She clamps her mouth shut.
Garrett is giving me a more appraising look. “We have fighting rings here, too,” he says. “It’s a good way to make some coin if you’ve got a bit of skill.”
Ahead, the captain snorts. “And if you’re not afraid to lose a few teeth,” he calls back.
Callum gives me a similar once-over, and then his eyebrows go up. He hits Garrett in the arm. “Gar. We should take him to the arena at Mossnum. Can you imagine the side bets?”
Garrett considers, then chuckles darkly. “No one would see it coming.”
Jory is still looking back, but her gaze turns fierce. “Are you talking about Asher? You will not force him tofight—”
“Who said anything about force?” says Callum. He turns to look at me again. “It’s good silver, if you’ve got the mettle for it.”
At that, the king glances back. “Mossnum? That arena runs a rough crowd.”
Callum scoffs, and Garrett’s eyes flick skyward. “Just who does he think makes it rough?” he mutters.
“What was that?” Ky calls.
Callum raises his voice. “We were just saying you’re an amazing leader.”
The king gives an aggrieved sigh and turns to face forward.
Callum shrugs and adds, “Besides, Stripes wouldn’t have to worry. We’d look out for him.” He claps me on the shoulder. “He could probably earn enough to—oh. Shit. Sorry.”
If he tried to punch me, I could’ve blocked, but I wasn’t prepared for friendly camaraderie. But now I’m gripping the horse’s mane, breathing through my teeth. My vision has gone spotty. For the first time, I’m somewhat grateful for the armor, because if he’d smacked me directly on the brand, it might have knocked me off the horse. It takes a full minute before I can straighten.
The worst part is that I genuinely don’t think that was intentional.
“Asher,” says Jory, and her voice is very soft.
“It’s fine,” I say roughly. I taste blood in my mouth, and I wonder if I’ve bitten my tongue. “I’m fine.”
They’re all completely silent for the longest moment, and I just want them to stop looking at me.
Then Garrett glances over. “If you think that’s bad, just wait until he accidentally punches you in the balls,” he says dryly.
“That wasone time, Gar—”
Captain Zale whistles through his teeth, and they shut up.
“Thank you, Captain,” Lady Charlotte says primly. But Jory giggles.
Callum looks at me again. “So how about it?”
I still can’t quite make sense of this. Maybe he really did knock me off the horse. “How about...what?”
He glances at Garrett and then back at me. “We’ll have a few days’ leave in a week or so. Provided no one from Astranza shows up to kill you all, do you want to go earn a bag full of silver?”
I stare back at him. Last night, they all wanted to kill me. Two days ago, I wanted to killthem. Someone from Astranza presumably wants to killallof us. But now Ky’s men want...Well, I’m not sure, exactly. This must be like the slavers—they see me as a means to earn a little extra silver.
But there’s a tiny phrase that Callum said.We’d look out for him.
My heart thumps hard against my ribs.
Roman looks back. “Did he say yes?” he calls from the front of the line. “Because I’m in. I’d pay to see that.”
“You’re all insane,” says the captain. “You couldn’t pay me togoto Mossnum.”
