Page 71 of Nightingale

Rian was tired, obvious by the light purple bags that hung around him, ushering his mount to pick up the pace until he was directly across from her. He yanked in the leather leash, jerking the mount to a slow, steady walk.

“Hello, Vre.” Rian greeted her with the shortened version of her name. She didn’t mind it so much anymore, not when it came from him. It wasn’t as personal as Nightingale, but she preferred a nickname from him rather than his brother.

“You need to turn around.” Vrea said immediately, glancing behind her as if she could see the Niroulian border that they’dleft eight days ago. “Go back to the war camps and go home. I’ll order Amir to accompany you so that you’ll make it without any harm, but you need to turn around.”

She made sure he heard the warning in her voice.

“Pining for another one of my brothers? Brioc, perhaps? You won’t find any pleasure there, nor will he with you. You’re not his type, I’m afraid. Youaremy second eldest brother’s, but that’s not saying much. I doubt you’d enjoy anything he has to offer. Or maybe it’sCastilyou secretly yearn for?” He playfully crooned but she sensed the hint of seriousness within. A shadow crossed over his face, seeping into the panels and twisting his expression into a near dark look.

Then it was gone.

“Too bad, because you’re stuck with me.”

The thought of offering herself up to any of them was disgusting. Brioc would have been the best out of the three, but there wasn’t a single idea of enjoyment between Regulus or Castil. Regulus wouldn’t care for her wants, her desires or even her pleasure. She knew that without having to think too long on the matter. And Castil didn’t look at her as if she were a person, but an object to be owned. The way he ordered her around on the last night of the party only further proved that.

She pursed her lips in vexation. “I don’t wantanyof your brothers. What Iwant,is for you to live.”

Rian considered, “I think I’d enjoy that too.”

“You won’t live if you continue to come with us.” Vrea insisted, allowing her horse to keep up a regular pace. It slipped and slid with the sand, stomping it down before taking another step. There were no signs of jumping sand-serpents and she was more than grateful for that. Though, she wouldn’t see them until they were already leaping for their victims.

“My mother will kill you as soon as she lays her eyes on you. Not to mention Alpheus, or Eamin. Hell, evenTeminosmight tryto take you down for the sake of spilling Moordian blood.”

He licked the top row of his teeth. “Vrea, I can handle myself. I don’t plan on making myself an enemy with your family. I told you from the start, I’m coming along to bring peace. If we can stop this war, then I think your mother will feel as though I’ve done my part in order to gain her trust.”

She didn’t answer, thinking over his words.

Rian must have thought she looked fearful, must have thought she didn’t believe him because he said, “I promise you that I won’t let her kill me.”

“Howdoyou plan to propose peace?” Vrea asked out of the blue, ignoring his last vow. In all their time together, over the days and hours they’d been forced to endure, she realised that he’d never elucidated the exact facts to her. She’d never heard a single detail, even by a slip up. He was careful, cautious, wary, even around her.

It struck her as odd.

They’d shared personal details, shared a bed even but he’d never shared his ultimate plan with her.

Rian spotted the men behind them, the two near their sides and Amir at the very front of the charge. Who kept dragging his attention back to them, eyebrows folded into his forehead for a few minutes, turning back around before his horse could absentmindedly be led into a sand dune or palm tree.

He chewed on his lips before turning his head towards her and saying, “I’d really prefer to wait until we’re out of the public to share those details with you. If you don’t mind waiting a day or two more, just until we reach Vasthold and I can tell you in the confines of a room where prying eyes and ears can’t hear us, then I swear to tell you everything.”

Vrea’s too-tight head was a wardrum of tense anxiety, pooling of thick dread in her stomach and her heart was a heavy beat that she could barely focus on. There was the sensible part thattold her she needed to demand his entire plan, here and now. It shouldn’t have mattered who was listening, who could possibly overhear them if he truly intended for peace.

But then there was that other side of her.

The one that had seen the other sides tohim.

The one that wanted to let him hold onto his secrets for now, wanted to rely on him enough that he could tell her in a little more than twenty-four hours. She was fine with waiting, when impatience wasn’t something she claimed.

Rian studied her, “I know I’m asking quite a bit of you, Vrea. I know that with the way our families have been set up to hate each other, even going so far as to killing the other, it’s a lot for me to ask.”

It was water to the steaming smoke of her worry.

“Please, trust me.” He quietly pleaded with her, and her folly heart lurched for him. “I beg of you.”

Rian looked every bit of a Prince at the moment, with his red hair that fell into his face, his midnight eyes that she liked more than she should have. Even his fawn skin glowed under the autumnal sun, with a grace and beauty that only belonged to his paler sibling.

That part of her that teetered back and forth, toed a line of caution on the fence that she considered to be dangerous, fell over. And Vrea realised that she’d started to fall in love with him.

So she nodded once, silently.

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