“Are you even listening to me?”
Something hard smacked into the back of my head and I jolted, looking down to find the leather strap for a knife at my feet. “What was that for?” I asked, whirling to face Chaz.
“You’re distracted,” he said.
“I’m notdistracted.”
“Really?” He raised an eyebrow. “Rissa told us how it was with Rose that day of the first trial. That the tension was so thick, she?—”
I threw the leather strap back at his face to cut him off. “You should know better than to listen to my sister,” I growled.
He looked wholly unconvinced. Shrugging, he picked up his knife and continued sharpening it on the stone. “She wasn’t wrong. I saw it with my own eyes when Rose was here the other day.” He chuckled and wagged his eyebrows at me. “You know what else I saw with my own eyes?”
“Don’t finish that thought.”
“I’m just saying, the girl’s easy to look at. Been a while since someone new has come along. If you’re not interested, maybe I’ll try and?—”
Slamming my hands on the table, I stood and crossed into the kitchen. That smug grin on Chaz’s dark face told how easily he could read me, how easily he could rile me up.
I rummaged through the basket of charms we kept on the counter, deciding what I wanted to bring on patrol with me tonight. My fingers landed on the vial of calamus oil Rose had used to cast the compulsion spell on me, and her face popped back up in my mind.
Chaz was right—shewaseasy to look at. The fact that she wasbeautiful wasn’t a secret. Anyone with eyes could see that; the way her dark hair shone like black velvet, how her full lips smirked when holding back a quick retort, those endless eyes that cut right through you. It didn’t help that I knew how her skin felt beneath my fingertips, how her body felt held against mine in a darkened corridor.
Maybe I was attracted to her. Maybe her stubbornness had given way to something else. But I wasn’tdistracted. We had a mission, and I knew my priorities. Keeping her safe and making sure she was able to do what we needed her to do was part of that. So was earning her trust.
I knew deep down, though, I wanted that trust as more than allies. Even as a young boy, when I saw someone hurting, I had this urge to pick up the pieces. To heal them and make things right. Every time my sister walked through the door of our home with more bruises, I wished I could be the one to bear that pain. Every day our mother drifted further and further from us, I wished I could bridge the gap and take her illness away.
And Rose…she was hurting. The way she spoke of her father’s death and how the people in her province treated her drug up the same desire in me to be what she needed. Last night, it was a friend.
I wanted her to feel safe and comfortable with me. I wasn’t sure when the shift had taken place, but now I wanted to break down her walls, to see what demons she held beneath that tough exterior, what haunted her past and caused the helplessness and insecurity that tried to crack through her carefully curated shell.
That has nothing to do with the mission, Leo, a voice whispered in the back of my mind.
“Ridgemore,” I said curtly, getting us back on track. “What’s the latest report?”
Chaz cleared his throat. “The Emberfell fugitives will be here within the week. Things are as bad as ever up there at the border between them and Drakorum, and more families are on the run. Word got out, and there have been attempts the last few days toget the northernandeastern ports shut down so they can’t enter. Mostly the work of a handful of angry locals, but we’ve been keeping an eye on it.” He looked up at me from his knife. “Just be careful. Wouldn’t want to mess up that pretty face for Rose,” he finished, his eyes flashing humorously.
I shot him a glare, but it held no true anger. As much as he and the others enjoyed irritating me, I didn’t know what I would do without them. They were my only family.
It was easy to withstand a few jokes to have them by my side.
We spent the next quarter of an hour going through the reports from the last week of the various sectors across the capital, lost in talk of strategy and placement when there was a knock on the door.
Chaz eyed it. “You expecting someone?”
“Anyone we know wouldn’t bother knocking.” I flipped a knife in my hand and stood, stalking to the door.
I pulled it open, surprise licking at me like flames. “I didn’t think I’d see you again so soon.”
Rose tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and gave me a soft smile. One free of sarcasm, of derision or distaste or distrust. The beams from the afternoon sun shimmered around her, making her olive skin glow and her green eyes sparkle.
She was…stunning.
Fates, I was in trouble.
“Can we talk?” she asked, biting her bottom lip.
“I—sure, of course. Come in.” I held an arm out, wondering what had come up that made her travel here the day before the second trial began.
