"Anything." There was no hesitation, no doubt that whatever I needed, he would give it to me.
"When this is over, no matter what happens, we'll still be okay." Perhaps if we had been anywhere else I would have never asked for this reassurance. Yet beneath this sky, shrouded in moonlight, within the safety of his touch, I couldn't help but let the secrets of my desire slipthrough the cracks. “Promise me that you'll always reach for my hand. That you'll stay."
"In every universe, little menace. Until we are but stars in the sky.”
Chapter Thirty One
Amareshi was a hive of activity. The sights, sounds, and smells were so overwhelming after days spent in the yawning endless dunes of the desert that I was immediately light headed.
This was the city of my mother. The birthplace of the woman I had missed everyday for the last fourteen years, a city she had once promised to show me when I grew older.
"Breathe, little menace."
My breath came rushing back at those words, my mind sharpening as I gave a shaky nod.
"Bad memories?" His lips brushed softly against the shell of my ear, the touch grounding me as I slowly took in the wide street, the bright colorful buildings all coated in a fine dusting of sand.
"Sad ones." Was all I said in response, my hand squeezing his lightly as my Tolokok weaved through the crowd of people. Hardly any of them glanced in our direction, shifting around our group with the elegance of parting waves. It was clear this was a city of travel, for the people seemed utterly apathetic to our presence, unlike those in Port of Arisha.
The first two days had been hell on the raw skin of my back. With the hot desert sun and the jolting of Aziza beneath me, I’d had to hold back my cries only a few hours into the journey. Each night we stopped, Rena laid her healing hands to my ravaged flesh and by the third day, the pain lessened enough that I could lean back to rest against Roan, which is how I was now situated. My frame was dwarfed as it rested against his broad chest, his strong arms encasing me as he held the reins of Aziza. We had yet to speak of our night under the desert stars. I wasn’t even entirely sure if he remembered the conversation, he’d been so deep within that bottle of liquor.
I didn’t even know if I wished for him to remember or not. I liked where we were now, a shameless game of flirtation with no true consequences. If it were to develop, to tip over the edge of the precipice we now precariously stood upon, I wasn’t sure if it would work. Wasn’t sure if our lives, so vastly similar and different all at once, could intertwine after this quest was finished. What life was there for a man chained to his role as executioner for a wicked king and a woman who’d been hiding from her fate at his stake for the entirety of her life?
“We’re close,” Gianni called back.
Kairen had insisted we immediately meet with Wraith upon our arrival to Amareshi, already late with the extra day of recovery I’d needed.
The building, a large structure of beige stone, was deep within the city. It was an intricate design of luxury, terraces jutting out high above, desert plants strung from the rafters. I could hear the music from within, the raucous drunk laughter, and smelt the opium, sweet and earthy.
We dismounted and Gianni departed with words of luck as he went to stable the Tolokok near the Inn we’d be staying at.
“Well this lookslovely,”Rena muttered, her words barbed. “Are we really doing this?”
“Don’t have much of a choice.”
Kairen seemed exhausted, the burdens already weighing on his shoulders growing heavier since his flame had burnt me. I hadn’t seen him and Roan speak once since the night he had mangled the Prince's face, a tension now between them that couldn’t seem to be resolved.
We entered the establishment, the smell of sweat overpowering in the dim lighting. My attention immediately snagged on the women scantily clad in bright swaths of fabric, some dancing atop a stage near the front of the room, others sprawled prettily across the laps of patrons. Nearly all that my eyes met were Luanthian, the discovery chilling my blood.
One approached, hands reaching for me, a welcoming smile lighting her full lips. Her dark eyes were lined in black, her finger grazing my jawline.
“What a pretty visitor," she complimented, her white hair swaying over her shoulders as she leaned closer, a hairbreadth from my lips. “What have you come for, sweet girl?”
Roan gently pushed her back, giving me room to breathe as my hands clenched. His voice was deep and resolved as he answered. “We’re not here for that, we have a meeting with Wraith.”
Her eyes sharpened, hips swaying as she took a step. A pout formed as her hand reached for his white hair and my body moved without a thought, stepping between them, my back brushing his chest. Her eyes glittered as my arms crossed.
“Sopossessive, " she purred, turning and motioning for us to follow with a sigh. “It’s been so long since I’ve gotten to play with such pretty friends.”
We followed her out of the main area, passing rooms curtained with thick fabrics. Women and men alike stumbled down the halls, the smell of opium heady and thick, suffocating my lungs as we walked.
I counted the turns and twists we took, keeping track of the path, nails digging into my palms. She led us down a staircase so dark I could hardly see the nearly sheer, red fabric draped over her body. It opened into an empty entrance hall with only a large wooden door, a tall muscled man standing before it. His dark hair was shorn close to his scalp, his arms riddled with black looping tattoos. My gaze narrowed on those marks, patterns that looked so familiar.
They were the blessed tattoos of the Goddess Soli, slashed through and drained of their blessings. This man was an exiled soldier of Tavari, cast from the army for some misdeed.
“They say they have a meeting with Wraith.” The woman crooned.
“Name?” The word was more of a grunt, his eyes lingering upon the tattoos of my companions.
