The boy sucked in a shuddering breath. “They have Eaumond.”
Frowning, I looked back to the huntsmen, and then I saw him—the boy from the festival who’d stood beside Calix. Deep shadows created dark crescents beneath the boy’s eyes, and he stood with hunched shoulders as if a great weight wore on him. The weight of his own strain for control of his magic.
“How does he know that boy?” Ruairc asked, suspicion in his tone.
I shook my head. “If you truly care for me, you will not press this. Will not question it.”
Ruairc’s fists flexed at his sides, but he did not speak out.
“Come, Calix, let’s return to the inn.” I lowered my hand to his shoulder and encouraged him to walk with me, our backs to the huntsmen.
“Are you in danger?” Ruairc asked.
I glanced back at him. Evidently, my features answered where my words did not, for he came to my side, so close that we nearly touched. So close that when he looked down at me, I could detect flakes of gold in his irises.
“Let me help you, Evera,” he said, his tone almost pleading, despite the low hush of his voice.
“This isn’t your concern.”
“It is now,” he said. “I made an oath to Aureus that I would protect you. That does not change now, just because your heart belongs to another.”
I drew my brows together. “You made an oath to Aureus?”
“I did.” His hand went to my waist as he encouraged me on down the path. “Just as I did to you when we were only children.”
I let him guide me, Calix still holding to my skirts.
Just as I did to you when we were only children.Remembrance came over me. Summer heat dampens the back of my neck, dirt and grass stains on my dress, and brambles in my hair. Ruairc, his honey eyes round still with youth, his chest heaving as he caught his breath. What had we been running from before we tumbled down that hill? Did it matter? Was it only something we’d made up?
“I’ll always protect you, Evera.”
“Who is to say it isn’t I who will protect you?”
“That was just a game,” I said.
“I meant it all the same.”
39
NEIRIN
When the inn was busy,it was easier to distract myself, to keep my thoughts from wandering.
Late morning often left the bar with a lack of patrons, the remains of breakfast cleaned up, and some time still left until lunch. In addition to the time of day, the rooms were only at half occupancy—the influx of travelers coming from the festival had dissipated, and that, too, contributed to the quiet.
To busy myself, I’d left the bar to wash the morning’s dishes in the kitchen. The scents of new grass and early flower buds carried on the breeze through the open window, and the clucking of the hens in the garden lent a peacefulness to the day. Still, I could not shake the troubles of my mind.
There was a helplessness to the situation I found myself in, one that plagued me deeply. My thoughts looped, each time further frustrating me as I came to the same conclusions again and again.
Each day I spent in Elrune was a day Harlan was left vulnerable, unaware of the threat within the castle walls. The need to dosomethingconsumed me, a constant itch that would not dissipate. Yet even as my heart urged me to action, my training told me to practice patience, to use reasoning.
Without Harlan’s blessing, I would not get past the guards at the bridge crossing, and there was no other way to reach the castle. Dead, I was useless to him. There was the chance that Harlan may have issued the order for my capture, not my execution, as Cyan had stated. If so, perhaps I could speak with him. But it was too much of a gamble. The sensible option was to wait for the huntsman, Nox.
Thoughts having again come full circle, I lowered my gaze to the shiny metal tankard I held and gave it a final wipe with a rough rag before adding it to the stack of drying dishes beside the wash basin. My reflection glinted off the metallic surface, and I released a weighty breath. Astraea’s words returned to me.“If you ever forget what you are, ever question that you are a monster, let your reflection stand as a reminder.”
Anger prickled at my skin. I shut my eyes and clenched my fist, resisting the urge to lash out, to push the dishes to the floor just to hear the glass shatter, the metal hum.
The heavy front doors of the inn opened with a groan. In the next heartbeat, I detected Evera through the bond, her emotions a slick unease. Although her unsettled state was troublesome, knowing that she was near and had come to see me, steadied me.
