I couldn’t argue with that. It felt right too.
Eight
Hayle
It turned out Vox and Iker had better luck. Although the people of Doend were closed off and wary of strangers, no one remembered to guard their thoughts. Vox and Iker had made their way down to a tavern at the base of the mountain, beside the warehouses where the rough men of the Sixth Line spent hours undertaking back-breaking labor, and just below the open-cut mines where the rest of the city’s population worked away in the harsh sun. If there was ever a place to gather information, it was where men felt bitter, where their tongues were loosened by what could only be described as bottom-of-the-barrel liquor.
“There’s an underground movement in Cyne,” Iker told our group quietly around the table at our inn. “It has some tendrils reaching down here, but it seems less about spreading discontent and more about offering aid, backed by easy violence.”
“So we head to Cyne?” I asked, but it wasn’t really a question. What else could we do?
There was agreement around the table, and that was it. Everyone looked a little better after a good night’s sleep, with even the hounds seeming happier. We’d been so exhausted lastnight, we’d done nothing more than fall into one of the two rooms Iker had rented and passed out.
Avalon still looked tired, and I wanted to get her up to bed early. It’d be a longer walk to Cyne from Doend—at least a solid week—and she’d need to be rested. I’d be lying if I said I also didn’t want her wrapped around me, her body pressed close to mine for the next eight hours.
I’d thought this yearning would fade a little once we were committed to each other, but if anything, it had gotten stronger. Anytime she was out of my sight, I wanted to track her down until I could see her with my own eyes once more. If she was close, I needed to be touching her. If she was tired, hungry, sad, I wanted to be the one that made her feel better. She was my first thought every morning and the last thing to cross my mind every night.
I was so far gone that I wasn’t even kidding about wanting to marry her. I wanted her as a wife, as well as my Soul Tie. I wanted her in any way she would have me.
Vox cleared his throat, his elbow stabbing me in the ribs. “You’re throwing off hormones so thick, I’m either going to suffocate or come in my pants, so could you knock it off? At least until we’re alone enough to do something about it.”
Clearing my throat, I just smirked in his direction. “My bad. Not sorry, though.”
Iker grunted. “That’s my cue to leave. I want to soak in a bath for at least an hour. Also, Elkie said she’d stop by…” Elkie was one of the prostitutes here, a sweet, apple-cheeked girl from who knew what Line, but Iker was definitely smitten.
Rolling his eyes, Lierick waved a hand. “I’ll hang down here until later. Have fun.” Iker lifted his chin, then hot-footed it up the stairs to where the rooms were.
As Avalon yawned, I stood too. “You don’t have to wait down here. Come up to the room and bathe too. Rest a little,” I toldLierick. “We have a lot of ground to cover tomorrow; it’s best to be well rested. You can spoon with Vox.”
Avalon giggled, a soft girlish sound that was so at odds with her normal take-no-shit attitude.
Vox’s cheeks went pink. “Fuck off, Hayle.”
I grinned widely. “Just putting it all out there. Come on.”
Throwing some money on the table for the waiter, we climbed the rough-hewn wooden stairs to the upper story. I held Avalon close to my side, and she leaned into me. She smelled like home and love and, well, lust. Guess I wasn’t the only one throwing off some intense hormones right now.
As Vox unlocked the door to our room, I looked down at the hounds. “You should take a moment to relax as well. If three of the most powerful people in Ebrus can’t protect ourselves, we’ll call it survival of the fittest.”
Alucius huffed. She sent me an image of Quarry on the roof with Epsy, and if I wasn’t wrong, my raven was using Epsy as a temporary nest.
“Leave them out there. I know Quarry is going stir-crazy being stuck inside. Just make sure he doesn’t hurt himself coming back down.”
Alucius yipped, before the hounds bounded back down the stairs. They were going to run and hunt in the forest around Doend, but wouldn’t stray too far, in case I needed them. I hadn’t lied, though; if Vox, Lierick, and I couldn’t defend ourselves against the people of Doend, there was no hope for Ebrus.
Speaking of the wayward Heir to the First Line, he was already shirtless and walking toward the bathing room. “I can’t stand having this dirt on me any longer. I think I have some kind of body lice or something.”
I laughed, but waved him toward the bath first. “All yours, Ice Prince. Or should I say Lice Prince?”
He flipped me the bird, and Avalon groaned. “That was terrible.”
I stripped down to my undershirt, ready to snuggle with my Soul Tie. But Lierick was still standing around, looking as awkward as a man with so much self-confidence could. The bed was the only piece of furniture in the bedroom, except for a bedside table, and he looked like he was having an internal crisis.
Deciding to take pity on the poor bastard, I raised an eyebrow. “Are you just going to stand there looking like a virgin in a brothel, or are you going to come and snuggle with us? The more the merrier at this point.”
He looked at me incredulously, then his eyes flicked to Avalon. She smiled softly at him. “Hayle is a good cuddler. He doesn’t mind being the little spoon either.”
Lifting her up, I wrapped her in my arms and fell backwards into the bed. It was hard, made of some kind of straw rather than the soft feathers of my bed at home and in Boellium, but compared to the cold ground of the forest, it was basically a cloud. I pressed my nose into her throat, sucking in lungfuls of her scent. Goddess, she smelled good.
