“First time seeing death up close?” Vade asked.
She took a long sip, willing her stomach not to heave again with a press of her palm to her abdomen. “I can’t believe you did that.”
There wasn’t an ounce of remorse on his face. Nothing that said he may have been too hasty in his response.
Monster.
“You’ll get used to it,” Vade said with more dispassion than the men he’d murdered deserved.
Orelia swished the water around her mouth and spit it out, face bunching in disgust at the taste of lingering eggs. “Don’t you have papers if you’re working for the king?”
“Of course I do.”
“So why didn’t you show them?”
Vade picked through the men’s pockets and helped himself to their coin purses. He patted their sides, feeling for anything else he could salvage. “Because I felt like killing them.”
She was going to vomit again. Orelia braced against a tree. “You . . .you are the most stone-hearted person I have ever met. Those men could have had families. Friends. Lovers. And you took that away from them all because you felt like it!”
Her feverish words did nothing to the fae’s cool demeanor as he sifted through a few coins. “I don’t give a fuck about their lives.”
When he’d taken all he wanted, Vade walked up to her, and she wanted to run. Wanted to be anywhere but stuck in the middle of the woods with a ruthless cutthroat. He held out the dagger he’d used to slit the blue-eyed man’s throat, hilt first. “Now that you’re intimately acquainted with death, here’s a weapon so you can take it yourself.”
The white glow around the serrated steel made her step back from the cursed weapon. “I don’t want another one. Especially not a seidr blade. I don’t want anything your murderous hands have touched!”
He grabbed her hand and placed the hilt in her palm, closing her fingers around the braided leather with his. “You’re going to have to get over that part about me. It’s who I am. It’s what I do.”
She glowered.
“You’ll need weapons out here and only magic can fight magic. If we run into anyone who has a seidr blade, you’ll need something that can stand against one. When we reach Ricaboro you can buy moresteel weapons, but for now, take this.” He brushed past her like what he’d given her had been a generous gift.
Orelia studied the hideous blade in her hand. He’d pulled it on her when they’d first met, and she must have been in too much shock then to notice it was seidr-made. Though she knew she’d never spill blood with it, Orelia placed it next to her small knife on her belt. After taking a few moments to compose herself, she realized what he’d said. “Wait—Ricaboro? I thought we were going to Dallton?”
“We were, but I got another name just before we got here, so we’re making a detour. Dallton has a fair selection of supplies, but you’re going to need a few more things if we’re going to make it all the way to Dorsey, so we’re stopping in Ricaboro. Two dragons, one stone.”
Vultures had begun to circle, dark spots in the sky against a bright afternoon sun. Vade returned to his whistling, a jarring sound to accompany the senseless massacre that had just occurred.
She couldn’t fathom having to watch him do this for the duration of their time together. He didn’t just kill people revealed on the stone, he killed anyone who was a slight annoyance or an unfortunate inconvenience.
Though the blood was on his hands, her heart was the one left stained. She could have saved the Arbor if Vade hadn’t gotten in her way. It was her job to help others. She knew she wouldn’t have had enough time to heal all three, but she could have helped one.
One was still an important number. One mattered. One person could make a difference in the world.
Orelia gave one last teary-eyed look at the lifeless bodies and the vultures picking at their bloody flesh, wondering if the sight wouldhaunt her nightmares, or if the real nightmare was the man walking away from her.
A few marks later, they stopped for lunch. Orelia’s stomach had settled enough to enjoy a crisp apple. In the shadow of a tree, the fruit gleamed a pure white, but when the branches went with the wind and the sun caught the apple, it turned holographic. The sight had never stopped being mesmerizing as Orelia turned the apple over, admiring the rainbow of colors.
She bit into her second one, revealing a ripe, dark purple interior dripping with sweet juices. They’d stumbled upon a small orchard of the only trees to produce in spring, and it seemed as good a place as any to stop for lunch. She hadn’t wanted to speak to Vade since the incident with the Arbors, and he’d been content to eat his dried venison in peace. They were just about to head out when a strained croak came from the tree next to her.
In a tuft of grass, barely the size of her pinky finger, sat a red frog with blue legs. Its right hind leg was extended further than the others, and when she reached for it, the frog dragged its lengthened leg as it tried to crawl away from her.
“Oh no, little guy, you’re hurt. Here. Let me get something for you.”
She dug through her pack and pulled out an empty jar that normally held flour back home. “Vade said I wouldn’t need this, but we’ll show him.”
The fae was too busy counting the money from the purses he’d taken off the Arbors to hear her.
Orelia gathered moss, grass, a few rocks, and a stick to make a home for the frog. Keeping the jar horizontal, she arranged the items inside, putting a thick pile of moss near the back for the frog to hide in. After poking a few holes in the leather cap with her knife, Orelia searched for the frog.
