Sounds Complicated
Multiple sets of feet descending the cellar stairs sent me into a state of alarm. A well-armed, broad-shouldered guard with dark brown locs found me huddled behind a wine cask, wielding a candlestick.
Shaw.
I relaxed once I saw Dommik following behind him.
“Well, at least we know you wouldn’t go down without a fight.” Dommik eyed the candlestick, then the oversized pants. “Soldier, you’re doing the Hive and your regent a great service,” Dommik commended Alba’s suitor.
“Thank you again for trusting me with this post.” Shaw stood with his back stiff as a plank, eye to eye with Dommik.
Clang.
I’d intended to set the candlestick on a flat surface, but it toppled and fell to the floor.
“What’s happening?” My gaze swiveled between the men.
Dommik adjusted his rucksack. “Shaw is going to stay with you. Consider his orders my own.”
I narrowed my gaze. “I thought I was the one who commanded others.”
“Not tonight, my lady. Not until we secure your passage back to the Hive.”
There was so much unsaid between us and I needed more time to talk and figureusout. Rushing back to the Hive when my mind was a tumultuous battlefield, pushing and pulling between my complicated feelings for both Rhazien and Dommik, felt like a grave mistake.
The commander turned his attention to his soldier. “She has a tendency to rebel against instructions. I recommend you don’t fall asleep while you’re with her. Someone will be here to relieve you again at sunset.”
“Someone? Not you?” The half of me that wasn’t concerned was confused. He suddenly was going to entrust me to just anyone after their guard had been infiltrated. After all, he'd confessed as much just a day ago. Or was his nonchalance an act?
Dommik smiled, winked, and disappeared up the stairwell.
Shaw let out a heavy exhale as he glowered at me. “Your name isn’t Lyra, is it?”
Shaw spent hours alternating between perimeter checks outside and weapons care in the cellar.
With the events of the last day running through my mind, rest was impossible. And although I’d become accustomed to sleeping during the day, I missed the sun. It felt like a crime to be down in the dark by choice.
With little else to do, I decided to dig for information from Shaw. “So, how did you and Alba meet?”
He gestured for me to join him at the table. “The commander said you’d pester me.”
“He thinks he knows me,” I complained as I sat.
“It sounds like he does,” he said as he poured water from a pouch into a small mug.
“Maybe not as well as you know Alba,” I teased as I nibbled on an apple slice. His eyes flickered from the liquid to mine as he weighed his next words.
Shaw clasped his calloused hands together before pointing to me. “Who are you to her?”
“A friend,” I said, using the back of my hand to cover my mouth as I munched.
“A friend.” He chuckled, brilliant white teeth gleaming. “Well, if we’re not going to tell each other the truth, then we are done asking questions.”
His sharpened words were an icy contrast from the charmer I’d met at the tavern, but that didn’t surprise me. He was part of the Day Guard. Most, if not all, of its members had checkered pasts. I wondered what kind of criminal Shaw had been to end up amongst its ranks. As well as what he’d done since to earn Dommik’s trust. Whatever it had been, it probably wasn’t anything honorable.
“And…she attends to me.”
“Ah.” A shimmer of recognition flashed across his features.
