Page 20 of Held

“And then I will visit you in your riches,” he confirmed.

Briar chuckled. Dirt stuck to her hair as she twisted to look at him. “Sure, buddy. And I’ll come and see you at your waterfall. Actually…”

Wick waited. “What?”

She shook her head. “Nothing. I’m going to let it be a surprise.”

He frowned. But Briar didn’t elaborate, only stretched mightily and winced.

Wick sat up, sniffing the air. No blood. The faintest scent of pain.

“How sore are you?” he asked.

“I told you, big boy. It’s only the good kind of hurt.” Briar closed one eye at him again.

“What does that mean?” Wick asked.

Briar hesitated. “Winking?”

He also meant “the good kind of hurt,” which still did not make sense to him. But he nodded, assuming she was talking about the half-blink.

“It’s, uh…” Briar grinned. “I wink when I’m trying to be charming, I guess. Is it not working?”

Wick thought about it. Briar was charming, but that was less important than all the other things.Charmingfelt like a maskshe was putting on, like a smile she gave him to hide all the messy emotions clamoring under his nose.

“Yes,” he said honestly. “But you do not need to be.”

Briar’s smile slipped. She stared at him with something very close to distrust. Then it opened into something he had seen several times over the last day: realization. She kept thinking he was lying to her. She did not yet know that he did not bother lying very often.

I don’t trust easy,she had told him.

He believed her. Now he just needed to make her believe him: she did not need to be anything other than herself around him.

Briar averted her eyes, letting out a laugh that was much more stale than any laugh she’d produced today.

“Careful, big boy. Talk to strays like that and you might just talk them into staying.” She stood, grimacing as she twisted to look at the dirt coating her backside. “Alright. Any chance you can sniff out the nearest river?”

Seven

Briar wanted to laugh as she scrubbed herself.

Wick had been soeagerto find her a river. His tail had swished around like a pleased dog when she’d thanked him. She almost expected him to bark when he ran off to find her some more food.

Wick was stupidly sweet. She’d never had anyone so happy to do what she wanted. Even people she had blatantly manipulated. People she had tricked.

She didn’t want to manipulate Wick. She actually wanted totrusthim, which was ridiculous. She’d known the Skullstalker for a day and had let him fuck her on her hands and knees, a privilege she usually gave to people who she knew she could overpower.

She could never overpower Wick. And yet she had let him press her into the dirt, his arm locked around her middle, because what? She gotexcited?

Briar sighed and emptied a handful of river water over her face.

“You’re only with him until you get to Marigold’s,” she reminded herself. “Do not let your guard down. And donotget attached.”

Something moved in the corner of her eye. She stopped, her hands stilling in her damp hair.

If there was one thing she knew, it was when she was being watched.

She turned.

---