The audible crackle returns, filling the space around us, blending seamlessly with the soft murmurs of my companions.
Merinda walks near the strong oak behind me, stopping to converse with me but never letting her adept eyes leave the tree line. I turn to face her even though her back is to me.
“I heard things got rough for you. Are you okay?” The natural singsong cadence of her voice is absent, concern flooding her tone.
“It could have been worse.” I feel small. Lees has learned not to approach me about topics like this until I go to her, but the earnest way of Merinda makes it easy to spill secrets. You’d think that was her magic, getting you to open up and reveal everything. It’s a shock she possesses none.
“Alora, sweetheart, I can see the blistered mark on your throat and the shallowness of your eyes. More has happened than you’d like us to believe.”
I groan inwardly. I should have let Lees heal the damned mark, but part of me isn’t willing to let it go just yet. With the mark still so pronounced, I can’t run and hide the way I’d like to. I have to endure and be forged in the suffering, perfected into something sharp and piercing, cold and unfeeling. A monster in my own right.
“Merinda, I’ll be okay. I really just need to sleep, but my mind wanders and won’t let me, even more so now.”
“I can always have Zedriel sing you to sleep. Though I’m not sure he’d tuck you in with warm milk.”
I huff out a laugh. She’s right, his ability with magic may be magnificent but his voice is lacking. It’s more likely to leave you with a hammering headache and I’ve already got one of those going for me.
“I’m finally feeling warm again, thank the gods. Maybe I’ll just rest now. We need to leave again with the moons’ rise.”
“See that you do, we’re all worried for you. Caym beat himself up after losing you, he feels he’s to blame for what happened. His eyes remain haunted. It sounds like it was close, Alora, and we can’t lose you.”
I know I should feel comfort from her words, and part of me does, but another part of me feels disconnected. Like I’ve allowed them to get too close and at any moment I could lose them, and that… that would break me.
“Don’t stay out too long. We have others who can take watch, Mer.”
Her head bobs, still never turning to face me, but her twists sway as she pushes off the tree to begin her prowl again. I never asked her what happened to Emiline, her lover, but I know well that Merinda will never again be caught unaware.
Turning back to my bedroll, I shove a makeshift pillow under my arm and lay facing the flames that have become a small but steady fire.
Through the orange wisps, I can see our prisoner purposefully chained to the tree next to Caym and Leeson, Zedriel’s coat still swallowing him. He looks exhausted and worn down, his pale—green eyes are unfocused, peering into the flames that divide us.
My eyes grow heavy, wariness weighting them down. As I start to nod off, I nearly miss the green that now settles on me, locking with my own gaze. What once was a soft lichen color now flares with a bright emerald, looking as if they made up a beast of their own that was starving.
I finally close my eyes, not wanting to stare into the eyes of the man who looks like he would do anything to devour me.
Chapter 13
Alora
Surprisingly, I slept and wasn’t met with nightmares or any dreams in general. Instead I had the kind of sleep that makes you feel disoriented when you wake.
The others obviously completed packing up camp while I was asleep as the horses are all saddled and loaded, even Dahla.
I stretch my limbs and immediately wince. The soreness from both my escape and our ensuing travel has settled in my thighs, making me stiff. What I wouldn’t do to sit and soak in the warm pools of Rivers End.
The faint scent of cooked meat has my stomach growling. It’s reassuring that it no longer feels full of lead.
Scrubbing my eyes with my fists, I try to dispel the fatigue. I’ll have a chance to rest when we arrive at Rivers Edge, roughly an additional seven days’ ride from our current location.
I try and force myself to get moving, but my body disagrees, even if I am lying on this scratchy heap of a blanket.
Groaning, I roll to my back, blood returning to the arm I must have slept on. The phantom needles have me squeezing my hand into a fist and releasing.
Lees saunters over to me, an eyebrow quirked. “I’m shocked the princess slept this long on a mere bedroll.”
It’s not lost on me that she’s already trying to ease the tension she’s anticipating me to be experiencing.
“Well, to be honest I’m not sure exactly how long I actually slept for. But I’m also surprised. How long have you been waiting…” a yawn seizes me before I can finish asking.
