Page 119 of Deadwood
To my surprise, she grabbed it, allowing me to pull her to a stand. “Thank you.”
I gave a small nod, dropping her hand. “Anything you want to see, Auria, just ask.”
She offered a closed-lip smile before we turned to head back to Vulcan. Something had changed between us in this field—something I didn’t want to allow myself to think too deeply about, for fear my heart wouldn’t handle her inevitable departure well. Out of self-preservation, I shoved those thoughts aside, choosing to instead focus on the mutual understanding we had landed on. I wouldn’t harm her, and she wouldn’t share my secrets.
Perhaps what this was was trust.
It was a start.
* * *
On our flight back,a light sprinkle of rain had started. By the time we landed, it was a full on downpour. The sky had turned an ugly gray, masking the silver rings and the late afternoon sun. We’d been in the field longer than I’d thought.
I helped Auria down from Vulcan’s back, her balance already better than it had been when she first mounted him. The rain made his scales slick, making it difficult to find stable footing on the way down, but Auria didn’t seem to mind. If anything, she seemed to be enjoying the rain.
With a pat on Vulcan’s leg, he took off, flying toward the mountains. A majority of the dragons from the rocky biome congregated there to rest or catch up on anything happening around Serpentine. Though dragons usually stuck to the terrain they were born into, they crossed into other habitats if needed. It wasn’t impossible for them to thrive in other conditions—just inconvenient at times. They flourished where they were from, but dragons were stubborn. They’d do anything just to prove they could.
I swiped a wet lock of hair off my forehead as our boots trudged through the mud in the forest. It was pointless to shout over the pelting rain, so we hurried through the downpour, walking between two buildings to come out on the muddy street.
Immediately, I found Raiden standing by the saloon door. He left the guard he was talking to, aiming right for me. Auria stopped by my side as soon as she saw him approaching.
“Bowen,” Raiden said in his usual cool tone. Only someone who knew him like I did would catch the stiffness hidden beneath his calm exterior.
The look in his eyes confirmed something was wrong. “What is it?”
“A word?” He didn’t have to say it for me to know he didn’t want to speak about whatever it was in front of Auria.
I glanced at her. Her wet hair was stuck to her dripping cheeks, and her shirt clung to her form, leaving little to the imagination. Rather than let my mind wander, I mentally gauged the distance to the house she was staying in. It wasn’t far, but I still didn’t feel right leaving her.
As if she had read my thoughts, she said, “I’ll be fine. No one’s out anyway. It’s a short walk.”
Still, I hesitated, and Raiden took notice, that speculative look appearing. He was all too observant.
“It’s not very far—” I started, but she cut me off, stepping closer so she wouldn’t have to raise her voice over the rain.
“No one will harm me. Isn’t that what you said?” she asked, rain streaming down the bridge of her nose.
She had me there. “Okay. I’ll have Siara come check on you to make sure you made it home.” She held my gaze, looking so damn beautiful despite the storm raging around us. I mentally shook myself. “I’ll see you around, then?” As of now, all our run-ins had been coincidental, aside from the times I had watched her from afar. People were on edge with Auria’s presence in town, so I excused my concern for her as maintaining peace. Keeping her alive meant keeping her father off my back—nothing else. At least, that’s what I had told myself.
She looked as if she wanted to say something else, her mouth parting, but she settled on, “Have a good night, Bowen.”
She gave Raiden one last look before she walked away. My eyes didn’t stray from her drenched form, the way her hips swayed under the soaking fabric of her clothes. How her hair dripped down her back, the long strands even darker with the rain. Maybe it wasn’t to keep her father off my back if something happened to her that I had kept an eye on her in Deadwood and the night of Exitium Lunae. Perhaps it had been for my own selfish reasons—my predatorial side declaring that if anything were to happen to her, it’d be at my hand, no one else’s. Weeks ago, I might’ve felt my bloodthirsty instincts come out to play with that thought, but now, it was a different part of me not wanting to see another’s hand laid on her. I had gone from being okay with her fending for herself to being overly protective.
After she rounded the corner to head toward the rows of houses, Raiden and I headed off toward my home on the back side of Deadwood. It was nothing grander than the residences the citizens lived in. When my father had been killed, I wasn’t interested in sitting on the throne in that castle hidden in the woods. I wanted to be among my people, and to lose the title altogether. I made smart choices, so I hadn’t felt compelled to pass the enthronement to anyone else. My only request was that I wouldn’t be regarded as their king, but as an equal. Well, as much of an equal as I could be when the decisions fell on my shoulders. But that was why I had Flynt, Raiden, and Siara. The three of them helped me rule Deadwood. Raiden handled the army, Flynt was in charge of bringing me information regarding other kingdoms, and Siara helped keep us all in check, as well as keeping an eye on the town for any internal threats, though she had appointed that role to herself, wanting to be more useful.
As much as Deadwood was a home to many, it was also a hiding spot for criminals. Stealing magic, in our eyes, wasn’t punishable by death, but to other kingdoms, it was. If you were spotted with ink anywhere on your body, you were killed on sight. Deadwood gave refuge to those who had made bad decisions in the past, so long as they stayed in line with our rules. No murder, no rape, and you respected your peers. If someone was getting to the point that they were stealing, either for survival or boredom, they needed help, not the afterlife. Though, at times, the rougher groups could get rowdy, Raiden and our guards kept the peace. But still, my track record remained. I wouldn’t hesitate to cut someone’s throat and tear a limb from their body, and the people knew it.
Raiden held the door open for me as I shucked my muddy boots off, leaving them on the porch. As I stepped inside, the blazing fire instantly warmed my rain-soaked clothes.
“Gods, there you are,” Siara said, standing from the couch like they had all been waiting on me for hours.
“I leave for an afternoon and you all can’t handle my absence,” I grumbled, stepping into the kitchen to grab another apple. Auria had clearly needed my first one more than I had, even though my offering had been futile, given the apple was now likely caked in mud and debris where she’d let it fall to the ground. I could forgive her for that, though, given the circumstances at the time.
Raiden stood with his back against the wall, crossing his arms. “Well, that simple afternoon stroll was the same amount of time it took for the patrons at the bar to start a riot and cause a fuck ton of mayhem.”
Swallowing my bite, I said blandly, “A riot, huh.”
Flynt stepped up to the counter, both hands resting on the edge. “Fights broke out, chairs were destroyed?—”
