Jessiah was strong, but he didn’t fight back. No, all he did was stare at his friend, eyes wide, almost dumbfounded.
As if he couldn’t believe Xavier would defend auseless whorelike me.
My heart raced in my chest. Had he really said those words? It was hard to believe I’d heard him correctly. I knew what he thought of me. It wasn’t a fucking secret. But to be so outwardly hateful? I hadn’t expected that.
Before things could escalate, Wolf and Huntyr stormed back inside. “Are you done acting like children yet?” Huntyr asked.
Xavier immediately dropped his hold on Jessiah and backed away.
Jessiah gave him one more violent look before brushing himself off.
I still couldn’t fucking speak.
“Good,” Huntyr said. She looked different now. Determined. It had only been a few minutes since she and Wolf left, but it was clear their discussion changed things.
Wolf stood behind Hunt with his hands clasped behind his back and his chin lifted in respect.
“Something’s going on in the east. We can’t be sure exactly what’s transpiring, but if we let it fester and things really are serious, we could suffer for it. We won’t ignore them anymore. We’ll send our soldiers, but only after you go yourselves and confirm the need.”
This finally pulled me out of my stupor. “What do you mean? Just Jessiah and Xavier?”
Hunt’s eyes fell on me, and the determination there told me I was fucked. “Jessiah, Xavier, and you, Rummy. You’re going with them.”
Huntyr and I walked out of the study alone, leaving the men behind to make a game plan for the trip.
The journey that I absolutely wouldnotbe joining.
“Are you out of your damn mind?” I asked once we were out of earshot.
Jessiah put up enough of a fight for the two of us, so I hadn’t expressed how absolutely horrid of an idea this was while we were still inside.
Now, I’d let Hunt know exactly what I thought.
She kept her attention fixed on where we were going. “I need someone I can trust, and after what Jessiah just pulled, that list is very, very short. I’m sorry, but you have to go.”
“I’m not one of them! Goddess above, they’ll fucking leave me for dead the first chance they get!”
“That’s not true, and you know it.”
Huffing, I followed after her onto the dark street. The feast had ended, leaving the alleys of Scarlata empty and quiet.
Still, I felt no comfort.
Not when my best friend was sending me to the eastern kingdoms withJessiah.
“What good will I possibly do on a trip like that, Hunt? I’ll hold them back!”
She stopped abruptly and spun to face me, eyes searching. “You have to go. Without you, I have no idea what Jessiah will do. He isn’t himself, not when it comes to the conflicts in the east. You keep him sane. You keep him steady. It has to be you.”
I bit back a sardonic laugh.Thatwas hilarious. “He doesn’t want me there. Neither of them does.”
She scoffed. “That’s because they’re egotistical men who don’t want you there keeping an eye on them. They’ll get over it.”
“Will they? Because Jessiah seemed pretty determined back there.”Determinedwas putting it lightly. Jessiah threw a full-on hissy fit when Huntyr announced that I would be traveling with them. And when she told him he couldn’t even take his troops along? I thought he’d combust.
Because who was Jessiah without his little army of lapdogs following behind him?
He’d listed off a dozen reasons why I would do more damage than good, and I had to admit, he had a point.
