Josie tried to keep the smugness from her tone, but she couldn’t help herself. She was only human, after all, and rankling Aidon’s Second was becoming one of her favorite pastimes.
Aleissande barely refrained from rolling her eyes. But there was fondness in her voice as she asked, “How do you feel about addressing your people, Princess?”
51
Aya was disappearing into herself. It happened in increments, Will noticed, small bits of her tucking away someplace he couldn’t reach.
He understood. He knew the weight of what had happened to her was crushing. And yet this seemed to be something…more. Something specific to him that he could not put his finger on.
But the further they traveled, the farther away she seemed to get from him, despite her back resting against his chest as they rode through the Midlands, her thighs warm where his cupped hers as he spurred their horse on.
They’d been riding for days, their route long and winding to avoid any major towns or risks of crossing paths with Kakos garrisons.
Kakos would be delayed after Sitya, especially with the death of their king and general and the destruction of their ships. But that didn’t mean Aya and Will had time to spare. Even still, he couldn’t quite bring himself to keep the ragged pace he’d run when he was trying to find her. Not when exhaustion was slumping her shoulders forward, not when she continued to disappear into herself, her attention tuckedso deeply inward that he feared he soon would not be able to reach her at all.
They found refuge under the stars at night, their wolves keeping guard on either side of them, but even then, Aya kept her distance. Not physically—she curled into him, her back to his chest, her legs tangled with his. But there was a wall between them, a gap that Will could not cross.
She was there, but not.
With him, but not.
It reminded him of when she’d shielded against him after the Athatis attacked during the Dawning celebration, when his affinity could not sense the essence of her.
He didn’t dare try, not with the way she had flinched the last time his power had reached for her to soothe her panic. Her brokenpleasehaunted not just his dreams, but his waking hours, too. When she fell silent, her body relaxed into his as they rode but her mind somewhere else entirely, he heard that one word like a haunted echo in his mind:
Please.
Please.
Please.
Fucking hells, he would kill them all for what they’d put her through. Evie and every single Kakos soldier.
He would kill them all.
***
“Wow,” Aya murmured, her gaze fixed on the lake before them. Will smiled as he dismounted their horse, his hands finding her waist to help her down.
He knew she didn’t need assistance, but…he needed to feel her.
It had been another day of growing distance, Aya’s eyes vacant as they rode through the Elsoria desert. He’d considered pressing her, begging, even, for her to tell him where she was going when she disappeared inside herself like this.But he was too afraid to push her. Aya wasn’t fragile, but there was a heaviness bearing down on her that he refused to add to.
Yet he couldn’t stop the ache in his chest at finally having her back only to feel like he was still losing her. He hated himself for even thinking it. It was selfish, after all she’d been through.
“Lake Arniax,” Will explained as they turned toward the shoreline, his arm sliding around her waist. Aya went easily, her body pressing against his as she leaned into him. “The smallest of the three wet lakes in Elsoria.”
“It certainly doesn’t look small,” Aya remarked, her gaze scanning the still waters. The lake was nestled between brush-covered hills, giving a sense of privacy Will hadn’t felt in the two weeks they’d been traveling.
They’d stopped once in a small village so Will could gather supplies, but aside from that, it had been them and their bondeds and the endless stretch of sky above the dirt and sands of the Elsoria. Even still, he’d felt too exposed, that hair-raising feeling crawling up the back of his neck. It took him days to stop glancing over his shoulder, to stop expecting to find the demigod at their back, ready to exact her vengeance on Aya.
Akeeta nudged his leg, her stare soft and pleading.
“Go hunt,” he said quietly. “We’ll be fine here.”
Lake Arniax was out of the way even for them, and they hadn’t seen another living soul in over a week.
Tyr lingered at Aya’s side, his head cocked uncertainly.
