“You will be sleeping tonight. No shifts for you.” Ajax pointed to me, emphasizing how serious he was.
I opened my mouth to argue when Rykon pipped up. “Nope. We are not hearing it. We don’t care about any of the well put together excuses you are about to give us. This is nonnegotiable. You will sleep tonight, all night.” I was not used to being talked to like this and I could feel my eyes narrowing, my shoulders bunching, my blood pumping as I will be damned to let them determine what I can and can’t do.
Zayden gave me a kind and pleading look, seeing my stance and taking a single step towards me, “We just want to give your arm time to heal properly. We need you at a hundred percent when we head down that mountain. Please, Emerald.” As soon as he said my fake name, and not my gem or mistress, I knew he was serious and I felt all my anger deflate.
“Fine.” I droned out, “but if I can’t sleep, that’s not my fault.” I wanted to point that out just in case.
“Then do that damn healing meditation thing you talked about.” Ajax barked. “I don’t care what you do, but you will keep your eyes closed and your body still for six to eight hours.” I got mad all over again, about to tell him the fuck off, when Zayden cried out.
“Can you just ask her nicely, man? I get that both of you were worried, both of you are pissed about the situation, about her getting hurt, but having both of you barking orders at her is just going to make her want to argue and not do what you want. Unless that’s what you really want?”
Rykon turned and walked away, not really in the headspace to do what Zayden said but also not wanting to fight with me. Ajax watched Rykon leave in disbelief, knowing that it was usually him that needed to walk away first. He shook his head and looked me in the eye as he took a jagged breath. “Emerald, can you please just try? Zayden is right. We need you as close to a hundred percent as possible.”
I nodded, not trusting the words that would come out of my mouth but wanting to respect that he asked me in a better way than before. I guess we were all trying.
I laid down on my back, head on my bag, as I closed my eyes to try and sleep. Planning on using meditation if I couldn’t sleep.
I felt a body settle next to me. I curled into Zayden as I kept my eyes closed. Then two large muscular arms circled me and I knew that this wasn’t Zayden. My eyes flew open as my body tensed.
“Zayden took the first watch and Rykon… he still needs to cool off. I thought… I thought I would be a better pillow than your lumpy bag?” The question hung out there as I slowly turned towards him. His eyes implored me to let this happen. To let him hold me as I slept on his chest.
I looked around at first, confirming what he said was true, and I settled on him. He let out a pleased sound as I laid my head down, my ear to his chest. I could hear his heart beating and it was going fast. I put my bandaged arm on him, hand over his heart as I petted it, trying to tell it to calm down.
“If you keep that up, more of my body is going to be awake and I will need to relieve myself.”
His honesty surprised me and I lifted my head, resting it on his chest as I looked down at him. “Then what are we going to do about that beating heart? If you want us to get some sleep, that is going to have to start to even out.” I smiled at the end, letting him know I was both serious and not.
He smiled back at me with his pearly whites on display. My lungs gave out as I was having a hard time being able to breathe. When he smiled like that, it matched the brightness of his hair, making me feel like everything was going to be okay. I settled back down, not wanting him to see how much he was affecting me with just one smile.
I could feel the hand behind me playing with the tips of my hair and I found it endearing, my mind wanting to scream at how cute it was. “I don’t think I will have another moment to tell you this but what you did today, as much as it freaked me out, as hard as it was to watch, as pissed off and worried as I still am, it was amazing and I think your father would be very proud of you.”
I snorted on his chest, “Ya, right? My father would’ve been worse than you and Rykon. Pissed that I risked my life for another. That was the one thing I was explicitly not allowed to do.” I could hear my father’s voice now.No one, and I mean no one, is moreimportantthan you. You need tosurviveat all costs. Your life isworthmore than theirs and it’s unacceptable for you to waste yours on others. It’s like spitting in goddess Sareen’s face.
I felt Ajax’s chest rise and fall. “Well, that just sounds like a father who loves his daughter to me.”
I thought so too, until I realized the words he emphasized. “Ya, maybe,” was all I could say because I had a feeling he meant something else by the words he chose.
I closed my eyes, not wanting to think about it anymore. Settling back down, I felt exhaustion take over my body as the warmth of Ajax surrounded me. I felt safe and at home at the same time.
Chapter 19
Somethingwaswrong.Icould feel it.
My eyes opened. I pushed a sleeping Zayden’s leg and Ajax’s arm off me. It was still dark, but I could tell it was in the early morning hours. Rykon was on watch duty, but I saw a faint line of him slumped over, asleep on a rock. I couldn’t get this feeling that we were being watched off of me.
As I got up, Zayden murmured in his sleep, “No, don’t leave me with the frog monsters.” I almost smiled, wondering what the hell he was dreaming about, when I heard a rustle in the wind. I paused and rolled over Zayden onto his other side where my pack was. I stuck my hand in and got Nita, my right short sword, out of my pack, but it was too late.
I felt an arrow pointed at my neck. It was so light that if I wasn’t trained, I would’ve turned my head and cut open my own throat. “Let go of the weapon and get up nice and slow.”
A sweet scent tickled my nose, a smell I knew from a long time ago in the sand dunes of Tacnal. “Carolina Jessamine?” I called out in question.
The bowman chuckled, “Smart. Your companions are still sleeping, but you felt us as soon as we surrounded you. She will want to meet you, I’m sure.”
“She?”
“You will find out soon enough. Now get up. I won’t ask you again.” I dropped the sword, and the bowman clucked his tongue. A small child sized person scurried out from somewhere and grabbed up my bag and disappeared back into the darkness.
“Now, wake up your companions, slowly, and let them know they will be coming with us. If they resist, we will kill you. If they fight us along the way, we will kill you. If-”
