Damn the Divine.
How did I go from the killing suggestion to this?
Her speech was emboldened enough that I know she meant every word. A part of me even respects her for it. I know what it’s like to have to do whatever you need to in order to survive the world. For so much of my life, it was kill or be killed, and I chose to be alive.
I guess she did too.
But survival is also about choosing your loyalties wisely. When it comes to those I’m loyal to, I’m a fierce fucker.
My tongue flicks over the twisted wood piercing in my bottom lip. “Auren is loyal to you, but you’re not loyal to her. Simple as that. I don’t let disloyal people march with my army.”
The blonde stiffens. “Fine.” She turns around and starts shoving things into a bag, half her body lit up with the pile of simmering coals set in the center of the tent. “We’ll leave. I hope you sleep better at night knowing that you tossed out two helpless women into the Barrens and saved your precious conscience by upholding your high and mighty loyalty.”
My head tips back as a long-suffering sigh comes out of me. “Quit with the martyr shit,” I snap. “That’s not going to work on me. You can stay because we told Auren you could, and I always keep my word.”
Rissa stops what she’s doing, the skin at her eyes tightening, while I continue to stand here like an idiot, still holding two steaming bowls of stew. I shove one toward her. “Here.”
She hesitates for a moment, but I guess her hunger is stronger than her dislike for me, because she stands up and quickly takes it. When my eyes wander down to the way her lips close over the tin bowl, to the way she starts sipping it politely down, all sorts of dirty images pop up through the cracks of my thoughts.
Not good.
Shifting my focus, I down my own stew in a mess of slurps and chews and one hearty burp at the end. After I wipe the dripping broth from my beard with the back of my arm, I look up to find her watching me with her nose wrinkled in repulsion. “Are you not house-trained?” she sneers.
I grin back, all teeth. “You’re gonna learn real quick that those dainty sips aren’t gonna do shit when you’re starved and freezing. There’s no kings and nobles for you to sit around and impress. Just me.”
“As if I would ever strive to impress you,” she shoots back after taking another delicate drink. “You wouldn’t even be on the bottom of my list when I mark a room. I only ever go for the rich and cleanly.”
This time, I’m the one who eats up the space between us, my long strides taking me right in front of her. The way her pretty neck bends to look up at me is oddly attractive. Never thought I’d think someone’s fucking neck was a turn-on.
I’ve been in Fifth Kingdom too damn long. Blue balls from the weather must be real.
“Good news for both of us, Yellow Bell.”
She frowns. “Yellow Bell?”
I shrug. “It’s fitting. Flower’s yellow like your hair, and it tricks some people, because it might be pretty on the outside, but it’s pure poison.”
Her eyes go dark. “My hair is blonde, not yellow, you incompetent brute.”
I grin. “So you don’t deny the poison part? Interesting.”
She shoves the bowl back at me. “You can go now.”
“Since I’m the captain of the army, I’ll be giving the orders around here.”
“Great,” she mutters under her breath before she turns her back on me to sit down next to the sleeping woman.
I have to say, not many men would dare to turn their backs on me, so the fact that this woman is doing it without a care in the world makes me hard.
Yep. Definitely been in Fifth Kingdom too damn long.
“What’s with the broad?”
“Her name is Polly,” she bites out as she picks up a cloth and dabs the woman’s brow.
“She sick?”
“What do you care?”
I shrug. “Guess I don’t. But if she’s gonna be using up army resources with one of the menders, I need to know.”
She shoots me a look that’s colder than the storm outside. “She’s not contagious, and I don’t need anything from you or this army.”
“Other than our shelter, food, protection…”
I can practically hear her grind her teeth. I don’t know why riling her up makes me so fucking excited, but it does. She’s got spirit, and I didn’t know I liked that in a woman until right now.
Standing again, she turns to me with something fierce blazing in the depths of her blue eyes. With her gaze locked obstinately on mine, she starts to strip off her coat and then toes off her boots. But when she starts to pull at the sleeves of her dress and tug them down her shoulders, I startle. “What the fuck are you doing?”