Page 10 of Of Nightmares & Fire (Elusive Umbra #1)

Chapter ten

Astraea

I can count the number of times I’ve been drunk on one hand.

I had to be careful living under my father’s thumb.

The princess could be called on at any moment.

He hardly ever left the castle long enough for me to have true reprieve from him.

I think it was his cowardice that has kept him cooped up in the palace since he took it.

Always afraid that someone else would swoop in and steal it away, just like he did.

Tonight, though, I’m pretty sure I am the most inebriated I have ever been.

The room is beginning to spin, and my eyes don’t want to stay open.

I have to stare at my tumbler, still half full of the amber liquid, with one eye closed for there to be only one.

Mavros and Zinya invited a couple of other women over to the booth we were sharing and have been otherwise tied up.

I’ve never seen such a display in person before.

Though some of the guards were pretty boisterous about their nights in the city when they weren’t on duty.

Their stories could have never painted the picture I see now, though.

They are like a coil of snakes intertwined around each other’s bodies.

Mavros is at the center of all the women as their hands seek skin at every opportunity.

Heat climbs the back of my neck as I risk a glance and see Zinya shove her tongue down a busty blonde’s throat and, at the same time, slip her hand under the waistband of Mavros’s trousers.

I moved to the bar pretty quickly after that all started, and I’ve silently kept drinking my weight in alcohol.

The awful ale even tastes better. All the while, I know Kyros has been watching me from the other corner in the tavern.

His steady gaze causing more heat to creep into my cheeks. Did he see me watching them?

“You look like you might be done for the night.” The barmaid surprises me as she reaches for my cup.

I quickly recover and plop my hand over the rim and level her with a look that says I’m not done.

She quirks an eyebrow. “You better not throw chunks on my floors, girl. I’ll have you on your hands and knees cleaning it up yourself.

” Her sharp tongue makes me slap my hand over my lips to keep the drink I just took in my mouth.

Once I swallow down the liquid that is now burning my sinuses, I smile, and she shakes her head.

“What’s your name? I think I like you.” I hiccup.

“Girl, you need to rest. Go get some sleep.” She responds and I snort, but she holds me in her gaze waiting…

“There is no rest in sleep—only the monsters we keep hidden while awake.” I say, taking the last drink from my tumbler and sliding the empty cup toward her. “Thank you.” I clumsily place a coin next to it.

“My name is Ruby,” she says with her brows furrowed.

“Did your parents name you that before or after they knew you had all that red hair?” My question makes her smirk then.

“If I ever find out who they are, maybe I’ll ask them.” She responds. I want to crawl into a hole. I stand up and smile sheepishly before muttering ‘thanks’ again and turning away.

“Hey, girl?” I turn back to face her as she is wiping the bar down with a wet towel.

“Sometimes the demons we keep hidden in the deepest parts of ourselves are the ones who can hurt us most when they finally come to the light, but ever so often, even nightmares aren’t all that they seem.

” She stares at me for a moment, her hazel eyes penetrating, then she nods as though she’s satisfied I understand and turns away.

The whole conversation is unsettling, and suddenly, I feel too many eyes on me.

Chewing on my lip, I stumble my way through the lingering people still remaining in the tavern and shuffle slowly up the stairs.

It’s when I reach the top I notice the presence behind me.

I speed up, trying to put distance between myself and whoever is behind me, and stop short, just before reaching the door to the room when he speaks up, far closer than I thought.

“I saw you at the bar. You’re quite the lonely thing, aren’t you?” A man, whom I’ve never seen before, now leers over me. I press my body against the wall, trying to create space between us without success. He slowly closes the distance, and I turn my face away from him.

“My friend is waiting for me just inside my room.” I lie. Where is Mavros? Would he come if I screamed? It was him, after all, who warned me screams wouldn’t get me the help I wanted when it was him leering over me.

“Oh?” He questions, the scent of stale clothing and ale wafting to me as he leans in closer, “Is that so? Then perhaps we go to my room?” He grabs for my hips at the same moment I spin to run down the hall toward the room Mavros and I were sharing, but the man reaches out, grabbing onto the straps of the holster that Zinya insisted I wear.

Damn holster! He pins my face to the wall with one hand on the back of my head, while the other trails down my body in an eager conquest, all the while my protests are being ignored.

I’m too shocked to scream. My voice is lost to panic as he continues to tug and pull at my body and clothes.

The pressure at which he pins me to the wall is painful, and a muffled cry comes from my lips.

Then suddenly he’s yanked from me. My breath catches in my throat as I turn to see Kyros move through the hall like a wraith.

He prowls over to where he has thrown the man to his ass.

“She said no. If you touch her again…” His low, gravelly voice trails off, but even without finishing the sentence, it threatens violence; the louring darkness clouds his face in a promise of pain.

The man doesn’t even take a second look in my direction.

He scrambles to his feet, keeping his eyes fixed on Kyros and slowly backing away .

“Understood,” he stammers, but before he continues, Kyros grabs him by the front of his tunic, balling the material in his fist, and pulls him close to his face.

All the while, I am bent at the waist, trying to catch my breath, simultaneously trying to keep the contents of my stomach from spilling to the floor.

“If I ever find that you try to force yourself on her… or anyone again,” he breathes the words through clenched teeth, “I will let rats feed between your legs while I hold you down and make you watch yourself become a eunuch.” He shoves him away.

The man nearly falls down the stairs as he struggles to find purchase on trembling legs.

When Kyros turns back to face me, his eyes are like glittering onyx in the dark.

Only reflecting glimmers of moonlight coming from cracks in the shuttered window.

“Are you hurt?” He reaches out for me, then makes a face at his hand before pulling it back stiffly. “You need to get yourself to bed. You have a way of running into trouble.” He says, standing back to his full height, and I scoff.

“Clearly.” I say, tugging at the boned vest I’ve borrowed.

I sway on my feet, but before I fall flat on my face, Kyros’ hands catch me, and I steady myself with one hand on his chest. His large hand is like a heated weight on my lower back, and the stark difference between the other man and his touches has a shiver rolling down my spine.

“Who’s going to save me from you?” The question wasn’t meant to be said out loud, but I can’t take it back now.

His brows thread so tightly I fear what he is going to say in response, but then he surprises me by helping me find my footing.

His hands linger on my arm, just above my elbow.

He is so close I can feel his breath blowing the fine hairs away from my face.

The scent of sweet honey and the bitter tang of fire and smoke engulf me and take my breath from my lungs.

Gods divine, why does this man smell so good?

“If it were me in his place, no one , not even the divine, could save you. But you would not be protesting my touch. You would be begging for it…” He growls, and when he takes a step back, letting go of me, I nearly whimper.

Not only his words, but also the confusing heat that they created in my core.

He stalks down the hall toward the door that leads to the room Mavros and I have been given but stills as his hand hovers over the lever. A rumble builds in his throat as he turns to face me.

“It seems my brother is entertaining an audience tonight… if you don’t wish to join them, you can follow me.

” He sighs and continues down the hall, not waiting for me to choose.

As I near the door he was standing in front of, I hear all sorts of noises I wish I hadn’t, and I no longer question sharing a room with the man who just saved me from being defiled.

He opens a door a little further down the hall and waits for me. As I enter, I look around at the neat space and the cold hearth. The chill from the wet desert rain has fully encroached the dark space.

“I’ll leave you to get settled after I build a fire,” Kyros says, pointedly ignoring me where I stand behind him, and he starts doing just that.

He doesn’t so much as glance my way as he works.

His movements cause me to watch his hands.

Long fingers grasp the wood, and he carefully places it into the heart of the hearth before he reaches to the mantle.

I watch transfixed as his muscles flex and pull taut by the movements, and I recall the shirtless sparring session between him and Mavros earlier.

When he strikes the flint, casting sparks to flit over the kindling, it quickly catches fire, illuminating his face with its amber glow.

I’m entranced by his every movement. I don’t realize I’ve moved closer until he stands to his full height.

He’s very tall, easily a head taller than me, and I have to look up to meet his gaze.

“Thank you,” I say, and he nods as our bodies seem to gravitate toward one another.

Or maybe it’s just me? His throat works on a swallow, and I watch the motion with rapt attention.

Being this close to a man such as Kyros is like standing too close to a fire.

My entire body wants to rear back from the heat, but my curious mind wants to reach out and touch him to see if I’d burn.

“It was nothing, just a fire,” he says, and I watch as the flames dance in the reflection of his black eyes. It’s mesmerizing. My eyes grow heavier the longer I stand here, and I can’t tell if it’s the alcohol or the proximity to the man in front of me, but my courage swells.

“Not the fire. You stepped in and saved me from that man’s advances.

I’m not sure what would have happened if you hadn’t been there.

” My hand comes between us and just as I am about to lay it on the center of his chest; his fingers wrap around my wrist. It’s not a painful grip, just tight enough to stop contact over his heart.

“I’m not a man who sets out to save innocent women. Don’t look for something like that in me. You won’t like what you find.” He says, and though his words are a growl, his eyes say something else entirely. He takes a step backward and lets our hands fall between our bodies.

“I’m not just an innocent woman looking to be saved, Kyros.

Sometimes people fight silent battles, but that doesn’t mean that they are any less of a warrior.

” He stares at me for a long moment, with the door cracked open and one hand on the lever.

Contemplating my words, a frown takes over his face before he tilts his chin down and speaks.

“Get some sleep, Shula.” Kyros finally says, dejected. I can’t do anything but stare with my lips parted as he walks from the room.