Page 46 of Held

“Move,” said a woman brusquely as she shoved Briar out of the way.

Briar stepped back and watched her go. She was hunched over a basket of dried fruits, looking incredibly stressed. She also had the same thick accent as the guard.

They really are isolated up here,Briar thought. She watched the townsfolk with their heads down, discomfort brewing in her gut. For all her joking with Marigold about sex magic, she had been expecting something more welcoming.

“Come on.” She led Wick toward the town square.

He got stiffer with every step. Briar frowned, looking up to see him watching the townsfolk with a panicked expression.

“I do not like crowds,” he explained.

Briar winced. Crowds and blood frenzies didn’t mix.

“Yeah, I bet,” she muttered. She pulled him out of the way of a speed-walking man, who gave them one glance before stumbling to a stop.

“Cor,” the man said, gaping up at Wick and exposing all three of his teeth. “You’re as tall as a Skullstalker!”

“Skullstalkers are much bigger,” Wick said hastily.

The man grunted in disbelief and then kept walking, his head down.

Briar pulled her coat tighter and looked around. That man wasn’t the only one giving Wick strange looks; everyone who bothered to look up was lingering on them now. Briar supposed they didn’t get many visitors, what with their isolated location and inhospitable welcome at the border.

Wick let out a blustery breath. Something smacked into Briar’s leg, and she could only tell by the feel that it was his tail swishing back and forth in worry.

“We’re okay,” Briar whispered, rubbing his arm genuinely this time. “Nobody’s attacking you.”

“It is not me I am worried about,” Wick said. He stared around the town square like he was imagining tearing through it in a bloody fury.

Briar squeezed his arm. “Hey. Cut that out. Tell me about the waterfall house you’re going to get when you’re cured.”

It took a second. But Wick tore his eyes away from the town and looked at her with those boring human eyes that made her miss those flames swimming in black.

“It is not a waterfall house,” he started. “It is a house near a waterfall. I want to see it from my bedroom window. I wouldlike a bedroom. A nest room, I suppose. And… a room for you to stay.”

He said it cautiously, like he wanted to say something else. Briar knew whatshewanted to say: would he sleep next to her when she visited? Why couldn’t she just curl up beside him in his nest? Her curse would be over, to be sure. But it didn’t have to mean they were over.

Right?

“I have not thought about much else,” Wick admitted.

Briar forced herself to stop thinking about falling asleep beside him a year from now, two years,ten, and patted his glamored chest, which was actually his stomach.

“Let’s go ask about a room,” she said. Then she paused. “Wait. Let’s ask about the flowers first,thenthe room. Might as well get them both done at once.”

Wick nodded. His shoulders were still up around his ears, but his tail wasn’t whacking into her anymore.

Briar looked around. The only person who wasn’t charging through the town square with their head down or standing behind a stall yelling about mostly fresh meat was an elderly woman sitting on a bench at the other side of the square. She was covered in so many robes that Briar could hardly see her face.

Briar led Wick over and gave the old woman a polite wave. “Hello! My husband and I heard about some beautiful flowers we can find in your town. Could you point us in the right direction? They look like this.”

She took Marigold’s sketch out of her pocket.

The elderly woman stared at it. She was so hunched it made Briar wince in sympathy. The robes couldn’t help, Briar thought as she looked at the layers upon layers of robes piled over the woman’s head and shoulders. Interestingly, the last layer was a thin golden mesh she hadn’t noticed until they got close.

“They are past the forsaken ravine at the edge of town,” the woman croaked. “It belongs to the mountain. We do not go there.”

“Oh.” Briar glanced up at Wick, who gave her a look that meant that no matter how forsaken it was, the ravine was easy enough to fly over.

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