Page 120 of Dare

The virtuous knight grumbled. He opened his mouth to reply but froze. Nothing about the atmosphere had changed. Nonetheless, his demeanor tensed, some form of instinct or perception tensed his jaw.

This would have been the moment to withdraw my knife. Same for the rest of this group, each of us armed with our choice of weapons.

But rather than charge, Aire did the opposite. With a perceptive grunt, the soldier jammed his broadswords into the crossed sheaths at his back and stalked past us. In unison, we turned to watch as he ambushed a cluster of shrubs germinating beneath the fauna statues. There, he thrust one fist into a hedge, gave forceful tug, and yanked a smaller form from its confines.

An indignant feminine shriek echoed through the rainforest. With one arm, the knight seized the intruder by the back of her hood and hauled her a foot off the ground. Under the cloak, the female squirmed, flailed her limbs, and threw punches in Aire’s general direction.

Flare gasped. My gaze tapered.

A girl.

Ample curves filled out the vestment, pants, and tunic. Despite the abundance of her figure, plus indications that she would grow tall someday, she could not be more than a juvenile’s age. A younger sister, perhaps.

Although the mantle shielded her features, the female’s voice rang through clearly the moment she opened her mouth. “Get your mangy fucking paws off me, knight!” she growled while slapping Aire’s forearms.

Offended by her vocabulary but evidently accustomed to it, the soldier huffed. “It appears we have a stowaway.”

Without ceremony, he released the female. She stumbled into the middle of our group but fumbled to keep the hood over her head, the motions panicked. As her fingers wrestled with the fabric, I caught sight of the girl’s arms. Some manner of vine-like pattern marked her flesh, neither scars nor ink. Rather, it appeared to be a type of skin condition.

The girl pushed down her sleeves. She had to be roasting in that cloak, yet she tucked the edges around her face and turned up her chin. This hinted at more of the same pattern across her chin, though in this light and with the hood blocking my view, I deciphered little else.

Poet groaned. “Fuck.”

Aire’s gaze skimmed the female from head to toe, checking for injuries despite the cloak. Satisfied that she’d gotten here in one piece, he moved on. “Brazen creature,” he sighed with displeasure. “If it isn’t the infamous Someone.”

“I told you,” she barked at him. “I’m not a ‘brazen’ anything, and I’m not called Someone anymore. My name is—”

“Aspen!” Briar reprimanded with a mixture of horror and anger. “What on earth—”

“I’m fine. I’m half-aquatic fae, so getting here was easy.”

Not about to swallow such bullshit, Briar crossed her arms as though they were used to the girl delivering chronic fibs. “I’d love to know how you accomplish that.”

“I swam?” Aspen replied hopefully. “I can hold my breath underwater for days at a time, so I just needed to grab the ship’s, uh, rudder thingy and let the vessel pull me.”

“A brazen one and a liar,” Aire accused while looming over her.

The girl wheeled on him and stabbed a finger into his chest. “I’m no liar, you dickhead.”

When everyone remained quiet, she hedged. “Fine. It was a wee bit tight in the cargo hold, but I managed.”

“Clearly,” Poet remarked with a dark twist to his lips. “Couldn’t stay away from my wife and me, could you? Most people have this problem.”

Humble as ever. Yet there was no masking the displeasure in Poet’s tone.

“Okay, look.” Aspen raised her defensive palms. “I wasn’t planning on following you.”

“Another lie,” the First Knight grunted.

The female scowled at him. “Did your sixth sense tell you that?”

Aire’s forehead crimped, straining against something. Following a moment of unease, he clipped, “Any honest person would have no trouble detecting falsehoods.”

Umbrage peppered her voice. “My decision was last minute.”

“That is not the point. It’s dangerous here!”

“Oh, cut the shit. It’s dangerous everywhere, so you can stop doing that.”

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