Hayle had teased me once about being a pampered prince, and maybe he’d been right. I had never camped in the woods like this. If my family ever traveled through Ebrus, we were hosted in the finest homes in the Baronies, or in expansive hotels. Never on a bed roll on the ground, with a hound on one side and Avalon on the other.
But I’d made sure the fire stayed lit and low, and put a dome of air over our group to keep out the howling wind. Hayle had slapped my back. “We won’t even need a tent, if you can hold this in your sleep.”
I could, but I would have to sleep lightly. Lying on my back in the dead of night, though, I doubted falling asleep would be a problem.
“Can’t sleep?” Avalon whispered, and I turned my head to look at her. On her other side was Hayle, and just beyond him was Alucius the hound. Lierick was taking his turn at keeping watch, and I probably should have relieved him of his duty so he could rest while I couldn’t, but I didn’t want to move from where Avalon’s body was pressed against mine.
Shaking my head, I told her softly, “The stars look so bright out here, without the lights from Boellium and Boemouthe.”
She rolled onto her back and stared up at the stars too for a moment, before pointing at the different constellations. “Godesh Major, colloquially named the Archer.” Then she pointed to another. “The Hunter, uh, Billes Minor?”
I smiled. “You were listening.”
Looking back at me, she returned the smile. “You’re a good teacher. And you’re hot. It’s easy to listen to someone when you’re mesmerized by their lips.”
I chuckled softly. “You’re a very distracting student.”
“Kinky,” she whispered, lifting my hand to kiss my knuckles with such an easy affection, it made me freeze.
One day, I’d be able to accept it without waiting for the lash of pain to follow, but it would take a while.
Avalon either didn’t notice or ignored the jolt as I forced my system to relax once more. She pointed to the western side of the sky. “Ebretha. And her heart.” She chewed her lip. “I want to curse and thank her in equal measures. Without her interference, I might’ve had a happy childhood, but then I would never have met you, or Hayle, and definitely not Lierick. I’d be an entirely different person. Maybe even a better person.
“But I wouldn’t have known the face you make when you find something amusing, but you’re hiding it. Or the one when I draw back just a little too soon from a kiss, and your eyes are scrunched closed.” She let out a soft laugh. “I’m not sure I wouldn’t go through it all again just to have this. I can’t regret it.” Her words were slurring slightly at the edges, and I knew she was succumbing to sleep.
I shook my head. “I’d give just about anything for you to have grown up without pain. I’d take my own twofold. But I’m selfish, and I don’t regret it either,” I murmured into her hair as I slowly drifted off to sleep in her arms.
We woke as dawn lit the sky and packed down the camp quickly. According to Iker, if we made good time today, we could be in Doend just after dark.
I wasn’t sure everyone had gotten the message. Hayle treated the woods like a playground, and just like his hounds, he looked almost relieved to be beneath the dense canopy. He kept dragging Avalon off to see a bird’s nest, or a patch of berries, or any one of the other wonders of the forest. Then he’d scoop her up and run her back to us, never losing time.
Different animals followed along beside us for a while, from stolts like Avalon’s pet, to wolves, foxes, deer, and other creatures. They seemed interested in our party, but mostly in Hayle and Avalon. I felt like I was in the middle of a children’s fairytale.
Despite Hayle and Avalon’s obvious joy at being in the wilderness, I was glad to finally see the lights of a city. “Wait,” Lierick murmured, and my feet stilled. I searched the surrounding woods for threats, but there were none. “You can’t go in there looking like the Heir to the First Line.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Then how are we getting in to see Baron Marlee? Your good looks? Hayle’s winning personality?”
Hayle huffed, and Avalon chuckled softly. Lierick pulled some of his own clothes from his pack and handed them to me. “You need to be dirtied up a little; you can’t walk in there wearing clothes that’d cost as much as a year’s wages. It’s a pity you weren’t blond. Changing that hair would be the easiest disguise.” He eyed me with a mischievous glint in his eye. “Actually…”
Twenty minutes later, I’d rolled in the dirt, and my head had been shaved to barely more than a light stubble across my skull. My scalp wasfreezing.
Avalon was staring at me like I was an entirely different person.
“You look like you start bar fights,” Hayle said, his eyes laughing.
“You look like I want you to bend me over a bar,” Avalon groaned. “But those eyes are still recognizable. Trust me, it’d only take one horny girl to make the connection between those portraits she’s swooned over for years and his eyes, and the whole disguise is ruined.”
Lierick dug back into the bag and pulled out a pair of thick-rimmed glasses. “Don’t worry. The Second Line has a solution for that too. My eye color is a common trait among our Line, and they aren’t exactly subtle. Try these.” He tapped the corner of his nearly black eyes.
I slipped the glasses on, and Avalon let out a soft little gasp. “Your eyes are brown.” Reaching out, she tipped my glasses down and sighed with relief. “They’re still blue beneath them, though.”
“Worried I wouldn’t be as pretty anymore?” I teased her, pulling her into my arms, because even though I wouldn’t admit it, what if she only liked me because I was attractive? If I looked like I rolled in a pigsty for fun and had none of my power or good looks, would she realize I had no personality to speak of?
She kissed my lips, despite the faint streaks of dirt. “If you think it’s the outside package I love, you don’t know me at all, Vox Vylan.”
Someone cleared their throat. “Let’s go. It’s getting dark, and we still have a ways to go,” Iker grumbled. He was probably really tired of the amount of sexual tension sparking between us and his cousin. “You can make kissy faces at each other when I’m in front of a fire with a large glass of ale in my hand.”
Laughing softly, I picked up my pace. I was more than ready for a warm bed, a roaring fire, and my girl in my arms. Or on my cock.
