Semras went still.
He had begged. How many times had he begged her now? She lost count long ago.
Breath curt and shallow, Velten released her hands and stared. “Do you understand? I cannot hurt you. I will not hurt you. So keep your end of this damn oath, will you!” Behind the scalding words hid all of his pleas and despair.
Ah! As if he were the only one in pain here.
“Don’t you dare look at me like that,” Semras replied. “We both lost something we can never get back today. But don’t worry,Inquisitor… I won’t make you honour your part of the Wyrdtwined Oath. I don’twant you to.”
He scoffed. “You would insult me by freeing me from my obligations? I think not,witch. You have taken for yourself an unwilling husband, and you will not be rid of him so easily.”
“You think I wanted this? Our words shouldn’t have been binding at all. You made it so! When you drank from my cup, you sealed our fate, you bastard!Youtook the step that sealed our fate!”
“Oh, so now it is my fault? How could I have known? How could it have had any effect after so much time and distance?”
“I don’t know! I’m an herbalist, and this is old fey magic. All of this wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t stepped into the Mother-Tree!”
“It would not have happened if you had returned home when I told you to!”
Breathless, they stared silently at each other. Far above their heads, birds sang their amorous songs, completely oblivious to the mood.
Semras swallowed back the insults and recriminations she so dearly wished to throw in his face. “Oh, I am returning home,” she said, sneering, “and I’m returning homealone, while you will remain behind to live your life as you intended to before you dragged me into it. No obligation, no protection, no companionship. Perfect strangers, as we should have stayed!”
Velten trailed his knuckles against her cheek. Half-lidded eyes wandered over her face. “Already speaking of separation? What a lovely wife you make.”
“Get. Off. Me.” Semras pushed him off and stood, sweeping the dirt off her dress. “Do notevercall me that again.”
She stomped away, uncaring if he followed her back to camp or not.
Chapter 31
“Ifthatprissyknightstole our horses, I will eviscerate him,” Inquisitor Velten declared coldly.
An icy silence had stood between them on their way back to camp. The inquisitor only broke it once, to ask her if she’d learned of anything on her side of the stalls, and Semras had muffled her desire to scream out in rage. The entire trip had been futile. She had lost so much to gain nothing.
And now, just as she longed for nothing else than to gallop back home as soon as she could, neither Themas nor the horses were anywhere to be seen. Only bedrolls and bags remained, abandoned around an unlit campfire. Disheartened, Semras stared at them blankly.
Next to her pack, a blur of red fur darted toward a nearby birch tree. Her gaze followed the sound of rustling leaves to a squirrel standing still against a white bark trunk, its mouth stuffed with a thin glass vial. Small black eyes stared at her, waiting apprehensively.
“What now?” she muttered flatly.
“Maldoza stranded us here.” Velten sighed. “So now we wait until he comes back.”
Semras blinked. The small critter had stolenherglass vial. She darted after it, and it startled away, dropping the corked bottle onto the dried leaves of the forest floor. Without looking back, the squirrel fled up the trunk and out of reach.
She grabbed its lost prize, then examined the seal. Despite its brief adventure, it had stayed on, and the seeds of the devil’s helmet still remained safely inside. Their small, dark oval shapes rocked against the glass as she slid the vial back into her pocket.
“And if he doesn’t?” Semras asked, glancing at the inquisitor.
Velten finished unbuttoning his ripped garb, used one corner of the fabric to wipe away the remains of kohl on his face, and then let it fall at his feet. “Then, we occupy ourselves until he changes his mind.” Before her, he stood naked from the waist up, with only black trousers to shield where the dark hairs trailing down his abdomen led to.
Semras’ eyes widened. He couldn’t possibly be suggesting that they …?
“Avert your eyes, witch. This sight belongs only to mywife.” He smirked cruelly, and she repressed the deep desire to ensure he never could again.
Oblivious to her murderous desires, the inquisitor bent down over his bag and retrieved a new shirt.
“I once ardently wished,” she mused out loud, “to shatter your teeth one by one.”
