Page 56 of Rogue Familiar

“Right,” Jadren agreed, letting her go immediately. “Stop trying to seduce me, you wild thing.” Despite his teasing, when she turned to face him, he was regarding her with a concerned expression. “Do you feel all right? Can you ride?”

“Yes, or walk,” she reminded him. “I’m going to be bruised up, but probably better to move so I don’t stiffen up.”

“Ride,” he told her in that arrogant tone of command that simultaneously turned her on and irritated the fuck out of her. “Up you go.” He held the stirrup for her foot and offered a hand for balance.”

“I’m not that badly hurt,” she protested, not moving.

“Both of us will ride. We’ll need the speed to put some distance between us and Zany and any other henchmatons she might have with her. There might be more lurking, cloaked by Elal spirit magic. I’d rather not be here when she recovers her wits enough to uncloak them and have them subdue us before we can fight back.”

“We have the advantage now. Use your wizardry against her.”

“I can’t defeat my sister—or any of my siblings—any more than I can battle my mother.”

Selly cocked her head, studying him. “You don’t know that.”

“Yes, I do. I have a whole lifetime of evidence from growing up in that house. Believe me, I’m not being overly modest. I am well aware of my personal limitations.”

“You just defeated your sister.” Selly pointed to the prone wizard. “Maybe you need to reconsider what you do and don’t know about yourself.”

He offered Selly a crooked, half-smile. “I’m good at taunting Zany into a frenzy, but it won’t be so easy the next time. She’s not exactly a brilliant strategist, but she’s much more powerful. I got the slip on her this time. That won’t happen again. We need to go, now. She’s already recovering.”

The woman did seem to be looking healthier, no longer smoking or convulsing quite so much. Her magic, much like Jadren’s in feel and flavor—quite disconcerting to Selly to feel that from the wizard when she first appeared—seemed to be rebounding somewhat. “Why not just kill her? I mean, I know she’s your sister, but you don’t seem to be on friendly terms.”

He made a choking noise. “You have no idea. She tried to kill me often enough when we were kids. Unfortunately she is also not so easy to kill.”

“Does she have your healing gift, too?”

Jadren shifted restlessly, glanced at his sister. “Can we discuss on the hoof, as it were?”

If they weren’t going to just kill the wizard, Selly supposed they had better flee. She relented and took the offered assistance to launch herself into Vale’s saddle, her body creaking with protest already. She’d be in a world of hurt after a few hours of hard riding. Jadren swung up behind her, snugging in close to her body. “You’re a better rider, so you direct Vale,” he said, moving her hair to nuzzle her neck again, most distractingly. “Consider me baggage.”

“I already do,” she replied tartly.

He laughed. “That’s my girl.”

She wanted to retort that she wasn’t his girl, but she most emphatically was, in every way imaginable. No sense pretending otherwise, to herself or to him. She turned Vale’s head in the direction of House Hanneil and urged him into a fast walk.

“Other way,” Jadren said.

“House Hanneil was back this way, wasn’t it?” She might not be an expert in Convocation geography, but she had an excellent sense of direction.

“We’re going to House Refoel.”

A surge of relieved pleasure that wasn’t sexual, yet still wasn’t without an erotic edge, swept through her. She turned Vale around and urged them into a trot as they circled around the inert wizard sprawled on the ground. “I’m really not that badly hurt.”

“I’m delighted to hear it, though I must say my balls will need medical attention if you intend to jounce us all the way to Refoel like this.”

Smothering a laugh, she moved Vale into a smoother canter, the overhung forest trail like a shadowy tunnel to a sun-dappled land beyond. They weren’t away and safe yet, but she had a good feeling about going to House Refoel. Healers were nice people. And she and Jadren had escaped yet another attempt at capture and they were together. “Better?”

“Some.” His teeth clacked, however, and he was way too stiff in the saddle.

“Lean into me,” she advised. “Think about it like sex, how we had to find the rhythm that worked for us both.

“That worked very well,” he agreed with a dark burr in his voice. He snaked his arms around her waist, after a while finding the sync with the movement of her body and horse. “Good analogy. Though this is faster than we ever did it. So far.”

A surprisingly giddy laugh escaped her. “We’ll have to work on that.”

“Deal. If my balls survive.”

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