Page 52 of Tempting the Fae Lord
Ezra shrugs off his outer cloak and hands over a leather bag. “I thought of that. Here.”
Inside is a skin of water, a handful of strips of dried meat, a hunk of cheese, and a loaf of bread. “Where did you get all that at this hour?”
He glowers from behind half-lidded eyes. “Stole it. Will you be protesting that next?”
“Erm, not when you say it that way, I won’t.”
He sits on the opposite cot from Petru, crosses his arms, and leans back against a rickety wooden wall. “Good.”
I shake my head and uncork the water skin. “Petru, wake. You should drink.”
His lids flutter open. Sunken eyes struggle to focus. He reaches for the water and drinks while I look him over.
Other than weak and sickly, he looks… normal. Like any other human. Thin with dark brown hair and eyes. Young. He certainly doesn’t look like a powerful mage capable of calling legions of undead to throng at his will.
“What happened to you?” I blurt out.
He fidgets with the water skin and doesn’t make eye contact. “It’s not a simple story.”
I hand over the food. “Eat. Rest. You don’t have to tell it if you don’t want to.”
Ezra holds up his hand. “No. He has to tell it. At least something to explain himself and why I shouldn’t execute him for his crimes against the natural world.”
Petru flinches.
I scowl. “Sir, you’re not helping.”
“He’s right,” says Petru. “I owe him at least that much, after all the trouble I’ve caused.”
“See.” Ezra looks pleased. “He agrees.”
“I admit I’m quite curious. Sonja said you owed her a life debt.”
“Aye, several in fact.” Petru struggles into a seated position. “She saved my whole family, me included, from freezing to death during a bad storm. A tree fell on our house and knocked down a wall and much of the roof. It was a bad blizzard. We’d have all frozen to death if she hadn’t used her powers to keep us warm. In return, she said each of us owed her a life debt but that she’d let me pay all of them if I’d commit my life”—he stares down at his bony knees—“and my powers to her service. So I did.”
“Wait, how did she know about your powers?”
“She saw me once. I think she’d been watching me ever since.”
“Saw you do what?” asks Ezra.
“Raise a dog. My dog.” Petru doesn’t lift his gaze at all while he’s talking. “I missed her. I loved her, and I thought, maybe…but I knew better. My curse makes them awful. Makes them demons. They never come back the same.”
“And knowing that, you raised people?” Ezra’s voice is harsh.
Petru cowers. His voice is naught but a whisper. “I didn’t want to. But if I don’t obey her, she’ll take it back. She’ll kill them.”
“Rot me sideways.” Ezra thumps the back of his head against the woods and blows an irritated huff through his nose.
“See,” I say. “It wasn’t his fault.”
“If he’s telling the truth, Gale. We don’t know him. No offense.”
Petru shrugs and lifts the bread to his lips. Mouth full, he can’t be expected to talk anymore, and he clearly doesn’t want to. He doesn’t touch the rest of it. Only water and a bit of bread before he slumps back down on the hard cot.
I feel bad for him. Even if he is lying, which I doubt, he’s in a sorry state. Something terrible happened for his condition to get this bad. I don’t want to think so poorly of Sonja, but I have to know.
“Petru, is she starving you?”
