Page 96 of The Freedom You Seek
“During my time in the army, I was in the Royal Regiment. I got permanently injured while saving Queen Anneria’s life in an ambush and was discharged with the highest honors. King Pritatus himself awarded me a medal of bravery and a royal favor. I firmly believe this at least guarantees that the gentry will hear me out.”
There was a real chance they would, I had to give him that. Well, if his story was true, which I seriously doubted. I didn’t trust him.
My eyes searched for Nayana and found her whispering with the Rewani-girl. I was a little less suspicious about her female friend but couldn’t allow myself to let my guard down around her.
“Come with us to celebrate Samhain in Rastialla. There will be ample opportunity to talk.”
My eyes narrowed at Antas. Did he really invite the strangers to ride with us? I bared my teeth at him and didn’t care about his eyebrow rising in warning.
“Yes, join us.” Nayana beamed. “Thinking about it, maybe I could ride with one of you? I don’t have a horse on my own.”
The imbecile dared to open his mouth. “Sure, Na—”
Over my dead body. “You’re with me.” Of course, she wanted to fight me after my declaration,so I killed all protests before they could start, picked her up, and carried her over to our horse.
“Let me down, you overbearing brute!”
“Just keeping you safe, as agreed upon. Will you calm down, or do I have tohelpyou?” My magic twitched eagerly inside of me, almost begging me to wrap her up in dark restraints.
“Fuck you, Dion. You can’t treat me like the dirt under your nails for days and suddenly turn all territorial again.” Anger vibrated in her voice, and I caught a glimpse of Antas managing her friends. First good idea my dear uncle had today.
“Watch me.” Huffing, I placed her on top of our horse and mounted too, caging her in from behind as I had done a thousand times before. A dark tendril reached out to her, and even though she stopped struggling, the magic wrapped around her waist like a belt. Gods, how I’d missed her scent.
I wasn’t in the right state of mind to deal with the fact that I’d failed to maintain my distance from Nayana. All the walls I’d built had been eviscerated the moment I’d seen that pathetic male touching her. Or had it been the way her eyes had lit up when she’d recognized him? I ground my teeth so hard it was a wonder that I didn’t chip one.
During the following trek to Rastialla, I made sure none of them came too close to us. Of course, Nayana wanted to talk to herfriends,and they tried to come near us, but I blocked every attempt. In the end, Jama wasn’t in need of other friends—she had me, godsdammit.
“Can you, for once, not behave like a territorial bastard?”
“Sure. Right when you stop endangering yourself and all of us for a past fancy.”
“They only want to help, Dion. You heard them. They plan to go to Ivreiana to ask the king for a pardon. Stop being so fucking dense.”
“The only dense one is you if you can’t see the danger like I do. What do you think the odds are of them finding you out of the blue somewhere on a random road, weeks of travel away from your hometown?”
“You know what? I’ve liked you better when you’ve ignored me.”
“Then I hope you’ve enjoyed that, Jama,” I chuckled darkly. “Because it endsnow. I’m going to be the constant shadow at your side. Good luck getting rid of me for even a second from now on.”
It was already late afternoon when we arrived in Rastialla. Several neatly stacked Samhain pyres had been built by the villagers in various scattered locations, waiting to be ignited. For a moment, my thoughts flashed back to my nightmare in which I’d been burned alive, but I forced them away, as I always did whenever I refused to deal with something that hurt.
Talking about things that brought pain, Dion’s body heat seared through my back and made it impossible to ignore his presence. I couldn’t make sense of him or his behavior. Whatever boundaries he’d built between us after our visit at Larithia’s—I feared he’d torn them down and used the rubble to build a prison around me with him as the sole warden.
He prevented me from talking to Rewi and Bryon ever since we’d met them, something that made my blood boil hotter the more time passed. Nothing I said could change his stubborn mind.
We found an inn and surprisingly got enough rooms so we could spread out comfortably. I told Dion in no uncertain terms that I wanted to bunk with Rewi, but the dark idiot threw a giant tantrum and dragged me with him into one of the bedchambers. One of these days, I’d strangle him, and truth be told, that glorious day wasn’t very far away anymore.
Bryon would stay with Antas and Fig, who’d also announced that Ireas would have to share a room with Thain—after catching the redhead ogling Rewi and me and us scowling at him in return.
“Don’t even consider leaving these four walls.” Dion resorted to his favorite method of growling at me again as he stood in front of the door leading to the small washroom belonging to our chamber.
“You’re not my master.” The moment the words were spoken and floating in the air, the dangerous glint in Dion’s eyes told me I’d made a grave mistake. I should have thought better than to antagonize him when he was in one of his dark moods. But since the damage was already done, I dared to push him even further: I got up and strutted toward the door leading to the corridor.
“Jama. Just one single inch more—and you’ll regret it.”
His warning growl left me cold. I stared at him—and deliberately lifted my foot in slow motion with the clear intent of taking another step.
A telltale warmth flooded through me, and my eyes transformed into slits. “Why are you reaching for my Potential?”