Page 29 of The Lands Defying
“I prefer meat.”
“Always a hunter.”
“Always being hunted by you,” I snark back, and he chuckles under his breath.
He doesn’t deny it, and I don’t say how much I like it.
We begin to walk through a large crowd that has seemed to have gathered. Darius stays close to me, pushing anyone in my way to move.
A group of giggling women come out of a tavern and I take a peek inside as the door swings shut. I haven’t been in one of them before, but the melody coming from inside them makes me want to find out just what it’s like.
“By the wolf of the high, take my prayer and save the night,” a male voice shouts. “Clear the madness and take our thoughts, take the grace of Vrohkaria’s hopes.”
I scowl in the direction where the Highers’s blessing was shouted from, then I move closer to it, peeking over other’s shoulders to see a stall. It’s full of the Highers symbol as an older male shouts.
“Kill the madness before it kills us all, capture the traitor once and for all.”
Are they talking about me?
Darius growls beneath his breath, and then his voice is in my ear. “Do not move from this spot.”
Huh?
I turn to look at him but he’s already gone.
“The Highers save us so we shall save them, kill all who resist, and take their heads.”
Gods.
The crowd shouts in agreement, and I have never seen the root of evil, but that male is spreading it like he was born to do so. “Find the traitor and bring her in, for she will be the highest sin. Take her against the— ahhh. Fire!”
What?
I’m jostled as the crowd begins to scatter, pushing others out of the way. A body slams into mine, and I tumble to the side. A large hand grabs me, pulling me close and I inhale the scent of Darius as he pushes through the crowd.
“Get water, quickly!” Someone screams as Darius leads us out of the fray.
“What’s happening?” I ask when we lean up against another stall, further away from where we just were.”
“Fire is cleansing,” he says as he watches flames appear in the distance.
“Fire is destruction.”
“No,” he says as he turns to me. “I am.”
We hold each other’s gaze for a moment and I laugh.
Seems the Heir of Cazier showed some of his madness.
Runa purrs within me.
“I cannot believe you set the stall on fire.”
He shrugs. “They deserve it for sprouting up bullshit.”
It was bullshit.
“How did you even do it?”
