“Look, you and I need to come to some sort of understanding here. I was ordered to marry you, and you’re here now whether either of us likes it or not.” He kneads a hand over his forehead. “I’ll admit I don’t exactly know what to do with you, but I don’t have any intentions other than…trying to keep you alive in this place that will most definitely rather see you dead.”
“And I’m supposed to just believe that?”
“Yes,” he says fiercely. “Why wouldn’t you? I have saved your life, protected you countless times now. From the Masks, the mylings, the shadow wolves, and tonight, the Bonewalker.” He throws up his hands in exasperation. “What other proof could you possibly need to believe that you can trust me?”
“Mylings?”
“Devilish little creatures.”
I send him another vacant look.
“They alter their shape, so I’m not sure how they appeared to you, but—“ He searches my face for recognition. “When you insisted on wandering off to take a piss?”
My brow furrows. “The…children?”
“Well, I mean, technically, they were children at one time, but they’re definitely not that any—wait—“ He leans back and freezes, face twisting in horror. “Is that how they appeared to you?”
“That’s what they were.”
His lips part into a silent o. “Because of the locket. Did you…you thought….you were scared of me,” he murmurs as he pieces it together. “That’s why you ran…”
“I’m not scared of you,” I mutter out rather unconvincingly.
“Right.” He smiles, but it’s fleeting. “Listen, you understand that those weren’t children, though, right? Technically, they’re the souls of them, but they’ve been corrupted. They most definitely would’ve attacked you.”
My brows crumple. It really hadn’t made sense for children to be out there in the middle of the wilderness, yet…it looked so real. I hear those words again.You know nothing of the world outside of the Wall.
I can feel him scrutinizing me, and a flush works over my cheeks. I draw my knees up to my chin and dip my head to let my hair curtain my face. If those weren’t children…then this whole thing was bred out of my stupidity. I put our alliance at stake, putSyraat stake over a misunderstanding.
No…he didhurtme, and he told Morin he’d like to discard of me.
“This is making a lot more sense now,” he grumbles, dragging his hands over his face. He drops them and searches mine. “But you do believe me, right?”
I nod, fiddling with the ties on my arm. When I peek back up, he’s staring at my arms too. “Okay,” he sighs. “I think we’re making progress here, and I think we should continue this conversation, but the Bonewalker isn’t the worst thing out here in the Blood Wood, and it’s going to take us some time to get back.” He reaches a hand toward my foot, and I flinch back. “What happened to your shoes?” he admonishes.
“Sandal broke,” I mutter, hiding my bloodied and scraped feet under my gown.
He tugs himself to his feet, leering over me, looking every bit the dark witch I sought to escape as he stares off in between the shadowy trees. “I don’t know where you were hoping to get to, but you were never going to make it.” His eyes dart down to me as he quirks a brow. “Will you come willingly, or do I have to drag you back?”
“What are you planning to do with me?”
His answering shrug is both dramatized and exasperated. “Keep you alive?”
It’s not like I have much of a choice, really. I can’t stay in this god-forsaken place. I work a swallow. “I want my locket back.”
“You can’t keep that.”
My face falls.
“You don’t understand what it does to me. Even that small amount has been dampening my magic, and it makes me feel terrible.”
“It does?”
“I thought it was you making me feel that way.” He snorts. “I should’ve realized. Especially after finding your bag of tricks.” His eyes drift back down to my arms and he sighs. “We really need to go.”
I climb to my feet, wincing and swaying a little. He lays a hand against my injured shoulder to steady me, and I let out a hiss of pain, cringing away from his grasp. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m fine,” I say through my teeth.
