“But would it not be better for this potential war brewing if we arrived sooner?”
“You would think in all of those immortal years you’d have learned patience.”
“I’m not immortal,” he grumbled, as he did every time I threw the term around.
“Living so many centuries next to my pathetic human lifespan is close enough,” I said, and a growl wrenched the air.
Lancaster’s hand flashed out, gripping the reins and pulling my mare to a stop. His fingers brushed against mine, and even through the leather gloves we both wore, those prickles of awareness needled my palms.
My stare snapped to his, dark eyes burning into me.
Kill, a voice slithered through my head.
Enemy, it roared.
No,I wanted to shout back. No, I would not succumb to that instinct. I would not use the Bounty power against the fae trying to help us, no matter how infuriating he was.
But that instinct kicked up the longer his hand rested against mine, the heavier the scent of ancient, blood-tinged roses settled in the air.
“Lancaster,” I breathed.
His eyes turned impossibly dark at the sound of my labored breath. “Yes?” His voice was gravelly, too.
“I do not think you should have your hands on me.”
Enemy, the Bounty magic shrieked.
A frown twisted his lips. “I am not afraid of someone trying to kill me.”
I swallowed. “Not just someone.” Me, who was born from a bloodline that excelled at slaying his kind.
Lancaster’s hand did not move, and now it was burning into the side of mine. “I’m not afraid of you either, Bounty.”
We were both still, my breaths rushing and my heart pounding as the voice warred in my head. As one half of me instinctually reached for a weapon and the other gripped the reins until my hands ached.
And I hated the way this new instinct wanted to dictate my moves. My entire life, I had been my own control. For years, I’d decided everything for myself, was alone in many ways, though my friends were around me. The only human.
I refused to have some ancient source of blood magic change that. The possibility strangled me, making my breaths tight in my chest and my eyes flare wide.
“We need to move more quickly,” Lancaster said in response, voice softer than I’d ever heard it. And there was an understanding unfolding in every word. One that saidI have been there. I have had my control stripped of me. “I am going to carry you, and we are going to run. We will put the cypher knife in your boot where you cannot reach it without my knowing. If you feel so inclined to pull a regular blade on me, I assure you, I will recover just fine.”
The cockiness in that last comment broke my frozen facade. “Fine,” I folded, swinging off my horse on the opposite side ofhim to give the Bounty instinct time to fade. “What about our packs?”
“I will carry them both on my back.”
“Of course you will.” Unnaturally strong, non-immortal, arrogant prick.
I supposed with that strength, he really would be able to stop me from harming him, Bounty instinct and all. I may be eternally irritated by him, but I did notwantto kill him. Not if it wasn’t my choice, at least. If the day came that I did drive that cypher knife into his heart, I wanted it to bemy choice.
“Let’s hurry up, then.”
We scrawled Mystique ink letters to Meridat and sent the warrior horses she’d loaned us back to her estate. Then, Lancaster took slow steps toward me, his hands open at his sides.
“I am not some wounded animal,” I grumbled, closing the distance between us.
“If you do not stop growling, I may not believe you,” he retorted.
“It seems your habits are rubbing off on me.” I crossed my arms, tipping my chin up to glare at him. He was taller than I remembered, as I’d taken care not to be this close to him.
