Astraia stilled, her breath catching.
“If I’m not the one holding you,” he continued, quieter now, “some other hunter will find you. And they won’t offer manacles. They will offer the sword or worse.”
She swallowed, her throat tight at the truth in his words. His body still blocked her way, heat radiating between them.
“Don’t pretend you care about me,” she muttered, glaring at him.
“I don’t. But I care about keeping you alive.”
They stared at each other, weighing the gravity of the moment. Astraia had a choice—which cage she could accept. The cage that kept her bonds quiet but her skin intact, or a cage of inevitable torture.
Draven stepped back, lowering her wrists, but kept a hand wrapped around her arm. “Come on. Before someone less patient finds you.”
“And if I don’t?”
He looked at her sternly as the sound of boots and clanking armor echoed down a nearby street. “Then you better pray to the Stars the next person who finds you still thinks you’re worth more alive.”
_
“There.” Draven motioned just ahead to a sign hanging above a door that read,The Capri Inn. He still held her arm, but did not bind her with the manacles, which puzzled Astraia.
The smell of baking bread and roasted meat floated through the air as they drew closer to the inn. The noise of boisterous patrons reverberated off the stone walls of the alleyway. Tired and suddenly famished, she eagerly stepped through the door held wide by her captor.
The inn was full of guests either grabbing a drink from the bar or eating their meal. A true melting pot of Astradeon with people from all over the continent.
Astraia’s eyes flitted between the tables, first noticing a small group of acolytes from the Hollow City temples, wearing their white robes and heads shaved.
Seated at the bar were two men dressed in furs and wearing leather armor, a custom of the Skyforge Peaks dwellers. Their long beards were braided with small white beads. Old stories once said the beads were whittled from Drakari bones, the once great beasts that flew across the empyrean as stewards of Rage, their massive bat-like wings carrying their enormous scaled bodies leagues without effort, breathing fire as judgement.
Other unassuming people were seated at various tables, laughter and conversation filling the entire room.
Her mouth tugged into a smile at the sight of the people. The resilience of Astradeon’s people never ceased to amaze her. The Constellations had left them, forsaken them, but they still found a will to keep living. The world might have darkened, but there was still some Starlight left in the hearts of the people.
Astraia noticed Draven shift beside her, and she stole a sideways glance toward him, only to find him staring at her.
Without a word, Draven dropped her arm and strode to the barkeeper, inquiring about a room.
She took advantage of the brief reprieve to breathe deeply, the realization of her predicament crashing down on her. There was no clear path ahead. Astraia was a tactician, born and bred to ascertain her enemy’s weaknesses and exploit them to achieve her goals, but she had not prepared to be caught in a hunter’s snare.
Failure was for the powerless. Astraia was not powerless. She was power reborn, and she would escape. There was no alternative.
The innkeeper barely glanced Astraia’s way, even with her cheeks flushed, cloak battered and soiled with dirt and the blood of her enemies, and eyes like twin storm fronts.
Draven dropped some solas into the innkeeper’s hand and returned to her side holding a single key.
She glared, heat rushing to her face.
“You don’t have to like it. But I still don’t trust you.”
Without another word, he gestured toward the stairs, allowing Astraia to lead.
With a sigh, she walked ahead of him and climbed the narrow wooden staircase in silence. The hallway flickered in candlelight and smelled of rain mixed with damp stone.
Draven moved in front of her to the nearest door to the staircase and unlocked it. Astraia stood in the doorway, irritation flaring as she gazed at the moonlit room.
One bed. One chair.
“I am not sharing a bed with you,” she said flatly.
