His gaze snapped to mine, bright with sudden fire. “They will use you against me.”
I moved to the edge of the cot, my tone deceptively light. “I should give you over to the Ten. Ask Aramaz and the Council to deal with the Chiasma.” The duty I could not bring myself to fulfill.
His eyes never left mine, that fire blazing up into a storm. “Why don’t you, Baradaz? Why?”
It was my turn to avoid his gaze. I stared at the blanket clasped tightly in my hands, searching for an answer that wouldn’t betray too much. In the end I sought refuge in the smug defiance he so often employed. “Haven’t you heard?” I said, with a willful jerk of my head. “I’m a traitor to the Light.”
Noctis took a step closer as if he couldn’t help himself, but stopped abruptly. There was no amusement in his voice, only a deep sadness. “So that’s where kindness toward the Dark has led you, my queen? Alone and banished, without power and allies, threats all around you.”
His words did not deter me in the least. “I thought I had one ally,” I retorted, rising from the cot and moving toward him. “Help me.” I clasped his warm hand tightly, willing him to understand. “Help me stop the Chiasma from threatening this village.”
He tilted his head, a questioning look in his eyes. “Threatening this village?”
“There has been an attack on a nearby farm,” I explained. After everything that had happened, I trusted him enough to share what I had discovered. “They found the family and every animal there dead. Arranged in some kind of circle, as if someone had drained their life force from them.”
When his expression grew alarmed, I let go of his hands, hurrying over to the cupboard next to the stove, quickly rummaging through it.
“And you waited to tell me about this until now because…” Noctis’s tone held more than a hint of annoyance. I threw a look at him over my shoulder, raising one eyebrow. His lips twitched. “Fair enough.”
My hand closed around the small blackened object Adesh hadgiven me. It lay on my palm like a sinister, twisted snake as I returned to Noctis’s side. “The victims were bound with this. Do you have any idea what it could be?”
He froze the moment he caught sight of it. Then he moved so quickly I had no time to react, grabbing my arm and dragging me to my bedroom. “Get your things.”
“What?” I had been so shocked I had not protested, but now I freed my arm with a sharp twist.
“We are leaving.” Without waiting for my response, Noctis flung open the closet door, yanking out clothes and tossing them onto the bed. “You’re right,” he muttered, his voice low and haunted. “The Chiasma are a terrible threat. But I will be damned before I let any harm come to you because of me.”
When he reached for the next blouse, I stepped between him and the closet, halting him. “No,” I declared, not willing to compromise. “I am not leaving the people of Dalath alone to pay the price for our past.”
Noctis bent closer, towering over me, his eyes full of fierce determination. “Baradaz,” he growled. “Get dressed. Or I will throw you over my shoulder, no matter how you rage at me, and carry you out of here.”
There was also fear in his gaze, though. More fear than I ever thought possible. “What happened to ‘I will only do what you ask me to do’?” I said, very softly.
My words stopped him. His breath was ragged. “That’s not what I—”
“We can do this,” I interrupted, taking his hand once more. “Together. We have mylyr-stones. And the dagger. We will come up with a plan to deal with whichever Chiasma has their eyes on us, and—”
A violent tremble went through him, his face twisting. “You have no idea what—who—we are up against,” he pressed out, his voice strained. “Vultaron was far from the worst of them. Some of the Chiasma can use magic so dark you cannot even imagine what it can do.”
“Magic you taught them. Magic only you know how to counter,” I pointed out. As much as I hated to press the issue when it so clearly haunted him, I saw no other choice. I would not abandon Dalath and its people. And I needed him.
“And they are my responsibility.” Noctis’s voice was barely audible, the torment in his expression almost unbearable as he stared down at me.
“Listen to me.” I cupped his cheek, trying to break through his despair somehow. “I know we cannot do this alone. We need help. The village elders asked me to train the local militia. If you help me—”
His bitter laugh traveled through the tenuous connection of our touch. “A few mortal peasants will hardly scare my former acolytes.”
“What are you proposing, then?” I threw back at him, at my wits’ end. “Running away and letting the Chiasma destroy everything here without even trying to oppose them? Hiding for the rest of our mortal days? As you said, they won’t give up. We will have to face them at some point. So why not now?”
“We?”
Before I could respond to his raspy question, the loud grumbling of my stomach interrupted us. Noctis’s lips quirked up in a slight smile.
“Perhaps we should not discuss this on empty stomachs,” he commented. “Stars, when did you even last eat?”
Now that he mentioned food, I realized just how hungry I was. “Yesterday.” I tried to remember exactly when. “I think.”
“I’m going to make breakfast.” Noctis lifted his hand to stop me before I could say anything. “That doesn’t mean I have agreed to help you train those farmers.”
