Page 94 of Of Sword & Silver

Even if it’s killing me to imagine how uncomfortable she must be in there.

33

KYRIE

“Idon’t think I’ve ever smelled this bad in my life,” I moan from my prone position on the floor. My feet are still in the barrel, my legs and arms tingling, half asleep.

“You smelled pretty wretched after the sewers under Cottleside,” the Sword offers.

“I’m surprised you could smell anything other than yourself,” I mutter. “Frankly, I’m surprised you could even walk.”

I peel myself off the expensive silk carpet a little, narrowing my eyes at him.

How was he able to walk? Barefoot in the snow, up the Hiirek Mountains?

“Fae are made from sturdier stock than humans,” the Sword answers my unspoken questions a little too quickly.

Morrow glances over from where he’s closing curtains and checking locks. “Humans are plenty sturdy,” he says.

“I would have frozen my toes off if I tried what he did,” I tell him, forcing myself more upright, massaging my cramping thighs.

“Then it’s lucky you had shoes, even if you didn’t think to provide any for me.”

Ouch. I glare at him. “I didn’t see you getting yourself out of prison, you ingrate.”

“Stop calling names,” Lara thunders, slamming down the satchel she’d been busy unpacking. “I am sick of you two being at each other’s throats.”

Caedia flinches from where she’s laid out her stock of herbs, already busy grinding up her next foul medicine, I assume. My heart squeezes a little.

It’s nice to be taken care of.

Even when your friend is yelling at you.

“Well?” Lara demands, throwing her hands in the air. “You have nothing to say for yourselves?”

“We should do some trust-building exercises,” Morrow interjects.

I burst out laughing. “Trust-building? You do remember who I am, right?”

Morrow frowns at me, but when Lara points a witchy finger at my chest, I flinch.

“Sorry,” she says, lowering her finger… then points at me again. “See? We all need to trust each other, or this isn’t going to work. I’m not going to hex you, Kyrie,” she huffs. “Stop looking at me like that.”

“I don’t trust Dario,” Caedia offers up, still grinding away. “Should we go get him?”

“No,” I tell her too quickly. “I don’t trust him either.”

“Stop trying to distract everyone,” Lara shouts, stamping her foot. “If we want this to work, if we want to help reunite Heska and keep Doston from conquering any more bits and pieces of our country, we need to work together.”

“I just want to live,” I mutter. “I don’t care about the rest.”

“What?” Lara bites off the word, her eyes gleaming with fury.

I roll mine. “I just want to live. That’s what I said?—”

“I do not give a fuck what you said,” she whispers, the sounds harsher than her shouting. “What kind of world do you want to live in? One where things like what we rode by tonight happen, where people are forced to trade sex for coin and are sold like fine wine?”

My eyebrows rise.

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