As soon as he was done, he stepped aside, motioning to the horse.
I didn’t need words to spot the way his jaw was set in a hard line. He was still unhappy that this was the plan, but he was allowing me to have my way.
Something I appreciated.
I mounted the horse with ease. I couldn’t say for sure, but I think the horse enjoyed my company as well. I reached down to rub the fur on her neck, not missing the way Otho’s eyes tracked the movement of my fingers.
Otho pointed to the horizon. “Ride straight there. It’s a full day’s ride, but stop as little as possible. We don’t want it to seem like you have any help.” He pushed a water skin into my hands, his knuckles sending a tingle through my skin as they brushed mine. “Definitely don’t stop by any homesteads, okay?”
I nodded, my lips twisting into a ghost of a smile at his joke. Sure, some would say my kidnapping by a small village was no laughing matter, but I had come to accept that incident was the least of my worries. I’d always taken everything in my life in stride, and the second of my many kidnappings was no exception.
And now it was time to turn the tides in my favor.
“The six-day clock starts at high moons tonight. Even if you don’t arrive tonight, the timeline stays the same, understood?”
“Understood,” I replied, gripping the reins so tightly my knuckles were draining of blood.
“Here.” He stretched his hand out toward me, and it took a moment for me to recognize what was in his palm. It was an ornamented dagger, the sharp edge glinting in the dawn light.
“I . . . uh . . . don’t know how to use one of those.” I’d only just barely learned to call one. Askel and I hadn’t conquered the usage yet.
“Just keep it hidden in your bodice and stab first, ask questions later. Aim for the neck or chest.”
I picked up the dagger gingerly, the weight of it unexpected as I pulled it toward me. It was obviously a very nice dagger, similar to the one Askel carried.
“Keep it hidden.”
I nodded, sucking in so I could slip it between the layers of my bodice, beneath my shirt. It was too obvious on the front, soI shifted it to the side, pressing on where the end poked out of my bodice. It wasn’t the most comfortable, but it would work.
“Remember, six days, from tonight.” His expression gave me the indication he wanted to say something else, but before he could, he shook his head slightly, then he slapped the rump of the horse, sending her into a gallop.
I looked over my shoulder, a death grip on the reins as the horse sped ahead, watching as he stood there by the empty horse post, a scowl on his face.
It was so much easier to travel during daylight when I wasn’t reeling from Leif’s lies, as I had been the last time I had made this journey with Otho. That being said, I also found myself with a little too much time to consider my feelings for Leif and how I would react when I saw him.
On the one hand, he was the first man to really look at me—the first to call me beautiful, and the first to listen to me. But did that really make him my weighted like he claimed? And because he was dishonest about his family, did that mean he was also dishonest about other things between us?
Did he even love me like he professed?
Ultimately, I knew I would have to have this conversation with him. Something that made my heart beat faster, and made me want to pull back on the reigns to slow the horse to give myself more time to think, but I resisted.
Though I did stop for a brief break around midday, by the time the sun was falling from the sky, I could see the buildings of Malheim on the horizon. It was a complicated feeling, as Malheim truly was a beautiful city, but I was also willingly returning to a place which had kept me prisoner, a fact that made me increasingly uneasy as the buildings grew in size until I was passing through the exterior stone wall, the horse’s hoofs echoing off the stone walls as they pounded the dirt streets. Atleast I hadn’t felt as much like a prisoner here as I had in Ralheim.
I slowed, both to avoid colliding with anyone on the street, but also because this was the fuzzy part in my memory. Before, I had been in such admiration of my first view of a city that wasn’t Ralheim, that I hadn’t paid very close attention to where I was going.
But I had a hunch. And that hunch was that Leif was following me constantly as he claimed.
Therefore, once I found a square with a fountain, I dismounted and let the horse drink as I leaned against the tiled barrier, beginning my vigil.
It didn’t take long until I spotted his golden hair glinting as he ducked around a corner.
“Leif,” I said as he approached. Though it had been a few days since I had last seen him, he appeared much more tired than he had been before, dark circles inhabiting the space beneath his blue eyes. It made him look older than I remembered.
He approached the fountain, leaning down to splash water on his face before turning to face me.
“You didn’t have to follow me.” It was a hell of a way to start a conversation, but I was beyond caring at this point.
“If I don’t, I feel the pull and I can’t stop thinking about you until you are near,” he admitted as he lowered himself down to sit next to me, a grimace on his lips.
