CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
What the hell had come over her?
The same question had been rolling through her mind on a loop since they’d left the humans. She had killed people, had been desperate to kill them, but even now that the adrenaline had left her system, she couldn’t bring herself to regret it.
She sat next to the collapsed ruin they’d found, the wall half standing, the rubble lost to time. The wind was dying down, but it was still enough to make her drying clothes flap where they hung. She sat as close as she dared to the fire to try and dry her still-wet hair, wearing only an oversized top she’d brought with her because she was sick of her hair soaking whatever top she then had to sleep in. She’d change properly once her hair had dried a little more, and frankly, after the day they’d had, she couldn’t care less about propriety.
With her legs tucked carefully underneath her to hide how little she was wearing underneath it, she used a cloth to tease the last stubborn lines of dried blood from the intricate marks on the dagger’s hilt, having to use her nail at times. No matter how much she scrubbed, the hilt still looked tainted.
She had killed three people, two men and one woman… at least she thought they were. Truth be told, from horseback, she hadn’t had time to notice much more than where to aim, her dagger slicing through flesh as if it were nothing. Aelia couldn’t decide whether that was a good thing or a bad thing.
She turned her dagger over in her hands, angling it in the firelight to make sure every speck of blood was gone. The blood itself didn’t bother her, she’d have been useless out hunting if it did, but she didn’t want any trace of those monsters to linger.
And that’s what they were. She’d reminded herself of it a thousand times already, whenever panic started running circles in her mind, waving doubts around like streamers at a festival. They were monsters.
The last thing she remembered with any real clarity was racing around the corner and seeing what was in that cart. And then she had run in like a wild thing, charging into them as if she’d lost her mind. Maybe she had. Only a lunatic would think they stood a chance against so many. She would have died if it weren’t for Keeran.
Keeran. She let her eyes slide over to him for what felt like the millionth time that evening. He was hanging his clothes to dry next to hers, as silent and unreadable as he’d been since they’d left the humans. She couldn’t tear her eyes off him.
Aelia’s chest tightened at the memory of him charging at the Astraea. She felt like she had seen him as Mother Nature had intended him to be, wielding death with every sweep of his sword, the closest thing to perfection she had ever seen. She hadn’t even known such beauty existed in death, but it did, and Keeran was it.
She had seen it in him countless times over the last few days when his control slipped. That same irresistible darkness that had flickered beneath the surface, a mere glimmer of what she had seen today, but just as beautiful.
Aelia got to her feet and walked tentatively over to him. She’d put him at risk today, too, and his silence made her suspect he wasn’t best pleased about it.
“I’m sorry,” Aelia whispered when she was a few steps from him.
After a moment's pause, he turned to face her. She met his eyes unflinchingly, all too aware that he was reading every sentiment raging within her. Embarrassment, guilt, sadness; there they sat for him to see.
“What for?”
“For my naivety. If it wasn’t for you, I’d be dead.”
He walked over to her, stopping only when she had to arch her neck to look at him.
“If it wasn’t for you, all of those humans might have died.”
She swallowed heavily and tried to look away. He grabbed her chin and made her look at him. She didn’t resist.
“The only thing you have to apologise for is not waiting for me.”
Only then did she try to free her chin. He didn’t let her.
“We’re in this together, remember? I have your back, you have mine.” His irises flickered to an unnatural black, and her breath caught in her throat. “How can I have your back if you take off like that?”
She said nothing. There it was, thatothernessabout him. It sent a shiver of goosebumps over her skin. She wasn’t completely foolish; she was still absolutely terrified of it, but now that fear had a tinge of something else, something curious, something eager.
He dropped his face closer to hers, still gripping her chin.
“Promise me you won’t do something like that again.” His voice dropped to a menacing growl that had her toes curling, even as alarm scurried down her spine, her muscles tensing involuntarily in response to the danger in his eyes.
“I promise,” she breathed. She would have promised him anything.
She fought to control her hammering heart, but his eyes dove to the hollow at the base of her throat, and the subtle lift of his lips told her that her pulse had betrayed her. When they returned to meet hers, there was something enticingly predatory in their depths, and she found herself leaning fractionally closer, an innate curiosity taking over her.
Keeran dropped his fingers from her chin and took a step back, his eyes locked onto hers, the indecision in them warring with a hunger she could relate to. Whatever it was that was holding him back, she was no longer under any misapprehension that he didn’t want her. From the way his breathing had picked up, the heavy rise and fall of his chest making something tighten low in her stomach, she knew he wanted her as much as she wanted him.
And she was sick of waiting.
