Page 116 of A Storm in Every Heart
“What if we don’t?”
“I don’t know. Soon we’ll have to stop at least to eat something.”
She nods, eyeing the little bundle of leftover bread and cheese that she split between us and Jett and wrapped in a stolen pillowcase from the inn. “I’m never going to take Beatrix’s cooking for granted again.”
I chuckle. “Me too. Hopefully, we’ll be back to being force-fed third helpings by tomorrow.”
“True,” Odessa sighs. “I’m guessing Jett and the pirate took the main road, so they’ll probably reach the border before us even though they left later. I’m worried we won’t get back to Vernallis in time to warn Daemon and Alix.”
I make a sound of agreement, but I don’t really know what to say. I’m worried about that too, but evidently not worried enough to fly because even when I concentrate I don’t think I could make my wings appear. Not like they did when Odessa was in danger…
“We’ll stop at a town near the border and buy some more food and a couple of horses,” I say. “It’ll be fine.”
She lets out a long sigh. “I guess it’ll have to be. Part of me hopes that if we don’t make it back in time, Daemon and Alix will wait before launching a sudden attack on Solistine.”
“What does the rest of you think?”
She laughs darkly. “That I would be offended if they waited even ten minutes to react after finding out I was kidnapped. Does that make me selfish?”
I laugh too. “No, I think that makes you normal. And you don’t have to worry about it, everyone was really fucking quick to react once we realized you’d snuck off.”
An awkward silence falls over us for a moment, and I know we’re both remembering the reason why she left. I want to ask her about it, but I doubt I’ll like her answer. I know she’s not as unaffected by me as she wants to pretend, but I also know that for whatever reason she’s determined not to just give in to what both of us want.
Maybe it’s because of the soul-bond? Maybe she’s worried about starting something when I’ll never be able to bond with her. Except, no…that can’t be it. Not all of it, anyway, because she’s been standoffish for months with no clear reason. I used to think she simply didn’t like me, but now I’m completely at a loss.
Perhaps there’s someone else she’s interested in?
Just the idea sends a spark of jealousy shooting through me, but the feeling isn’t as intense as it would be if I really believed she wanted another man. I’ve never seen her give much attention to anyone else, and it’s not as if she doesn’t have the opportunity. Every time our friends visit the local pub, there’s always a line of men watching Odessa or waiting to ask her to dance, but I’ve never seen her indulge any of them.
Come to think of it, I’ve never seen her pay half as much attention to anyone as she does to purposefully ignoring me. Almost like, in a strange way, I already have all her attention.
The bond in my chest pulses, and I bite back my frustration.
It’s not fucking fair it should be there when I’ll never know who triggered it or why, and it’s especially painful that it reacts every time I think about Odessa. Like the bond is somehow aware that she’s a threat.
“I’ll have to think of an excuse to get back into Hydratta,” Odessa muses, pulling me abruptly from my thoughts.
I blink dazedly. “What?”
“Sorry,” she says absently. “I was just thinking that after we get back to Vernallis and warn everyone what’s going on, we’re all going to have to think of a safe way for me to go back to Magnus’s castle—I mean, your old castle. Sorry.”
“Hang on, I think I must have heard you wrong,” I bite out, staring a hole into the back of her head. “Why the fuck would you want to go back there?”
She looks over her shoulder at me, violet eyes reflecting gold in the setting sun. “Why wouldn’t I?”
An involuntary growl rumbles out of me and I swallow, trying to shove the feeling down. It doesn’t work and I stop bothering, deciding I don’t care. “He kidnapped you. Even if he didn’t intend to kill you, you still could have died.”
“Yes, but I didn’t,” she says reasonably. “I doubt he’ll try again so soon. Didn’t you say he was a pragmatist?”
I stop rowing in the middle of the stream and stare at her. “I feel like I must be misunderstanding you, because this sounds like you’re thinking something fucking crazy.”
Her eyes narrow. “Just because Magnus is evil doesn’t mean we can ignore him. It actually means we should go out of our waynotto ignore him so he doesn’t do something stupid.”
“Like try to kill you and blame it on another kingdom, you mean?”
“Like trying to get another kingdom to help him attack Vernallis,” she says flatly. “I decided to be the emissary to avoidproblems like this. I’m not going to go hide at the Ashwater estate because something went wrong this time.”
“Oh, I see.” I sneer. “So I’ll just be on standby, shall I? To come rescue you from the next disaster.”
