Page 84 of Beyond the Winter Kingdom
“You realized what was happening. You protected me during the land shift. Thank you for that. I know you’re stuck with me and that puts you on edge, and I know you have no reason to like me after the ... circumstances of how we met. And?—”
Damon held a hand up. “Meera, stop. You don’t have to thank me. I will do everything in my power to keep you safe. I’m not on edge because I’m with you or have a grudge against you. Did we meet under ideal circumstances? No. Do I believe that you were going to search for me because you didn’t think it was okay to hand over a person? Yes, actually, I do. You’re a fairly easy person to read. I’m on edge because Evorsuswantsyou, and that’s more dangerous than just trying to trek through this land unscathed.”
The softness in his eyes was sincere. He was here because of me, and I felt guilty for that. I wished I could be more like Corvo and toss the useless emotion, as he called it, out the window. I couldn’t, but it also wasn’t going to do me any good. Instead of giving it more life, I pressed my lips into a forced smile and nodded. “Okay. Friends?” I outstretched my hand in a peace offering.
He grinned, accepting it and shaking. “Friends.”
I turned to keep walking with him by my side. After a few paces, I said, “So, the Fold. Is that really its name?”
“Unlikely. But the real name given by the twin hells is probably unpronounceable and written in a dead language, so ‘the Fold’ it is.”
I gave him a sideways glance. “Do you know what to expect there?”
He hesitated, his mouth tightening before he shook his head. “No. Not really. No one does.”
“That’s not comforting.”
“There are stories,” he said, stepping over a root thick enough to be a stair step. “Rumors, really. Some say it’s where magic bleeds through. Others think it’s another prison for something ancient and pissed off. Vareck’s supposedly been there, but even he doesn’t talk about it.”
I frowned. “He has?”
“That’s the rumor,” Damon replied. “Don’t know if it’s true. He doesn’t exactly volunteer information.”
“That’s one way to put it.”
Damon gave a dry chuckle. “No one who's gone there talks about it after. If they come back at all.”
I stared ahead into the trees, where the shadows swirled too thick to be natural. I wasn’t ready for this place, but ready didn’t seem to matter anymore.
We walked in silence for a beat before I glanced over at him.
“So ... sixteen, huh?” I asked, side-eyeing Damon subtly while trying not to trip and fall on my face. The branches, roots, and rocks were in abundance now.
Damon looked away and let out a tight breath. “Yes and no.”
My brows pulled together. “Go on.”
“I’d rather not talk about this.”
“Why not?” I asked, gesturing to the forest. “It’s just us. And we’re all we have for a while. Friends, right?”
“Vareck asked me how many women I’d brought to his room,” Damon said, brushing a low-hanging vine aside. “He didn’t ask how many I actually slept with on his bed.”
My eyebrows lifted. “Those are two different numbers?”
His chin dipped. “They are. I brought a lot of girls to his room to sleep off whatever they drank. Sometimes they thought we hooked up. I let them think that. Or they remembered and do their best to manipulate the conversation about it later makingit look however they want it to. Either way, I never actually slept with any of them. Not in his bed.”
“Why not bring them to your rooms and just save yourself the trouble? Or any empty room for that matter?”
He huffed a humorless laugh. “So, that gets tricky. Sometimes ladies of the court are trying to attract my attention. They’re waiting at entrances to the hallways leading to my rooms. Other rooms are generally occupied when we have a gathering at the castle. Lords and ladies stay there rather than traveling back to their homes. It’s standard.
“If my source tells me my rooms aren’t easily accessible due to someone waiting for me, I take a passage that leads me to Vareck’s. I know they’ll be safe there. Vareck won’t be back for a long time because he’s busy working, and women aren’t looking for me there.”
“Why are you taking these drunk women somewhere to sleep it off? Can’t you send them to their rooms, or back home or something?”
With a deep sigh, Damon shook his head. “It’s all a setup. Their mothers are putting them up to it.”
“Come again?”
