“I haven’t decided yet.” She batted her eyelashes. “We’ll see which one works harder to win my heart.”
Just a few hours ago, I thought I’d won a girl’s heart too. And now, my own heart lay in pieces.
Fuck.
I reached for my glass again.
“Are you celebrating too?” Agor appeared from behind me and slid onto the bar stool next to me.
“What are you doing here?” I barked at him.
So much for my plan to get drunk alone.
“The same thing you are. Getting a drink.” He frowned at my glass. “Maybe not the shit you’re drinking, though.”
I hugged my glass with my hand defensively. It was a big glass, and I’d only managed to take a couple of swallows from it. With any luck, by the time I reached its bottom, I’d blissfully pass out under the bar.
Agor nodded to Olga in greeting, and she slid a stein of ale his way, then took the other seven steins over to the tables.
I glanced behind Agor’s wide back, expecting to see Becca with him. It was weird to see one of them without the other.
“Shouldn’t you be chained to the bed by your wife at this hour?” I snapped.
Apparently, Agor and Becca had peculiar love-making preferences. He’d bragged to me about their “incredible and fantastic” sex life over a stein of ale once, thankfully, without getting into too many details.
“We’re going dancing tonight,” Agor explained. “Becca went home to get changed. You know her, she wears practical clothes during the day, but likes dressing in skirts and ribbons for a party.”
“Isn’t it too late for a party? And what are you celebrating anyway?”
“That the fucking duke’s army is finally leaving. People want to celebrate with bonfires and dance. You should come too.”
Normally, I’d never say no to a party. I would never question the reasons for having one, either. In fact, I’d be the one out there right now, piling up the biggest fire pyre ever, then dancing my feet off until sunrise.
No wonder Agor was staring at my gloomy face with his eyebrows raised in surprise, clearly expecting an explanation of my miserable mood. Except that I didn’t feel like explaining anything. I didn’t even feel like talking to anyone. All I felt likedoing right now was nursing my glass of poison and wallowing in my misery.
Burul took place behind the counter while his sister served the tables.
“Hey, Grat! What are you doing here?” he asked.
“I live in the keep, don’t I?” I snapped back, twisting my glass on the table.
“Right, but I thought you were at the cabin, hunting,” he said, good-naturedly. “Don’t you have a bet to win?”
Wasn’t it only a few weeks ago when winning that stupid bet was my main concern? Now, all I could think about was Khala. She was the one at the cabin while herbelovedhusband had been looking for her all over the Wetlands…
Things finally started moving in my brain. Logic and reason made their way out of the fog of heartache. And with that, questions emerged.
Why did Khala lie to me about being a widow?
If she really got abducted and wished to reunite with the duke, all she had to do was tell me that, and I would’ve taken her to him the very first day we met. I offered to help her find her tribe from the very beginning. It wouldn’t be difficult for me to locate the duke’s army that had been stomping all over our lands for weeks now.
But she didn’t say that. In fact, she had made it very clear that she didn’t want the humans to find her.
Maybe she thought those were her abductors searching for her, not her husband?
“Why are the humans leaving?” I asked Agor, ignoring Burul’s perplexed stare.
Agor shrugged. “Who cares why as long as they are? They haven’t done any harm. But who likes having an entire army camping literally on our doorsteps?”
