Page 142 of Ruthless Scoundrel
We eat our meals on the road, and I tutor Reina in more of the selkie language. This is how our weeks go. Riding—or walking to give our poor beast a break—tutoring, eating, fucking, sleeping. We spend a few nights in taverns along the way, giving us a proper place to bathe, clean our clothes, and care for the horse,which Reina has lovingly named Winifred. She’s a massive creature with curiosity and intelligence beyond measure.
This isn’t a bad way to live, honestly. At least, with Reina. I couldn’t do it alone. I couldn’t be alone ever again.
Finally, at the end of the second week, we’re within a day’s ride of the outer regions of Fynren Kingdom. We pass little cottages with garden plots and tiny stables of animals that become more numerous the closer we get to what Reina calls the “Underbelly.”
It’s a rougher region where the serfdom lives, and up until recent months, it was ruled by seven gang lords. The queen allowed it simply because the lords fought one another for territory, and not the crown. But now the Underbelly is ruled by two married lords: Zane, the Spider Lord, and Scarlett the Bloodletter.
“I’m a little worried about getting past the gang lords. I’ve heard they’re vicious,” Reina says for the hundredth time in the last hour. She fiddles with the straps of Winifred’s reins to the point of blistering.
“Cora said they wouldn’t be a problem for us,” I remind her, tensing my hand on her stomach to help quell her fears.
“Yes, but what if something about that vision has changed? What if we went too slow, or too fast, and now theywillbe a problem?” she rambles.
“Then we’ll handle them,” I say, pulling out my pistol and checking to ensure it’s loaded. I was able to find powder and bullets at the last town we stopped in and figured it was a good use of our dwindling currency for this reason exactly.
“But the Spider Lord has a huge gang of loyal followers. We can’t shoot themall.”
“We’ll try diplomacy first, of course,” I say.
“Of course,” Reina echoes, and then falls quiet.
Her fiddling fingers quicken.
“How am I supposed to find all my sisters? I mean, I’m glad to know that Alyse is alive—I’m overjoyed—but when last I saw her in the palace…when last I saw the palace…Gods, why couldn’t Cora have told us anything else? How are we supposed to do this?”
I grab the reins and pull us off the road into a little patch of grass. I dismount and reach up for Reina. She leans over with a sigh and takes my help dismounting. Winifred chuffs in relief and starts munching on crunchy grass.
I cup Reina’s cheeks and look into her eyes. Her breaths are frantic and shallow, but I make her match mine, deep and slow. We stand like that for a while, just breathing, hearing the birds and the sounds of the nearby city—and Winifred’s loud munching. Random bouts of laughter are punctuated by the clink of metal and the clop of horses’ hooves.
She closes her eyes with a deep sigh and I know she’s finally relaxed a measure.
“I have you,” I say. “I will not abandon you. We will figure this out.”
She nods and grips my forearms. “I have you, too.”
“I know.” I kiss her hair and draw her back to the road with Winifred in tow. The beast deserves a break, and we’re almost there.
A fresh-looking wood wall stands in the path ahead with a large gate that’s thrown open but guarded by three characters dressed all in black. One of them twists a blade around their hand in boredom while the other two stand stoically still.
At the sight of our approach, the blade-twister gasps, “It’s them,” and then runs off into the city.
Unease fills my gut and the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. I stop a good thirty feet away and pull out my pistol, holding it in plain sight for the other two guards to see.
“We mean you no harm, Princess Reina,” the guard on the left says in a deep voice.
“You’re expected.” The guard on the right gestures for us to enter. “Please, follow me.”
Reina scowls at me. “Should we?”
My desire to keep her safe screams loudest of all the voices in my head, drowning out reason and logic. I don’t trust these dark figures, and I don’t know who would be expecting us except the queen.
Reina said the Underbelly was under the command of the Spider Lord and the Bloodletter, but they could’ve been defeated in the weeks we were gone.
“We’ll find our own way, thanks,” I call out, disabling the grip safety with a loudclick.
The guard on the right nods her head and resumes her post.
We walk forward rigidly, Winifred mumbling her unease. Reina’s right hand is flexing open and closed with flashes of blue power. She’s ready to turn them to ash. But as we walk past them and into the city, they don’t even look at us, staring straight ahead into the forest.
