She stared up at him, nodding as innocently as she could.
“Why... never mind.” He handed her a piece of dried meat and a water skin from his saddlebags.
Her stomach rumbled as she accepted them gratefully.
He spent the evening glaring into the flames. It was such a far stretch from the boy who had charmed everyone in the courtyard of that stone fort.
Feeling no pity for his self-induced attitude, Aizel yawned and glanced at the ground around her. The area surrounding their small fire was well padded with the dense leafy grass and looked far more comfortable than some of the places she had recently slept.
Checking the area for any hidden stones or sticks, she lowered herself onto her side.
At her motion, the prince finally pulled his eyes from the fire and stood. She watched from the corner of her eye as he, too, stretched and made his way over to the saddlebags. When he turned back to face her, he was carrying a blanket. Instead of returning to his side of the fire, he rounded to hers and held out the blanket.
Sitting up on her elbow, she reached up to accept it from him.
His other hand held a length of rope.
She sighed. Turio had told the soldiers there was no need to keep her from escaping so she had remained relatively free during the second half of the last trip. Of course, he had not passed that information on to the prince. “She will not run away because she is trying to kill you.” That would have gone over well.
She shook her head at the prince, knowing it was useless, but she had to at least try.
The prince shrugged. “I can’t let you escape.”
She pointed to the ribbon around her neck, indicating her lack of voice and lack of power.
“How do I know you won’t take it off?” he countered.
She shook her head.
“Like I’m going to believe you. I can’t even take your word for it since you can’t even speak.”
Was he laughing at her? She scowled up at him, pointing rapidly to herself and shaking her head. “I can’t remove it.” The words she could not say out loud burned in her throat, as though the ribbon itself was holding them back.
“You won’t remove it, or you can’t remove it?” He seemed to be speaking to himself as if he just realized the difference.
Aizel nodded emphatically. Was that why he had been watching her so closely all day? This Quotidian prince did not even know how a muting necklace worked!
“That doesn’t mean you won’t get up and stab me in the back,” he said. “I’m not an idiot, Azel. That takes no magic.”
It was the second time he had said her name and he was still pronouncing it wrong. She sighed dramatically and held out her hands, wrists together.
He stepped closer and tied the rope around her wrists, attaching the other end around a nearby tree, leaving her quite a bit of room to move around. At least she was still close to the warmth of the fire.
When he had returned to his own spot, she took the blanket and awkwardly spread it around herself despite her bound hands. The last thing she saw as she drifted off to sleep was the distant expression of his eyes, staring once again into the flames across the fire.
The sound of a log hitting the fire woke her with a start.
The prince was still awake, and the fire lapped hungrily at its new fuel.
The arm she was lying on felt as though it were being stabbed by hundreds of needles, so she had been asleep for some time. She adjusted her position, wondering why the prince wasn’t trying to sleep himself. Was he keeping guard, afraid of some outside attack? Or was he still afraid of her despite the fact she couldn’t reach him?
Regardless of the answer, it wasn’t her problem to solve. Lying back down in a more comfortable position, she closed her eyes and drifted back to sleep.
The sound of a scream broke into her dreams. She sat up quickly, wide awake.
The sky was still completely dark, but the fire had burned down to a pile of hot coals.
She glanced around the small area, looking for the source of the scream.
