I nod.
“Good.”
We sit like that for long minutes, until pain is a distant memory. Whatever that flower is, I want more of it. It’s amazing.
Rough fingers stroke my hair, bringing my attention back to the situation. Our breaths mingle, our foreheads still touching. I draw back slightly, confused by the sudden gentleness he exhibits.
His palm cups my cheek, thumb skating over my cheekbone. Staring into his eyes, I can barely breathe. This attraction is dangerous enough, but I want to lean into his palm like a touch-starved kitten.
He makes me feel safe.
He makes me yearn to stay in his arms, curl up there and simply collapse.
I don’t know what to make of any of it, so I move, crawling off his lap to take a seat beside him. Even that small effort exhausts me. I’m so fucking tired.
“We’ll camp here tonight,” Bael murmurs. He fetches me a piece of cured meat from his bag, and then offers me his waterskin. “We both need rest.”
I nibble on the salty meat.
“Here.” Sweeping his cloak off his broad shoulders, he moves to place it around me.
“I’m fine.” I wave him away.
“Huntress.” His tone grows impatient. “You’re ten seconds away from collapse. Let me put my cloak around you.”
I can do nothing more than submit. The thick cloak drapes over my shoulders, the remnants of his body heat lingering in the wool. There’s a word on the tip of my tongue, but do I dare give it breath?
“Zyla,” I blurt.
Bael kneels in front of me as I gulp at his waterskin. “Zyla?”
“It’s my name.” I don’t dare look at him as I drink deeply.
“Zyla,” he repeats, and the way his tongue caresses my name sounds horrifically intimate. “What made you so hard?”
I lift my gaze, staring at him from beneath my lashes. I don’t have the strength left to fight him right now. “What do you mean?”
“You hate being helped, don’t you?”
The words are an arrow, straight to the heart.
No, I don’t. I don’t… But…
In my mind’s eye, I see Aylin screaming as she’s plucked from the Labyrinth by a vicious black dragon.
I take a slow swallow from the waterskin. “I lost the one person in the world who loved me. The only thing I had left was the burning coal of fury in my heart. I stoked that coal, I breathed life into it, and I used the rage to get me through the next nine years of my life.” An image of a pair of knights sears my memories, their hands rough as they shove me toward their precious birdcage, their cloaks stinking of the smoke from the witch pyres.
I shudder. “You have no idea what I’ve been through in order to survive. You have no idea what lengths I’ll go to in order to gain my revenge. Rage is my shield, hatred my sword. When I find my target, maybe I’ll finally be able to lower that shield.”
I don’t even know what that would feel like. Peace? Would I even recognize it? “But I have to find him first.”
“Who’s your target?” Bael murmurs.
“The Beast,” I whisper, meeting his gaze once more, before I lift the waterskin to my parched lips. “I won’t rest until I kill the Beast of Kerawan. He comes every year to claim a new bride. That’s why I’m here in the Labyrinth. I volunteered. And once I find Kari, I’m going to track him down and finally end his merciless existence.”
His amber eyes flare wide in shock, and I laugh.
“Yeah.” I take another drink. “It seems you’ve chosen the wrong bride to tether yourself to. I did warn you that I would bring about your ruin. You should have listened.”
