Though the weather is far warmer than yesterday, it’s still too chilly to remove my heavy cloak.
I duck my head under an evergreen bow that hangs low, lost in the silence between us and my own muddled thoughts. The Devourer must not have noticed the branch because with a loudthwack, he pulls me backward off Dahla.
The weight of my own body crashes against the steel of his muscled frame. I let out a strangled cry that’s cut short, my breath knocked out and my chest screaming.
In an instant, the form beneath me rolls, the jade—eyed man moving his arms under my ribs to hoist me up. His hands quickly are rubbing along my back as if he could draw the breath into my lungs by his touch.
I can’t help but notice how his sleeves pull away from his wrists, bloodied and raw, to reveal symbols I hadn’t seen before. The marks inky and pulsing, just like the one around his neck.
With a gasp, I’m able to draw in enough air to inflate my burning lungs. My vision quickly clears, the tiny black orbs disappearing.
I blink away any remaining fuzziness and search again for the strange markings. That’s when I notice his hand trembling. I look into his eyes and see something that wasn’t written in them earlier, something I’ve only seen once before… When I stood at the gallows.
“Are you alright?” His rushed, quivering question pops out of his mouth no sooner than I hear Leeson shout the same.
I nod, still trying to suck in enough air to make me feel grounded.
“I’m… I’m alright.”
Leeson hops off her horse and darts for me. She looks between us suspiciously, her eyes boring into our captive. “Did you mean to hurt her?”
He’s quick to answer, his voice still quiet and shaky. “I can assure you I didn’t want to harm her any more than I wanted to land my ass into soaking wet mud, let alone possibly break my neck in the process.”
I grab Leeson’s burgundy cloak and she faces me.
“I ducked beneath that big branch and didn’t give him warning. It smacked into him and he lost his balance. I was just unfortunate enough to fall with him.”
“You mean fallonme.” His words aren’t harsh, but spoken softly, more assured than before.
“Er… yeah. Thanks for that.” My voice reeks with noncommittal indifference.
Leeson brings her hand to my shoulder and squeezes. “Let’s not linger, unless you need to rest a moment?” Her eyes shine, weariness beginning to settle on her ivory face.
“No, we ride on. We’re almost to the outpost village, likely before nightfall.”
The village would be a welcomed respite. Though it has no lodging, it has other people, magical folk and non—magical. It offers a semblance of harmony in this rugged wilderness, where the spirits aren’t as tricky.
The Devourer still stands, stretching his arms and back.
“Leeson, I’m going to take off his culling bands, and the ones on his ankles. Perhaps this wouldn’t have happened if he had his hands free.”
She whips her body so quickly to face me, you could almost call her an apparition. Her stony face says it all, she thinks this is a bad idea. “Alora, you know I’m not one to question?—”
“Then don’t. The only place he can run is right into these gods forsaken woods and join the spirits and daemons.”
She pauses and I can see her mulling the thought over.
“True. His death, if he’s so emboldened.” Leeson and her fierce braid snap back toward him. “You hear that, Devourer? Your death if you wander, and if you harm her, you’ll meet a worse fate.” Her lips quirk upward, the satisfaction of her threat written on her face before she gives us her back.
I make my way to Dahla, who just stands there as if inconvenienced by the last few minutes.
“You coming?” I clench my jaw with the prospect of him grabbing around my waist again. I’m merely apprehensive of my own body that seems to betray me every time we are close.
I feel his presence before I hear his reply, soft and tender. “If you’d have me.”
The words leave my heart skittering andotherthings blooming.The bastard.
“It’s apparently all I can offer after you so graciously let me fall on you, so thank you, I guess.”
