“You needed help,” I tried saying, unsure if the words came out as broken as they felt, if they were more than a whisper.
“But I shot you. We’re enemies,” she said.
I couldn’t bring myself to look up at her yet. Who knew what look she was tossing my way, or if she already had an arrow poised at my heart. Maybe it’d be a mercy for her to end me right here, but the thought of leaving her to face her upcoming battle alone was sobering.
Summoning what remained of my depleting strength, I straightened, still kneeling before her. “You’re not my enemy,” I breathed out. Yep, the gleaming tip of an arrow pointed in my direction. A beat of silence passed. “When was the last time you had something to drink?”
Her lips quirked to the side in thought, her eyes searching her memory. “I had a couple sips of water in the morning.”
“And before that?” I pressed, telling myself I only cared because the answer would help me figure out more about her journey here.
“I had some berries for breakfast.”
The lines on my face deepened, not out of pain, but confusion. “That’s not water.”
“Their juice is kinda like water,” she countered with a slight shrug of her shoulder.
“I guess, technically.” Was that how she’d traveled for days? On berries and rationed water? It would certainly explain why she’d collapsed. Why would she have risked such difficult conditions to travel this far?
Her face softened. “I’m sorry.” She dropped her gaze to my blood-soaked thigh.
That response momentarily distracted me from the pain. I half expected her to be someone who never apologized.
“Can you walk still?” She relaxed the hold on the weapon, angling it toward the ground.
“Well, the alternative is dying here. And you didn’t make that look fun, so I guess I have no choice.” A deep growl roared in my throat as I stood. The blue dragon had returned to her shoulder, but he lifted off his perch and flew toward me. Wings fluttered with impressive speed as he rammed his head into my chest. No, not rammed, nuzzled.
I brought my hand up to run my knuckle along his side. “You’re welcome.” It didn’t take my animal instincts to interpret the act. The little guy zipped back to his owner.
“You asked for help, huh?” she asked the little creature. He rubbed against her neck like a cat does a leg. She directed her gaze back to me. “Thank you, but this changes nothing, only that I’ve wasted time. Lead the way.” She extended her open palm, directing it down the path.
Back to business, then.
27
Ro
Iwanted to fill these haunted woods with the cries of my anger and confusion. Rattle the world for all it had inflicted upon me. Just days ago I was home, chatting with Tio around the fire, walking through rows of tents filled with happy families, sparring with Rav.
Every time my foot connected with the ground, I doubted its realness. The world I had known had been so thoroughly and swiftly ripped out from under me that I wondered how I could trust it now, even with my feet firmly upon it.
My stress had piqued ever since Alba emerged from the thicket of trees outside our camp lying about an attack and hadn’t come down since. First, there was crossing the current of the Splits, then lying our way to Hava City where an ambush had laid in wait, all to be dragged to the castle of the man I despised most where I’d been forced to do his bidding under threat.
When I’d thought it couldn’t get any worse, I’d had to slog through a forest that wanted to run away from itself, nearly drowned in a quarry, discovered jacked up magic wielders thatshouldn’t exist, watched a stabbed Alba get hauled off, and now forced a man thatIinjured to bring me into a den of my enemies. Oh yeah, and the dark magic that’d destroyed an entire kingdom, that’s currently wreaking havoc, comes from a sentient lake that I willingly stride toward.
Dae had every reason to want me dead. He’d even had opportunity. At the very least, he could have left me behind. Why did he help me? I could practically hear Rav’s ridiculing voice in my head warning me not to let my guard down, but things were becoming increasingly complicated.
Not to mention I was tired. And sore. And not feeling well since my body was barely recovering from being pushed to the brink. This trip would surely kill me. If I somehow made it back, I’d convince Radhak that we’d need to leave. Not just retreat into Highcrest, but sail the oceans to the furthest point on the map. There would be no safe life here, and no armies strong enough to stand against an ancient angry magic bent on destruction.
And the heat. I could have done without the unrelenting heat. I debated sending a desperate, albeit irreverentprayer to Galenna the Moon Goddess for a gust of her wind.
“Drink,” Dae muttered, extending the half-drained waterskin in my direction without looking while his body wrenched with every movement.
He’d been right to stop me from draining the whole thing before. I’d known better too, but logic flew out the window when I woke with a single desire: water.
For the first hour of our walk, I fought the heavy bloat in my stomach that wanted to purge the water I’d deliriously gulped down. Dae was clearly well versed in these types of scenarios because my stomach finally settled a few minutes back.
“Thanks,” I said, feeling strange over accepting the offer. He was supposed to be my prisoner, wasn’t he? Had I become someone who takes a prisoner? No, not a prisoner. Hostage,maybe? Neither aligned with my core values, regardless of what I called it.
