“Rorin, comeon.We have to go.” The tugging becomes more forceful, and I have to make a conscious effort not to trip over my feet as I turn away from the building –the bodies.So many of them…
“I want you to poison them all.”
“I did–” I mutter.
“Rorin!”
I score my nails across the sensitive skin again. “Shut up. Shut up, shut up, shut up!”
“Gah!We don’t have time for this.” It’s Will who moves to my opposite arm, urging me to go faster, I’m sure of it. The grip is too harsh to be anyone else’s.
No one spoke for the three days that it took us to travel from the manor to right outside the edge of Sorrel.
Exhausted from our trek, we finally made our camp in a long since abandoned cave mouth that Max had gone ahead and found nestled in the mountains shared between the deserts of Suram and the Vast.
As the night came on us quickly, we all split off into our own spots. Millie and Max huddled together almost instantly in a shadowy corner, while Will propped himself up against the sandy stone opening, facing towards the stars.
I drop my head against the cave wall as I zero in on the flames dancing in front of me. Bennett built it up quickly, and in the few minutes I’d managed to doze, he must have slipped over to Will– because I can hear his hushed whispers trying to pacify our friend’s anger.
“If you’re going to talk about me, you might as well say it to my face. No point in being polite now.”
The voices stop quickly, replaced with the sound of shuffling, “I can’t do this.”
“Will–” Bennett tries, but it’s too late. Will storms off down the path we used to climb up, disappearing to where I can no longer see or hear him.
“What can’t you do this time, Will?” I grumble, poking the fire with a brittle stick.
Bennett’s brown eyes narrow into slits as he slinks back into the cave, his top lip curling back a bit as he levels his glare down on me. “You just can’t help yourself, can you?” My brow cocks upwards, spurring him on, “you really can’t see the destruction you’ve caused? The position you continue to put us all in?”
“Careful, Ben, you’re starting to sound like Will.”
“What does it matter who I sound like? I could sound like anyone: Armond, Felix, Millie –anyone. And you still wouldn’t listen. The only person you’d listen to would be Eveera.”
Her name cuts through me like a knife, and I close my eyes, taking a deep breath of the cool air. I must be showing on my face what hearing it does to me, because Bennett’s expression softens.
Not by much. But still, it softens.
“What are you doing?” He asks me quietly.
My mouth opens to give him an answer, but Will’s shadowy figure reluctantly coming back up the path to where he was sitting before, distracts me, and I reply simply with, “not enough.”
Bennett’s eyes follow mine, and he coughs in disbelief; the laughter following it is dry. “I’d wager you’re doing too much, actually.”
My head shakes, “if I were doing too much, she’d be home already.”
“You poisoned an entire building full of people… all because the keeper told you he hadn’t seen anyone there that matched the descriptions you gave him.” He drops down next to me, a palm falling on my shoulder. “You don’t think that that was a bit of an overreaction?”
The face of the older man appears clear in my mind, and the anger I felt in the brief moment we spoke comes quickly with it. “He was lying. I could see it in his eyes.” From my left, I see Bennett nod, his expression grim and laced with concern.
Or maybe that's pity I’m seeing.
Regardless, it settles heavily in my stomach, like lead.
“You know there’s a chance–”
My hand goes over his mouth fast enough that the force shoves his head against the cave wall. “Do not finish that sentence.” I threaten, my teeth grinding together. His brown eyes widen at my reaction before returning to their sad…pityinggaze.
Definitely, pity.
