Page 41 of The Freedom You Seek

I should have resisted and not succumbed to weakness. But Dion’s warmth seeped into my bones, and the way he cradled me made me feel safe. “All right. I’ll stay. Just this once.”

Instead of responding, Dion moved closer until I was completely enveloped in his large frame. I couldn’t help but let out a contented hum as I breathed in his intoxicating scent. Still, I struggled to fall asleep for a few minutes.Memories threatened to rise from the depths of my subconscious, and I tensed.

But as soon as the images of my nightmare appeared in front of my inner eye, Dion stirred, and his fingers stroked gently through my hair, playing with my locks and caressing my scalp in an attempt to soothe me. And he succeeded. I let out a small sigh as the memory vanished.

Dion had promised to keep the dreams at bay, and to my surprise, whatever he did was working.

“Just sleep.” Dion’s voice was barely a whisper against the shell of my ear. After moments of silence, I heard him again, but something was different. Notes floated through the air as he sang, and I recognized the song as the old lullaby I’d hummed earlier when he told me about his love of music.

The words differed from how I remembered them, but Dion’s deep voice and dark timbre, combined with the old tune and his warm embrace, wrapped me into a cocoon of safety. I wanted to listen to this beautiful song and the harmonies he created, but within minutes, I fell asleep.

Next morning, Dion was already up when I woke up, and we never spoke about what had happened during the night. I suspected he was just as embarrassed as I was but for different reasons, and when he didn’t mention any of it, I didn’t either.

One morning, it hit me we’d been on the road for just over three weeks, and aside from a run-in with a rabid wolf and an aggressive bear a few days later, we hadn’t had any troublesome encounters. Those skirmishes allowed me to catch a glimpse of how the men were using their fighting skills, and I had to admit that I was impressed.

Behind me, Dion was more tense than usual. When I turned around to meet his eyes, his jaw worked, and he glowered at me in the way I knew so well by now.

“What?”

“We’re about to reach the border of Marsia.”

“Is that a problem? I thought thatwas the plan.”

Instead of answering my question, Dion raised his voice so the others could hear him as well. “Let’s take a quick rest.”

The group came to a stop, and within moments, Dion hauled me off the horse. He handed his reins to Ireas without a word, grabbed my hand, and hauled me away from the group. “We need to talk, Jama.”

Ah, there it was. I knew something was up, even though I had no clue what was bothering Dion today. The other men’s lack of reaction suggested they were aware of what he had in mind, as no one complained about the sudden break. Curious.

I nodded to Dion, and he stopped when we were out of earshot. He still observed me closely with that special glower he’d reserved exclusively for me, and the silence began to feel oppressive.

“Spit it out.”

More silence.

“Dion. Did you interrupt our ride just to gawk at me?” Sometimes, poking at him would relax him, but today it was the wrong call to make as he tensed up even more. So, whatever bothered him was something he hated.

“We’ll arrive at the border soon. I don’t have to tell you how risky crossing it will be. Because, well…Antas and Ireas had found several posters in the last two towns when stopping for supplies. The good news is that the artist who has sketched your portrait is rather talentless. But, on the flip side—as we feared—you’ve been declared on the run, and there’s money on your head. A significant amount.”

“You should have told me earlier.”

“It’s inconsequential to you. You can trust me with your safety, so why should you even care?”

I frowned. Dion believed what he said. The world he lived in was one of his own making, one in which he considered himself to be the pinnacle of creation. There, not only was everything under his control all the time, but he was the monarchandthe kingdom, and well, he could do no wrong. And subsequently, it was completely irrelevant to me whether I knew about a bounty on my head or not. He’d decided that since he was protecting me, a future where I’d be captured was simply not possible. What would it be like to believe in such a world and that this was your own role in it? To bethatself-confident? Not that I doubted his capabilities, but realistically, not everyone was aware that they existed in Dion’s fantasy world and knew that they had to surrender in front of some overconfident dictator who was running the show.

For a moment, I marveled at how well I could read Dion after just a few weeks, but then again, it didn’t take a genius to understand that he had a major superiority complex.

“Well, fair, I can accept that.” Once again, I had to choose my battles and decide how to deal with him. In the end, playing along was better than the headache that trying to fix his strange worldview would bring.

“Fig wants us to pass the border into Marsia like regular travelers. It’s a risk, but he thinks there’s a good chance we can traverse the control without issues.”

“I see. Do you want me to change my appearance? I could do something with my hair—there are ways to alter the color. I’ve seen sinsirberries around. If you squashthem, then boil the pulp into a thick paste, and apply the mixture to your hair for an hour, you’ll get an intense ginger color that will last for weeks.” Well, at least according to Rewi, who had always been sad that this trick wouldn’t work on her dark hair. Would ginger suit me? Pondering, I sneaked another glance at Dion. The usual muscle in his cheek ticked suspiciously.

“No.”

“Why not? It might help.”

“No.”