Chapter
21
“I don’t blame you.”
Paxton peered at Rozaria, who’d slowed her horse to ride beside him. He kept his eyes straight forward, keenly aware that the woman in arm’s reach had the most powerful magic hands he’d ever encountered. “Well, I blame myself.”
She chuckled. “They were sly and quiet. I am a light sleeper and I heard nothing.”
He could feel Rozaria watching him, and he wondered at her genuine kindness toward him. If Martone or any of the others had been keeping watch, she would have had their heads. For a clever, powerful, distrustful woman to be so malleable in his hands after such little time, he could only thank the seas for his luck.
From in front of them, the hooded girl slowly turned her head and gave a hard glance at the two of them over her shoulder. Paxton could only see her nose, mouth, and chin before she turned back around. He nearly shivered.
Rozaria gave a small grin and lowered her voice. “Nicola is not as convinced of your innocence, but she is not prone to trusting men in general. And she is particularly protective of me.”
Paxton nodded, mentally making note. “Her devotion to you was clear to me from the start. It is good that you have her.”
“Mm. Her father was not Lashed. He did not know his wife was of Lashed blood until Nicola first worked magic as a child. She was trying to revive her mother after something ruptured inside her while delivering a dead child. Her father attempted to kill Nicola when he saw what she was—took a knife to her—but he didn’t expect her to fight back, timid as she always was. He was only able to cut her face before she grabbed hold of him and burst his heart from the inside. She lost both parents that day, but she gained me. Her energy was so strong I felt her from outside the house. I had been called to help, but I was too late.”
Deep seas. For the girl to have done that, survived that, as a child . . . it’s no wonder she was so loyal to Rozaria and so distrusting of men.
“That town,” Paxton said. “They knew what you are?”
She shook her head. “I was young myself at that time, only fifteen, and already a seasoned midwife. I knew PrinceVito, so I knew things were going to change in Kalor, but the towns still held many bigots. Lashed were only working openly in select groups. That was ten years ago. Things are different now.”
A low animalistic rumbling sounded from behind them, and several of the men spoke loudly. One man howled, apparently bitten or scratched.
Rozaria gave a roll of her eyes and yelled over her shoulder, “Subdue it, you fools. Don’t bait them with your shouts.”
After a few moments it quieted down. Only three of Rozaria’s beasts were ready for the journey. It had taken quite a lot of hands to calm them and force them into a deep enough slumber to transfer them to the cart-pulled steel cages. He’d double-checked the locks himself.
In that moment, Rozaria’s horse reared with a great whinny, and she tightly grabbed hold of its mane. Paxton looked ahead and saw a giant snake with a diagonal design that had slithered into their path. It was as thick as Paxton’s upper arm. The creature rose up with a vicious hiss at the horse. Beside it, Nicola gave a scream and her horse ran, nearly throwing her off.
Without thought, Paxton let loose an arrow and pierced the snake through the spot beneath its head. Rozaria soothed her horse and stared down at the serpent as it jerked its way back to the side of the road before going still.
“You are good to have around, hunter.”
She gave him a beaming smile of laughter, and in thatmoment she was just a woman. A beautiful woman who, in one vulnerable moment, had needed saving. And it was almost possible to forget she was a ruthless murderer. In that fleeting moment, Paxton had half a mind to try to reason with the woman about her methods. But then he remembered who she really was.
He nearly laughed at himself. He could not afford a single speck of weakness toward Rozaria Rocato.
As they trotted past his kill, a man from their caravan behind them jumped down and nudged the snake, then picked it up and threw it over his shoulders with a smile.
“Dinner,” Rozaria remarked, still with lighthearted laughter in her voice.
This time, when Nicola made her way back to the path and turned to stare at Paxton, she lifted her chin so he could see her dark eyes within the hood.
Two days of traveling through the thick terrain of foliage made Paxton long for home worse than ever. As soon as he learned a bit more about Rozaria and Prince Vito’s plan, he would abandon the Lashed ranks and race to his homeland with the information as fast as possible.
He thought of Aerity during every quiet moment. Nobody in all Eurona could have made him experience the gamut of emotions he’d had when she showed up at camp in that ridiculous disguise. It’s a marvel Rozaria hadn’t recognized her—those hazel eyes were a dead giveaway for him.The rest had only confused him for a moment before the farce became clear.
But to have done all that for him.For him.Deep seas, she could have been killed. And she must have known the risks. But still she came charging into Kalor to seek him. But why? To bring him home? To merely say hello? Was she married now? Or would she be soon? These were all things he’d had no time to ask.
In the course of that night she’d broken his heart when she’d believed him capable of evil, and then she’d revived him again and filled him with fuel to continue on.
He was in the midst of these musings when a high-pitched yipping sounded from above. Within seconds it grew and seemed to move. He peered up into the canopy of stretching, leaning trees. Rozaria was also staring up, smiling with mischief.
“The first line of defense,” she said. “We’re nearly to the fortress. It is entirely surrounded with tree ranks.” Ranks of soldiers in the trees? Did she mean those yipping sounds were people?
