The guards hesitated as though they weren't sure whether they wanted to obey the order or not. Not just the one who was currently bleeding but the other one as well, perhaps in support of his injured colleague.
I shifted in the chains, my brows rising in challenge. If they were going to make my time here miserable, I was more than happy to return the favor.
"Now," the woman snapped, and both guards bowed immediately as if jerked from their reverie.
Neither straightened as they edged backward to the door. A few words were spoken between the two figures with helmets before one of them nodded and headed to the door as well.
The one who’d barked the orders approached. She was the one who had knocked me out before, and the only thing keeping me from lashing out at her was the fact that she wasn’t close enough yet.
Yet my magic shifted toward her like a flower toward the sun, and I had a strange feeling like maybe I could trust her. I chalked that up to the crack I’d taken to the head, though, because she was my enemy.
She leaned closer, her gauntlet glittering with magic, and I fought the urge to cringe back. “I’m Legacy. What’s your name?”
“Why do you want to know?” I shot back. “If anything, I’d think you would want to avoid knowing my name so that what comes next is easier.”
A soft sound came from inside her helmet, and her hands rose. I flinched despite myself, but she only removed her helmet and held it against her side.
I flushed, hoping the blood and dirt on my face were enough to hide my reaction to her beauty. Her hair was red as flame, falling over her shoulders the second she removed the helmet. Her eyes were a piercing, stunning bright blue, and her dark brows rose.
I realized dimly that she had removed her helmet just so I could see her face. A strange bit of consideration, made all the stranger by the fact that she didn’t seem to be the slightest bit concerned about me being chained to the wall. Or that she was the one who had knocked me out to begin with.
“What comes next?” she asked with a tilt of her head, and if I hadn’t known better, I might have even believed that she didn’t know what I was referring to.
Unfortunately, dizzy and in pain as I was, I wasn’t quite that much of a fool.
"Please,” I said. “Let’s not pretend that you and yours are just going to let me walk out of here."
She sighed but nodded. "I do not make the decision about your freedom. After all, you know the location of our camp. We must be certain that you are no threat to our cause."
I tried to throw my hands up in frustration, a feeling only heightened by the chains holding my arms in place. "Actually, I don't know the location of your camp. I was unconscious when I was dragged here. I have no idea where I am."
I swallowed hard, not bothering to hide my fear. Not a lie so much as an exaggeration.
I already told them this, and they’d seemed to believe me then, so why was I still being questioned? What was it about this woman that made her not believe what the others had?
“I think you and I have very different ideas about what is going to happen next,” she mused, the side of her mouth quirking up in a grin.
Surely she couldn’t be trying to make a jest at a time like this? If so, I was personally of the opinion that it was in very poor taste. Then again, I was the very definition of a captive audience, so if there was ever a time for her to make jokes, it was now.
I leaned back in the chains as much as I could to ease the tension on my shoulders, forcing myself to sound droll rather than incredulous when I spoke. "Then perhaps you could enlighten me as to what you think will be happening next."
She smiled briefly, and my chest tightened. She might not have been as determined to hurt me as some of her compatriots, but that didn't mean I could trust her. I had learned a long time ago that a smile like that one was very rarely ever a good thing.
“I want a kiss,” she said, stepping closer until our faces were only inches apart.
“What? Why?” I demanded, my heart pounding out of my chest. “What?”
She gazed into my eyes, searching for any sign of reluctance. But she wouldn’t find any. She was too beautiful to refuse.
Besides, the idea of her lips on mine had sparked inside me, smoldering all of my questions away, leaving me bursting with blazing heat. It shouldn’t, given which side of the war she fought on, but since when could I control anything?
She closed the distance between us and brushed her lips against mine in a tentative, hesitant kiss. With a surge of boldness, I kissed her back, soft, gentle, yet filled with a promise of so much more.
When she pulled away, I discovered that I’d stopped breathing. I didn’t think I started again until long after she left.
Minutes, or possibly hours later, Legacy came back. "I brought you some company."
I drew my eyebrows together.
