“Are you okay?” Farren’s sleepy voice makes me look up and toward the door.
“I thought you had gone to bed?” I ask softly.
I’m not really sure how to answer the question anyway.
“I did, but then I realised that no one had checked in on you and we’re used to all of this shit being thrown at us, well as used to it as we can possibly be. You most likely aren’t though, or maybe you are. You have that aura about you, I suppose.” She pauses and then winces, “Sorry, my point is, I wanted to check on you.”
My heart beats faster. “Thank you. I am okay, and although this particular situation is a new one for me, being in danger is not.”
She frowns slightly, and then smiles instead, “That’s good, I guess. You will be pleased to know that the house is fucking awesome and there are enough rooms for all of us.”
“Wow. It takes some serious power to be able to do that, especially since, as far as I know, the house has been empty for a long time,” I reply as we start to head towards the stairs.
“It is pretty impressive. Ignatius must have been really strong though, not just because he managed to do this but because he was the trusted head mage of the King, and the King cared enough about him to lock him up and keep him safe,” Farren states.
“The King also trusted him to keep the rest of those people that you mentioned were with him safe. I know you said that the castle or realm was keeping them all alive and safe, but I would be willing to bet that they were also being kept safe by him,” I add thoughtfully.
“The door and magic that were guarding them could definitely have been done by him. It wouldn’t surprise me if all of that, including the actual cell that they were in, was all him, and their sustenance was coming from the castle, or realm,” she replies, her eyebrows creasing slightly as she thinks.
“It’s a decent enough theory, and we can make sure that we ask him when we finally set them free,” I suggest.
She chuckles softly, “From my experience, the likelihood of him actually answering a question is pretty fucking slim.”
I grin, “You never know. There are other ways to persuade someone to talk.”
Her smile sharpens, “See, I knew I liked you.” She stops, “This is your room. I’ll warn you now, we are most likely leaving pretty quickly tomorrow since none of us want to waste any time.”
“Perfect,” I reply.
As the urge to touch her washes over me, I force myself to turn toward the door and instead head straight through it without another word.
Rude?
Probably.
Necessary?
Most definitely.
I lose all fucking sense when it comes to Farren, and I have no idea what the fuck to do about it. Case in point, I can't help but wait by the door until I hear her footsteps softly pad down the hallway, and the door snick closed behind her.
It’s only then that I take stock of the room.
It’s nice, simple.
With a bed and minimal furniture. Walking across the room, I pull open the only other door in here, and I’m pleasantly surprised to find a bathroom. I’m assuming that all of the rooms have them. Which is damn good because we were all so distracted by the noises that were coming from the bathroom earlier that by the time we actuallymanaged to cook dinner and they came back downstairs, the rest of us had clearly forgotten about showering.
At least I’m assuming that’s the reason that no one else went up, I know that’s my reason.
After a quick and well-needed shower, I gratefully flop down onto the soft bed. I think I might have been asleep before my head hit the pillow.
∞∞∞
I slept ridiculously well last night, which is not something that I was expecting. I also wasn’t expecting to wake up to the smell of bacon, but that’s a very welcome surprise.
Remembering what Sage said last night about everyone wanting to leave pretty quickly, this morning I throw everything into my backpack, make sure that I have all of my weapons in easy reach, and I haven’t forgotten to put one where it belongs.
That’s only happened once, but because the weapon wasn’t where it always was, I lost precious time and with it, very almost lost my life.
