CHAPTER ELEVEN
Nell ran until hissides heaved and a slick lather coated his body. Caden pulled up on the reins, slowing the stallion to a trot and then a walk. Eva glanced behind to see the last of the giants had finally turned back.
"I find it interesting that as soon as I spot you, you're fleeing from trouble," he observed.
Eva was too tired to give him the glare he deserved. He could pick and prod all he wanted, if the end result was him saving her from being squashed like a bug. She was gracious enough to allow him his misconceptions.
"Where's the Kyren?" Caden asked.
Eva stiffened, danger of a different sort making itself known. The words to confess her failure stuck in her throat.
The fox raced up to her shoulder, chattering at Caden and distracting him.
"I see you've attracted another beast."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Eva asked, twisting in her seat to see his face.
"Only that you seem to have made a habit of drawing the weird and the odd to you," he said, offering the little creature his hand and letting him smell it.
Eva snorted dismissively. "This is the Highlands. The only sort of creatures here are the weird and the odd."
"Is that so?" Caden said thoughtfully. His expression was contemplative. "Interesting, isn’t it then, that as soon as you flew off those water sprites stopped their attack?"
"Maybe they finally realized the Trateri didn’t make for easy prey," Eva pointed out, not liking what he was insinuating—that she was the cause of the attack. That she drew them to her somehow.
She didn't like her oddities being discussed. She rarely even acknowledged them to herself. For someone like Caden, who held the ear of the most powerful people in the land, to see so much left her feeling uncomfortably exposed.
"Could be," he agreed. "But I doubt it. Their attack seemed focused on you."
"Not me," Eva objected. "The Kyren."
His hum said he was willing to let her win this even as he didn't seem entirely convinced.
"How did you find me?" Eva finally asked.
She really hadn't expected anyone to follow. Or that they even could with the way Sebastian had taken off. The fact that Caden had was unbelievable. The Highlands were vast. For him to stumble over her in her time of need was so impossible that she wasn't entirely sure this wasn't some odd dream.
"You're my charge until I deliver you to the Kyren's meadow. You’re my only priority," Caden said. "I followed you. I lost the Kyren fairly quickly, but I saw the direction he was heading. The rest was luck."
