Her shock is like a bolt of lightning. “A deal?”
“I’m looking for a sword. I believe you can help me get it.”
And unlock it with your life, are the words I don’t tell her.
I tell her more about it, promising to ally with her at the Centennial if she helps me. A lie, of course. I watch as she purses her lips in consideration. I clench my fists in impatience as she takes her sweet time.
Then, she says, “No.”
I blink. She is imprisoned, and she dares turn down her only possibility of freedom? How long has it been since I’ve been shocked?
“No?” I ask, incredulous.
She just shrugs in that ridiculous—infuriatingly distracting—dress. “No.”
My fingers twitch, desperate to take action. “Very well,” I say, barely restraining the anger surging through me.
If she wants to die in these cells, that’s not my problem. I’ll find the sword myself, though it would be easier with her help ... I’ll find a way for her to break its curse from inside this prison. Perhaps threatening her entire realm would help. Her guardians, maybe?
I turn.
“Wait—”
I pause.
“You wouldn’t leave me here, would you?” Her voice betrays her vulnerability.
“I would.” I mean it. If only to know exactly where she is, and ensure she isn’t causing me any more headaches with her recklessness.
I keep walking.
“Fine! Fine. But only if you return my starstick.”
Disgust twists my face. “Yourwhat?”
“My portaling device.”
Gods above. I return thestarstick. “I feel strongly I will regret this,” I say, meaning it, before handing it to her.
She grins, and I swallow. That simple expression. That simple emotion ...
I frown. She shouldn’t be so happy. She has no idea what she’s just agreed to.
She’s just sealed her fate, and she doesn’t even know it.
KILLING ME
Working with the hearteater has proven more infuriating than I imagined.
Why does the fate of my realm have to rely on someone so ... killable?
We’re just one hour into our first stop, and she has nearly been gutted by a rockface and killed by the blacksmith.
She’s fragile. She’s ridiculous, and sensitive, and she talks too much for my liking.
But easily captured? No.
She managed to put a dagger through the ancient blacksmith’s eye, after he chased her through the forest. It was my own little test, to see how she might perform. If she would be more of a hindrance than an advantage in searching for the sword.
