With a single assumption, Cal has narrowed every male in Corinth down to three individuals. And with a little bit of thought, I’m positive he’ll single out the offender easily.
Just in time for us to ride into his city.
Gods, I wish he hadn’t crushed that flask.
CHAPTER 16
It takes more convincing than it should, but I finally get Cal to agree to let me take the first watch. The stubborn man would sooner deprive himself of rest he desperately needs if it meant I could sleep all night, even after sleeping for hours today on horseback.
I’m still not comfortable with this imbalance of kindness, a fact I reminded him of repeatedly. He only agreed to sleeping first on the condition that we didn’t pitch the tent tonight. Apparently the thin canvas tent blocks his hearing and he doesn’t trust me not to doze off.
He doesn’t say that last part, of course, but he doesn’t have to.
The night air is cool compared to the heat of the sun today, but it’s warmer than it has been since before the first snow fell. From my reclined position, if I angle my head just to the left, the pine boughs part enough to allow me a clear view of the celestial-filled sky.
The stars are the eyes of the gods.
Or that’s what the priests say, at least. I’ve always thought they were more; always imagined them as individual worlds,variations of our reality where we are different people. Realms where our fates are still undetermined.
Imagination can be a cruel and wicked thing.
I’ve known since I was a little girl that my fate was written, unchangeable by any but the beast who marked me that day in the sea. When I felt the rush of power in my blood for the first time, I thought it was a gift from the gods. But in the same breath they gave me magic, they took my mother.
Theytook my mother. The supposed gods who hold an unopposed dominion over us. The serpent marked me and cursed me with dreams foretelling my demise, and for reasons only the gods know, they decided to tie Cal’s fate with mine.
I could probably run from him, but I won’t get far.
I could probably resist him, but I won’t last long.
The gods always get what they want in the end—and what they want is entertainment.
Forget our feelings.
Forget our choices.
Forget our plans.
We are expendable playthings in their arena of sick, twisted games.
“No.”
Cal’s voice is barely a whisper as he thrashes on his bedroll, the sheen of sweat visible on his furrowed brow. White-knuckled fists clench at his sides as he jerks painfully in his restless sleep.
My heart aches in a way I didn’t know it was capable of. To live in horrible dreams every night is one thing, but to watch as someone else is trapped in one is entirely another. The urge to soothe him is nearly unbearable.
A scream slices through the night. One single word falling from his parted lips.
“Ivy!”
Every muscle in my body tightens. I know this pain because I’ve felt it in my own dreams; desperation so deep it feels as if the core of your being is ripping into two. Cal doesn’t just know that we’re connected, he feels it as deeply as I do.
My body moves before my mind can command it, my hands cupping the captain’s drenched cheeks.
“I’m right here,” I whisper.
Depthless gray eyes suddenly stare back at me and steal my breath. In this moment of unguarded vulnerability, I see them in a way that I haven’t before. They’re the misty color of a brackish pool when the tide recedes; the color of smoke billowing from a fire that’s just been doused; the sparkling color of a newly polished wedding band. They contain the multitudes of a life filled with days by the shore, fires in the forest, and bells ringing in the gods’ temple.
Entire lifetimes stare back at me.
