“Let me guess – this is you somehow protecting me?” I mock, searching the room for a towel to lay on top of the comforter. Ezra waves me off, fusing his eye to the peephole. “I feel so safe here.”
These fucking overbearing men.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
“Gods.” Ezra hisses, his forehead knocking against the wall with a loud,THUNK!I can’t help the low rueful laugh that rattles through my chest, and gives me a dark look, blatantly displeased.
Good.
“What are you laughing at?”
“No-nothing,” I say through the fit. “Just you – ha. You made us come here. Made a new prison cell for me out of a pleasure room. And now you’re all unsettled because the people next door are fucking? In a brothel?”
He scoffs, “and… this is funny? My discomfort?”
“Oh, I couldn’t give a damn about your discomfort. See, we–” I wag my finger between the two of us, and I watch as his eyes go from blue to navy, “have that in common. So, yes, it’s hilarious watching how a couple of grunts and groans are making you so miserable.”
Ezra focuses back on the wall, the cacophony of noises somehow growing louder. If I squint my eyes enough, I can see the beads of sweat forming on his neck, the pale skin turning bright red.
A satisfied smirk twitches at the corner of my mouth as my eyes fall closed, and a semi-relaxed sigh leaves my lips.
“Unbelievable,” Ezra grumbles, and I crack a lid open, peering in his direction. “You’re actually able to fall asleep with this going on?”
“By this, you mean am I about to drift off to the sounds of someone moaning? Sure.” I shrug, closing my eyes again. “I did it plenty of times when you were the one making the same noises. At least now it doesn’t involve me putting in any work.”
I don’t stay awake long enough to hear his reply, if he even had one, but I was pleased enough with his silence. In fact, I would’ve enjoyed more of it.
But much to my irritation, morning came too quickly, and my wakeup call included an arm nearly being ripped out of its socket. Ezra pulls me up off the bed and rushes the two of us out of our room. While we were tripping down the stairs – the crust of sleep still in my eyes – I suggested that we should stay. That I’d grown comfortable with my new accommodations.
He didn’t find that idea to be as funny as I did.
The brothel was completely silent at this time of morning. All of its workers and patrons were most likely exhausted from their antics the night before, making it an easy exit for us.
Once out of the building, it didn’t take long for us to notice that even though that establishment was quiet, the city was not, and even at this hour, the streets were packed. Dozens of people shove and push past one another, while others wait in long lines for their turn at the merchant’s street tables.
Our markets aren’t nearly this busy in Oriya, but then again, we’re also not as densely populated.
We prefer distance and space.
Something this kingdom clearly knows nothing about.
Ezra keeps a firm grip on my elbow as he weaves us through the streets. The touch sets my skin on fire, and I try to peel his fingers off, but he doesn’t relent. I resort to shouting; the sound of the bazaar is deafening to the point that even though I’m shouting at him to let go, no one can seem to hear me. No one seems to take notice that I’m struggling to be free of him; they’re all too preoccupied in the bustle of the morning – Ezra included.
He keeps our pace brisk as we make it out of the fray, and the inn he has us holed up in comes into view, bringing us directly to the back entrance.
We’re halfway to the stairs when I overhear a conversation similar to the one I’d heard last night. “There are whispers that what happened in Sorrel is going to happen here, too.”
“Oh, what makes you think that, Mevis?” I crane my neck to find two older men, huddled in the corner of the front sitting room.
The shorter gentleman shrugs. “Just something I heard, Colm. But let me tell you what I won’t wait around for – someone to come and kill me. Uh-uh. It was apparently an inn just like this one, too.”
“AllIheard is that whatever killed them was brutal, eyes were bloodshot and the veins under their skin – burst!”
“What would cause that?”
“The only time I’ve known something like that to happen was during the raids – a result of the poison some rebels used.”
Ezra stops dead in his tracks, and I slam into his back. Colm’s last word ringing in my ears --poison.A cruel smile inches up my face
