I can’t let you—”

“Oh, this is rich.” If I thought her eyes were on fire before, they’re now a fucking inferno.

“I’ve had it with everyone telling me what I can or can’t do,” she hisses before she gets into my face.

“Let me tell you something, Kyronos. If I decide to sleep with you or any other rider, it’s my decision and my risk, not yours, so you can’t let me… anything.”

“You’re not sleeping with anyone else,” I growl.

“I’m free to do what I want, just like you.” She sends me a false smile. “And thanks for informing me that you told Jared about me,” she adds, sarcasm dripping off her words like blood off a killing blade before she ducks under my arm and hurries off.

Fuck.

I let my brow fall against the wall. This did not go as planned, and I haven’t even said what I came here for.

By the time I make my way back to the table, Ara is back in her seat and not looking in my direction.

I curse under my breath. The chances of catching her alone again tonight are low, even if I didn’t have plans of my own.

Maybe I’ll give her a few hours to cool off and try again tomorrow.

I do my best to push thoughts of Ara out of my head while I leave the orderly part of Platoria behind, entering the area that borders the port.

Platoria’s port is an important trading point because of the mist. Nearly all trade between the five kingdoms takes place by sea.

It’s the perfect place to find answers or hire someone to find them for you.

The streets get darker and less frequented, and it always baffles me that this part of town is only a stone’s throw away from the cliff where I used to go swimming with my brother and Jared. Those summers seem like a lifetime ago.

We spent many summers down here in the south. I smile at the memories that belong to a life I left behind more than three years ago.

Nan sits on a blanket reading, the now empty picnic basket at her side. Louis and two of his friends are our guards for today, which makes the afternoon much more relaxed than it would have been otherwise.

I watch my brother race his best friend Leo to the edge of the cliff, clearly enjoying the free day as much as I am. They shout in joy when they propel themselves off the ledge, spreading their arms like wings.

They’re at that age when they have just started growing into their long arms and legs and seem a little uncoordinated and out of proportion, no matter how they dress. It’s even more obvious now since, apart from Nan, all of us are dressed in dark cotton shorts and nothing else.

“Oi, wait, you little buggers,” Louis shouts, running after them.

I remember our laughter while we jumped off that cliff, challenging each other to increasingly reckless jumps until Nan put her foot down and made us stop.

Louis was ten years older than his brother—about twenty-eight in that memory—but rivaled Jared in childish ideas even on a good day. He was also the best at sweet-talking his mother. So after his pleading and our promises to behave, we’re allowed to jump again.

We basked in the sun whenever our legs were too tired from running up the countless steps from the water below, just to do it all over again.

My smile slips when I remember why it’s the last summer I spent that way. The last summer of Louis’s and Leo’s lives.

I haven’t been back at the cliffs since. I haven’t even been back in Platoria until starting patrols.