Oh, for fuck’s sake. Why had my brain gone in that direction? Sure, flash me the worst hypothetical so I could focus on it.
Archer could handle himself, could be aware of more than one thing at a time. Besides, when I'd been clinging to him, he sure hadn't felt breakable. I still burned where he'd touched me, still felt a little breathless at the way my body had fit with his.
The front door opened and closed.
My pulse hammered and my palms grew slick. I tugged the blanket up to my nose, but not enough to cover it so I could breathe in any change of smells. Nothing yet. Just snow and cold.
Footsteps down the hallway.
I snaked one arm out of the blanket and reached for my arrow on the floor.
The footsteps creaked on the loose board and stopped in the bedroom doorway. I closed my eyes to home in on every detail I could sense, prepared to spring up and punch and scream if I had to.
A sigh, laced with weariness and peeling off layers of wood smoke and caramel off the body it came from, filled the room.Just Archer.
I snapped my eyes open. "Did you see anything? Is Hellbreath okay?"
"She's fine. Awfully happy about the apple that hadn't gone rotten yet that I found for her." He crossed into the room and took a seat on the creaky chair next to my bed. "I saw footprints that looked like they'd trailed after your horse before she made it here, but not the owner of those prints."
I firmed my lips and nodded. "He wouldn't last too long without a fire tonight. I bet he's gone." I wished I could breathe easier at that, but unease still chased through my veins. "But now he knows I'm here."
Archer hummed in agreement.
"If it's the package he's after, there has to be more to it than just moonshine and wolfsbane and my ama’s—mom’s—herbs," I said.
"Maybe…" The chair creaked as Archer scooted closer. "Maybe it's not the ingredients themselves that make your package so interesting to him, but what the combination of those ingredients can do. Do you know what it can do, Aika?"
"Not really," I admitted with a sigh. "My baba…isn't"—damn it, I’d almost said wasn't, past tense—"the most talkative person with me. He mostly just wants me out of the way."
"Yet you're the one who tried to make the delivery to keep feeding your family when he couldn’t. That hardly seems fair."
"Well, I didn't have much choice. My baba got shot, and Jade is only fifteen and has to take care of her brother, Lee, who…needs a lot of help."
"Her brother. Not yours?"
I shook my head. “Their parents died two years ago, so we take care of them."
"We meaning your baba and you."
"Yeah."
"Why would your baba bother to take care of them if he's the type of person who wants his real daughter out of the way and names his horse Hellbreath?"
I pushed my lips together, really not wanting to go down the road that led to talking about my baba. "What does this have to do with moonshine and the guy outside?"
"I'm just trying to figure out your baba since he very likely has all the answers."
"Well, he very likely might be dead." Admitting it churned my stomach, but I might have to face the truth eventually. So might as well start preparing. "But you're right, though. The morning he got shot, he was crying, like he knew something was going to happen."
"Like what?" Archer asked softly.
"It would have to be something big to make him cry."
"Something like knowing someone was after the valuable package, the money for which would help feed him and his family through the winter?"
"Yeah. Something like that. But it's not valuable."
"It’s… It sounds like it's a lot more valuable than you think. Maybe that’s the reason your baba wants you out of the way."
