“I’ll be back. I just need to run a few errands.”
I scoff, keeping my gaze narrowed. He squirms under the weight of it, moving away from me to stalk back towards the entrance. With a hand resting on the knob, he looks over hisshoulder at me, the sad expression still prominent. “It really is for the best. Our journey will be over soon, and then you’ll be safe.”
“Fuck you.” I spit.
He sighs, smoothing his face into the familiar stony appearance he kept on retainer in Obsidian. “I’ll be back soon,” is repeated for the third time, and I stick out my tongue.
“Lucky me.” My foot kicks out against the dirt floor, my head falling back against the wall. I close my eyes again, hoping to disappear from my new quarters. The minute they shut, a chocolate-hued stare finds me. Usually, they would be a comfort – but they’re not the ones I want to see at the moment.
With a shake of my head, they flick away from the front of my mind, replaced by two sharp hazel irises and a mop of curly brown hair.Rorin.I think, wishing desperately that the seal between us wasn’t gone.
I assume the reason that our link’s been broken is because of the cocktail of drugs Ezra’s using on me – but a more rational side wonders if it’s the distance that’s made it go quiet. If I focus hard enough, I can feel the warm brush of his lips against my hair, his rough hands wrapped around my body, and heat pools within me.
Some time ago, I realized that the heat pooling was actuallylonging.
Damn him for making me feel it. For awakening a part of me that I was sure did not exist. But with the longing for his touch, the painful unknown of what’s happened to him – or any of our men – settles in.
Are they dead? Are they alive? Are they being tortured?Who knows.I’m stuck here in another fucking building, with magic-suppressing drugs coursing through my blood and mage shackles bound to me for good measure.
What a fool I’ve been. A trusting fool who’s now stuck here, useless and fragile– my conscience chides, two things I have never been in my life. If Vada were here, she’d waste no time chastising me for getting trapped in a position that has me at the mercy of a man who, in any normal case, would be dead before he could even register what was happening.
What a pathetic fool.
“Don’t say that.” I crack an eye open to see that my sleep has pulled me back to the crossroads, but this time it’s Orem standing in front of them. My heart stills, my mouth falling open to speak until he raises his hand. “If you’re going to apologize, or give me some bleeding monologue of how I never should have died – save it. Didn’t Axel tell you that martyrdom or even humility isn’t a good look on you, Evie?”
My lips clamp shut, and I clear my throat. “I wasn’t going to do any of that,” forcing my tone to be as monotone as I can make it, feigning boredom.
He tilts his head to the side, both eyes rolling back in his head as he takes a seat on the clammy ground, motioning for me to do the same. I groan, mumbling that the ground is cold, but he shushes me.
“You know – I’m glad it happened the way it did.”
His admission breaks the short silence that’s eased over us, and my brows furrow, waiting for him to continue and explain. “Max, he…well, he always protected me. It was nice that I could do the same for him for once.” He sighs, his finger drawing figure eight circles in the dirt as he finds the rest of his words. “When he joined up, all I could think about was losing him, too. Losing him in some battle or skirmish, something as dumb as the illness taking our parents.”
Orem’s chin tips back, a small smile resting on his lips. “It’s why I joined the Guard after him. Ha. He was so pissed. When he saw me walking down the halls of the barracks,” a quiet laughleaves him, and he draws another figure eight, “gods – I don’t think I’ve ever seen his face so red.”
“I bet not.”
“He beat my ass that day.”
A hollow laugh escapes my chest at the thought of Max and Orem in a brawl. It was a scene I’d seen half a dozen times, if not more, in training. But then, it was for exactly that – training – nothing emotionally charged. “You were brave, Orem,” I note, and he shrugs.
“I just did my job.” He whispers, a tear streaking down his face. My heart twinges as I watch the droplet slide down his already pale cheek. “Couldn’t let him die, you know?”
I nod, the twinge growing stronger within me.
They’re both dead because of me – he and Axel. I’d blame it on Baelor or Eiser even, but that blame would be misplaced. Though they have plenty to be guilty for, their two deaths aren’t one of them.
No, their blood stains my hands.
I enlisted both of them in my service and agreed to go with Rorin, knowing they’d follow no matter if I asked them not to – and ultimately it was my Wield that reanimated them, turning them into something worse than anything Baelor or Eiser ever could.
My thoughts switch back to Max, who – if he’s even still alive – now has to live with the final memory of his brother’s head tumbling from his shoulders. And it was he who severed it.
Gods. Such a fool, Eveera. Such a careless, worthless, damned fool. If only you’d said no that day…
Rorin
“My patience is running thin, Will.” I snap, my foot tapping in annoyance against the damp ground. The Sorrel Kingdom has been nothing but one big muddy mess. Combining the volatile energy rippling through the air with their need to up their border security, it took one too many damn days to get here.
