“Good choice.”
The voice startles me, and when I turn my head, I see my favorite pair of brown eyes looking down. “Shut up.” I grumble, facing back forward.
“I had been hoping I wouldn’t have to talk you off the edge this time. Looks like my hopes paid off.”
Axel sits himself next to me, an arm crossing over behind me, tugging at my elbow until I fall out of my crouch and onto my ass.
“No one said you had to talk me off the edge.”
“Ha.” He laughs. My heart pangs at the sound.Gods, how I wish that laugh were real…“Of course, I do.” He finishes, tilting his head to the left to look squarely at my profile.
Feeling the weight of his scrutiny, I lean away, “what?”
“You look terrible.”
My brows lift, “so I’ve heard.”
“I told you I didn’t want to talk you off the ledge this time.”
“I’m not on the ledge,” I argue, my eyes still focused on that abyss to my right.
He groans loudly, his left hand scrubbing down his face as he drops his head back. “Starving yourself counts as being on the ledge.”
“How do you know about that…” I wonder out loud, and he rocks into me.
“I know a lot of things.”
I hum in response, and the two of us descend into quiet. While we sit there, I can’t help but let my thoughts drift off to that day. To us out in the field. ThefearI felt watching Axel take that sword for me. “Heads will roll,” I whisper absentmindedly.
“Mine already did.” Axel jokes, and my elbow meets his ribs, his dry laugh turning into a cough from the impact.
Guilt burns inside my chest as the memory of me cutting clean through his reanimated throat comes to the foreground of my mind.
Sensing where I’ve gone, he sighs, his hand comes around to cup the side of my head. He pulls me onto his shoulder, pressing his lips softly onto the top of my hair.
“Evie…” Axel mumbles against the strands, and the wall I’ve built against my emotions comes tumbling down, a sob racking loudly out of my chest. “Don’t cry for me.” He soothes, “they’d be a waste, sweetheart.”
Ezra had my shackled ass up and out of that dusty building way too early in the morning.
When he’s feeling generous, he unhooks the chains connecting the mage shackles on my wrists to the plain iron ones on my ankles, allowing me to change my own clothes.Thank the useless gods.However, that tonic he forces down my throat makes me weak enough that the act is still a chore, taking me twice as long as it should.
Once I finally finish the mundane task, he hauls me outside, where shockingly, he guides me to the front of the carriage. “Oh, I don’t have to be shoved into the trunk today? Lucky me.” I mock, hobbling my way up onto the bench.
His eyes glint into the light, and I watch as his pupils dilate, the feeling of his Wield washing over my body, instantly making me want to vomit.
By the gods, I’vefuckedthis man.The alarming thought churns my already sour stomach too much, and I no longerwantto vomit; Idovomit – promptly in front of his feet.
Ezra grimaces, quickly jumping back before the splatter of my stomach contents can hit his boots and pants. He gives the acrid stomach acid a wide berth, awkwardly clamoring into his seat. Once he’s settled, I lean over and wipe the bile residue off his sleeve.
He looks down disapprovingly at his arm and me gagging at my act, but I ignore it and scooch back over to my side of the bench, keeping my eyes forward.
The ride is longer than it usually seems, but maybe that’s because I am awake and outside, not concealed in a trunk, sleeping off the things he’s force-fed into my system.
We entered a new kingdom days ago.
When we first started thisjourney,it wasn’t hard to figure out that he’d whisked me off to our eastern neighbor – Sorrel. If the hills and plains accompanied by the heavy scent of rain weren’t an indication enough that we no longer were in Vellar, the thick presence of a more primal magic coursing through the kingdom’s ley lines was.
Our stay was short-lived, however. We made it across the country and to their capital, Sira, where we stayed for all of half a minute amongst civilization before he was stuffing me into the carriage trunk again and dragging me to our most recent hideout.
