Chapter Two
Well,Marvinwasright.The next day did bring its own troubles. They walked up on a pair of black boots that were so shiny I could see my reflection in them half a league away.
My eyes widen, and I force them to drag up the person who belongs to the boots, although I know who it is even before I catch sight of his face. Only one person would walk through the muddy streets of our village in boots that polished.
Byron Coalbiter.
I stiffen, whipping my head to Marvin only to see him raise his hand in a wave, a pleasant smile on his face. “What are you doing?” I hiss out of the corner of my mouth.
“Being friendly, you should try it sometime.”
“What ishedoing here—” I cut myself off when I turn back to see that Byron has managed to close the distance between us and is now standing a short distance away. Well, within earshot. I cross my arms, narrowing my eyes. “What are you doing here?”
He has the audacity to chuckle. “Hello to you too, Willow.”
I sniff, still waiting for an answer to my question. Byron blinks once, his smile sliding just a little bit before he turns to Marvin. “Nice weather for traveling.” He tilts his head back, squinting at the sky. “Couldn’t have picked a better day myself.”
“Oh, no,” I mumble, drawing both the boy’s attention to me. “No, no, no. Donottell me that he is joining us.”
“And what would you rather I tell you instead?” Byron asks, amusement lacing his tone. His eyes have that dratted twinkle in them, the one that speaks of superiority.
“That you’ve opted to jump into a vipanther pit.”
“Sounds painful,” he replies, unfazed.
“Willow!” Marvin gasps, throwing me a bulging eye glance.
Byron’s lip twitches upward slightly as he hikes an eyebrow. “Someone woke up on the wrong side of the haystack today.”
I bristle at his implication that I don’t have a proper bed. As the village orphan, I’ve borrowed from the kindness of everyone around me, staying in barns or on dirt floors next to the hearth. Doing chores and odd jobs in exchange for a place to sleep and whatever food that they can spare to give me.
In a village as poor as Woodsbury Grove, it’s likely that I put a lot of good folks out of their ways to provide for me, but it isn’t as if I asked to be born penniless and powerless, abandoned by whoever my parents were.
“I’ll have you know that I have a bed,” I snarl out. “Well, technically it’s Marvin’s bed but…” I trail off as my thoughts begin to catch up to my tongue, and I notice Marvin grow as red as his hair, making the light streaking the dawn ridden sky envious of the hues he has managed to achieve. Byron’s smile slides off his face before it returns with more force. I hold up my hands. “Not like that though—he—I—we’re just friends.”
Marvin slaps his face into his hand. “Please stop talking,” he whispers. “I think you’re only making this worse.”
“I disagree. It just keeps getting better and better.” Byron is full-on grinning now, revealing all his straight white teeth. He bounces a little on the toes of those ridiculously shiny black boots. He flips his bound hair over his shoulder. I’ve heard some ladies in town compare the color of his hair to the bark of a weeping willow tree. Personally, I think it more resembles dirt, but no one other than me is comparing it to that.
My hair is brown as well, and decidedlynotdirt colored due to the reddish hues in it, and I’mnamedWillow, but I don’t hear anyone describing my hair as being the same color as, well, anything. No one is talking about my hair actually. Which is probably best seeing how little I washed it when I was younger. Now between Marvin and his father’s hospitality, and the river that flows a few leagues from town I’m able to keep it clean, but when I was younger, I was too scared to stray very far from the village.
I bet no one has ever seen Byron with dirty hair.
One of the most unfortunate things about Byron, is his looks. I might just hate him a little less if he were ugly. At least then it wouldn’t seem as if he didn’t have every star in the sky align at his birth to create a perfect human with a perfect little life.
Byron glances at the bags near my feet, they’re full of the few possessions I’ve managed to collect over the years. He looks back up at us then squints at the sky. “You ready to go?”
“I am….?” I begin slowly, my eyes flicking from my bags then to him, then to the strap of the satchel he adjusts where it is slung over his shoulder. Apart from those ridiculous boots, now that I think of it, he is dressed for travel in a worn coat and a sword attached to his side. Not that someone with his magical prowess really needs a sword, but I suppose since we are hoping to become knights, we might as well grow used to wielding swords.
“You sound so sure,” he says, rolling his eyes. “Either you’re ready or you need more time but stop standing there gawking at me. We’re wasting sunlight.”
“We?” I demand, I turn to Marvin who is looking everywhere but at me. “There is nowe. There is just me and Marvin.”
“Uh… Byron is coming with us,” Marvin whispers, finally raising his gaze to meet mine.
“What?” I demand, already shaking my head. I suppose I had already suspected it, but it’s truly cruel when all hope of that being untrue is snatched away. “No, no he isn’t.”
“We were already heading in the same direction. It’s best that we stick together.” His eyes dart from me to Byron, his cheeks coloring slightly.
