Page 93 of Reckless
The sound of pounding hooves on cobblestone echoes off the surrounding brick walls. A gust of wind catches the brim of my hat, tearing it from my head and into the street. Silver hair is falling down my back, exposed in the daylight for the first time.
“Duck, darling.” Kai’s hand finds the top of my head, pushingit down before we ride under a fallen beam wedged between two buildings.
“Don’t call me that,” I say, straightening as I run a hand over my frizzy hair.
“Don’t call you what?”
“Darling. That’s what.”
I can feel his smile against my neck. “Why? Like it too much?”
“I thinkyoulike it too much,” I challenge.
He huffs out a laugh that stirs my hair. Wind combs its cool fingers across my scalp, and I almost sigh at the feeling. The open air is freeing, tempting me to stretch out my arms and embrace it.
I watch what is left of the city pass by in a blur, barely glimpsing the occasional person pointing in our direction. But before long, the street stretching beneath us grows rockier as the Sanctuary of Souls looms closer.
I swallow. This is it. This is the beginning of the end I’ve prolonged for so many years.
There is no hope of rescue beyond Dor. The Sanctuary is my death sentence. It is all hope dashed and fate sealed. It is destined doom.
Road turns to rubble, buildings into boulders. Kai slows our pace when we enter the narrow passage that is the Sanctuary of Souls. I can just make out the outlines of each shallow grave and cracked tombstone that earned this place its name.
“You don’t believe what they say about the souls, do you?” I ask quietly, eying the crumbling stones carved with faded names.
“I don’t know if the dead haunt travelers,” Kai sighs. “But I can’t say I haven’t seen some strange shit happen out here.”
“Like what?”
“It’s better if you don’t know, Gray,” he says smoothly. “I don’t need you scared of the horseandour surroundings.”
The laugh that bubbles from my throat surprises even me. “You’re not funny,” I barely manage beneath the palm I’ve clamped over my mouth.
“Really?” Kai bends over my shoulder to look at me, his voice comically confused. “Because it sounds like I am.”
I turn away, hiding my face from him. “No. I won’t give you the satisfaction of making me laugh.”
“But then you’d be depriving me of the sound.”
I fall silent, dropping the hand from my face. He shifts behind me, clears his throat, feels unsure, as though he’s surprised by his own words.
This is the part where I should tease him, should tell him that flirting is futile.
But his tone is familiar, feeling like dancing in a dark room and thumb wars under willow trees. The way the words rolled off his tongue felt like a light flick to the tip of my nose, like calloused fingers braiding silver hair.
It felt like Kai.
Like the man behind the masks who looked at me like I was extraordinary.
I blink at the crumbling rocks crowding the path, willing my mind to wander toward anything but the words that have me wishing things were different. But I am Ordinary. I am the embodiment of the weakness he has been taught to hate.
Ordinary.
The word echoes in my scull, sounding different from every time prior.
I knew Mixes must exist, seeing that the Elites were so afraid of becoming them and weakening their powers. But I had never questioned why I wasn’t one myself, why I am nothing but Ordinary.
I look down at the ring I’m fervently spinning on my finger. I feel foolish for not figuring this out sooner. But what I told the prince is the truth—a rare occurrence for me. I suppose I was too busy attempting to survive.
