With my eyes on her, I reach for the dagger, slowly unsheathing it and setting it on the ground. Her shoulders relax slightly, but her gaze is still hard. I turn to Graylen to ask him togive her what remains of our food, but he’s already pulling it out of our bag.
His jaw is set—teeth clamped tightly together—as he hands it to me wordlessly.
When I face the woman again, her child has settled, now sleeping in its swaddle.
I offer the food, holding it out toward her. She flinches back, holding her baby away from me. Pain shoots through my heart.
“Here,” I rasp, throat hoarse as I set the food on the table beside me. “This is a gift. No strings attached.”
As guarded as she is, I can see the hunger in her gaze as she looks at the food. I take a step back, motioning to it. She doesn’t move, but I have a feeling once we leave she won’t hesitate to grab it.
“I just want to know what’s happened here,” I say softly. When she doesn’t answer, I add, “I used to come here—every week for years. There was a tradesman I was close with. Linnick.” My throat closes when his name rolls off my tongue.
The woman’s eyes widen in recognition, and she nods for me to continue.
“I’ve never seen Runnswick like this; it isn’t my market.” I swallow. “Isn’tLinnick’smarket.”
The woman presses her lips together, considering my words. Finally, she croaks, “They’re all gone. We were told they volunteered for the army, but…” Her eyes mist over, and she leans toward me slightly, voice a whisper as she says, “It was like they all just disappeared. One day everything was normal, and the next…poof. Gone.”
The edges of my vision blur, head swimming as her eyes dart back to the food. I give her a brisk nod and stumble back so she has room to take what little provisions we had left.
It isn’t enough—nothingwould be enough.
The woman snatches the food from the table before disappearing into the ruins of the market.
Her words fill my mind.
It was like they all just disappeared. Poof. Gone.
We were told they volunteered for the army.
My chest heaves, and my eyes sting as tears flood them. Something happened here—something terrible. And I wasn’t here to stop it.
Moros. Thishadto be him. His dark magic, his corruption.
A hand lands on the small of my waist, and I rear back, heart pounding from the shock of the touch.
Worried emerald eyes stare down at me, scanning my face. “Breathe for me,” Graylen rasps. “Focus on me.”
He doesn’t ask why. Doesn’t question my reaction or tell me to calm down. He stands with me patiently, gaze piercing my heart and breaking through the haze.
When my thoughts start to clear, I realize how close we are—how close we shouldn’tbe. My eyes snap to the soldiers still standing with Adrian at the edge of the market, but when I see them focused on him, not us, my shoulders instantly relax.
Adrian’s arms flail in the air as he motions to the empty stands. It’s so quiet that I can hear his shouts of anger from here.
“What thefuckhappened while I was gone?” he demands.
Whoever answers responds in a much softer tone, the reply lost with the distance separating us. He’s likely getting the story that Moros wants everyone to believe.
A story that Adrian will likely accept. How could he not? He doesn’t know what Moros has done, and he has no reason to mistrust his own soldiers. I can’t blame him for swallowing every lie they shove down his throat.
“You expect me to believe that?” Adrian shouts, gripping the back of his neck. “This was people’s livelihood! Their only means of survival.”
My brows flick up at Adrian’s anger, palpable even from here. Maybe he learned something on our trip here after all.
“And you’re telling me—yourking—that they all just…what?” he scoffs, eyes skittering over the market. “Agreed to fight for our kingdom?”
Graylen and I share a look, one that says we don’t believe that for a second.
