“Do you want me to put the light out?”
I did actually. I didn’t need to see him so exposed. It wasn’t because I was modest. He only had his shirt off—but that was enough to notice certain attributes I had no business seeing, let alone appreciating. Veilers had muscles. It was a laborious job. However, reciting that fact didn’t make how much I enjoyed the image of them disappear.
“It isn’t too bright. I’ll be fine,” I said instead.
Rowan shrugged and went back to reading.
My body was splayed out on the blanket, but it refused to settle. Despite the frigid temperature outside, I was overheating. Time felt like it was stretching on forever. The silence was deafening, and it was eating at my sanity.
So I broke it.
“Why did you become a Veiler?” I asked Rowan. I had been wondering about it for a while now, considering he never acted quite how I expected a Veiler to. He certainly was no Balor.
“I didn’t have a choice.”
He had said something similar before, but it only made me more curious.
“Why didn’t you have a choice?”
There was a long moment of hesitation. Long enough that I thought he was going to ignore the question altogether. I would have if I had been in his shoes. None of this was my business, and it only further gave away bits of his identity, which could later be used against him if I escaped. He didn’t seem troubled by that, though, because he answered.
“I angered my parents, and this was their version of punishment.” His honesty carried the sting of lingering pain. I almost felt sorry for him—almost.
“Why not just run away instead?”
“They would have found me no matter where I went, so I didn’t see the point.”
“Are your parents important people?”
“They used to be.”
I heard Rowan shuffle, so I turned to face him. I watched as he leaned over and blew out the candle in the lantern, encasing the room in darkness.
And in that darkness, I realized something that terrified me.
I was starting to seehim.
Chapter 23
“To show respect, you wear black and forgo all past identities.
Until the day you shed the black, you are a sentry, a servant of the Ethorian gods and the Ravaryn Kingdom.”
- Article 1, Section 2, of the Veiled Compendium
Icould trace each rib through my skin, and my hip bone was sharper, pressing painfully against the saddle as we rode. I had always been thin, but never this skeletal. Though traveling with the Veilers had given me muscle and calluses, my body fat had reduced to unhealthy levels.
Rowan kept me tightly anchored to his chest with his arms wrapped securely around my abdomen. Without his arms around me, I’d have been blown away.
The so-called Great North was nothing but a pathetic, bitter wasteland.We had been traveling for half a week in the barren lands, and I could confidently say that there was nothinggreatthat far north. We were surrounded by snow, ice, and the constant screeching of the wind.
I was a summer child being forced to endure blisters from the cold, chattering teeth, and chapped lips.
I asked Rowan how the horses could survive such severe temperatures, and he said that they were bred for it. How any creature could be bred for this weather was beyond me.
We spent the first few days in the tundra enduring harsh winds that bit and clawed at our freezing bodies. Despite Rowan covering us with two thick bear hides, my bones still rattled. However, that was nothing compared to the storm that settled upon us on the fifth day.
On the fifth day, we could barely see through the blizzard that plagued us.
