Brela’s hand tightened in his, her voice soft. “I know I’ve fought for my people in the only way Ovir’s chain has allowed me. I know I’ve done some stupid shit like growl at a celvusa and try to steal its power and lure a vaarasuxa, but to take on an army?” She swallowed as Cason reached up and brushed a tear away. “I am a leader of no one. Just one person to protect a destroyed kingdom. I am a daughter of nothing.”
Daughter of nothing?
Before Cason could open his mouth to ask about it, Brela dropped into his lap and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. As she buried her face in his neck, he folded one arm around her as his hand rested on the back of her head.
And because there were no words that he could say to fix any of it, he just held her. Continued to run his fingers through the silky strands of her white-blonde hair. Tried to ignore that gods-damned pull in his chest that had turned into an aching hum that coursed through his veins.
Serill thought they would figure it out, but whatever he and Brela had growing between them had been doomed from the beginning.
Brela swallowed and sniffed. Then sniffed again, this time her nose pressing into his neck. She pulled back and frowned at him.
“Do I really smell that bad?” he groaned.
“What does your fire smell like to you?”
Cason blinked. “I…” His cheeks flushed. “I’ve never noticed before, but Era always complained that it smelled like hickory smoke.”
“Just hickory?” she asked, sniffing him again.
“Same as my mother’s fire, at least that’s what my father said. I guess I just became desensitized to it since it surrounds me all the time. Why do you ask?”
Brela paused for a moment, running her tongue around her mouth like she was trying to taste something. Finally, she shook her head. “No reason.” She leaned closer, brushing a soft kiss over his lips, then breathed, “I’d never complain, though. I like it.”
“Hope we aren’t interrupting our captain and his subordinate,” Elias teased as he strolled through the barn doors, Farrah and Serill behind him.
Brela stiffened, and as Cason focused on the earth-blessed man, he realized it was because she’d seen through his teasing tone. The man wasn’t just tense. Elias’s face was pale, and the looks on Farrah’s and Serill’s faces weren’t much better.
“What is it?” Brela asked, sliding out of Cason’s lap.
“Weapons,” Farrah whispered, shaking her head. She glanced between Serill, Elias, and Cason before focusing on Brela again. “They’re using Veil shards and hellthorn to make weapons.”
* * *
“What the hells is that?”Elias mumbled, cocking his head at the sheet of paper.
Farrah snarled at him. “I don’t know, parts to a weapon of some sort? Sorry I don’t have Brela’s artistic skills, but this is the best you’re going to get.”
“It’s not even a complete thing…” Serill whispered, studying the drawing from over Farrah’s shoulder.
The woman elbowed him in the gut. “I already told you, none of their papers were complete. It’s like they were traveling with only pieces of a whole, probably for this exact reason. Keeps snooping eyes from getting the whole picture.”
“So we should have been stealing from those random patrols we came across on the way here?” Elias asked.
Brela ignored them, flipping through the drawings that Farrah was sketching from memory. Pieces of armor, or maybe a shield? Half of what might have been a twisted spike, or just a plain nail in incredible detail with… whatever rectangle was drawn on the other side of the page. A list of ingredients with a sickening amount of hellthorn written at the top.
Four hells, nothing could ever be easy, could it?
“Not even instructions?” Serill asked. Farrah whipped her head around with a growl and he held up his hands. “Sorry.”
“So, we’ve basically learned nothing except that Lyle is still a prick?” Elias groaned.
Cason ran a hand through his hair. “A prick who knows how to keep his mouth shut about everythingexceptfor what we need.”
“Bre, think you can still convince him to sleep with you? Get him to spill a few secrets?” Elias asked.
Brela sighed, but didn’t look up from the drawings. “Farrah…”
“You got it,” she said, then punched Elias in the shoulder.
