AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Yes, it did. “Thank you. You can let go now.”
He didn’t immediately release me, and I noticed his musky, clean scent, so near and somehow tantalizing. Instead of moving, he stayed still, his arms continuing to hold me so close for a second. “I’ll let go when your heart rate slows down a bit, once it passes. If we touch you, it helps ease the pain from the vision. Just relax, Sloane. Accepting my help doesn’t mean you agreed to anything else, but we are connected this way, like it or not. We’ll go find those people before they get killed. You’ve saved them.”
I swallowed. I wanted to complain more about him holding me, but something about his scent seemed so safe… Saving people. That part is nice, at least. “It’s not far from here. Just a two-hour ride.”
“You even know where it is? Amazing.” He let go of me, finally. “Well done. We’ll figure the rest out. The wind is passing.”
I had to make myself clear. “Thank you for coming to help with the vision. That was very nice of you, but nothing else has changed. I’m not coming with you, and if you drag me out of here using the law, we’ll all just be that much more miserable.”
He sighed. “We’ll see. Come with us to get the mothman, at least.”
The what? “Is that what you call the insect creature?
He shrugged. “That’s what some people call it. I don’t know if it has an official name, but it will eat them after it terrorizes them.” He frowned. “Come with us, and we’ll show you what we do. If you don’t want to help after that, we’ll figure things out. In the meantime, come with us.”
Truett leaned in the doorway. “Don’t pressure her, Ollie. If she’s the kind of person who would let people die. then we shouldn’t bother with her.”
I rolled my eyes. His manipulation might be overt, but it still stung.
“Sloane?” My mother’s voice called from the entryway into the house. “Are you here? Are you okay?”
“In here.” I called to her. “I’ll go with you guys, then I’m quite sure I’ll come back here. I can’t spend my life with drunken, drug smoking, mean people. Besides, you think poorly of me. We’ll just leave it after this. You’ll see. Somehow, that will be for the best.”
Chapter Six
Ilikely overpacked, but no one could tell me how long it would take to defeat the mothman, so who knew how long our trip might take. Visions might be handy, but they often came with imprecise timelines. When would it happen? Today, next week…We would know when the events unfolded. The stable boy helped me with my horse, so I sat saddled up with my bags when they arrived to pick me up.
“Where are you staying?” I asked the group, happy to have whoever wanted to talk most answer me.
Oliver shot me a glance before saying, “An older man happily allowed us to rent his rooms for quite a bit of gold. He’s staying with his daughter while we’re there.”
“Ah, yes, Mr. Hellen!” I knew immediately who he meant, so I shot him a smile. “You’re giving him a huge boon. He wanted to earn extra money this year to visit his son, who moved across the kingdom. If you insist on being here, it will help him quite a lot.”
Oliver smirked at me. “Do you know everyone in the whole city-state?”
“I do, actually.” I nodded. “I make it a point to know them, so that I can help whenever they need it. Because of that, they know they can come to me when they need assistance.”
We began to ride down the road toward the neighboring city-state in silence. I didn’t know if the lack of chatter was their normal or if my presence ensured the silence should remain damned uncomfortable for all of us. Although, arguably, it was hard for me to imagine them breaking out in song on horseback if they weren’t drunk.
Then they can sing mean things about me and laugh about it, loudly.
I frowned at the thought. Maybe it was time to address the real problem. Soon, we’d arrive at the mothman, although so far there was no sign of it. We hoped to stop him before he got to those people, so they were never attacked. I paused, wondering about the gender of an insect shaped mothman creature. Could it be genderless? After I saw it, I would believe it.
Remembering the plan, I shook my head and focused.
“Hey, guys,” I called out. “Can I just say something pressing for a second?”
Truett stopped his horse and spun in a circle to regard me. The others all moved to do the same. He lifted his eyebrows. “What’s the matter?”
He almost looked bored when he asked me the question, as though he absolutely expected me to find something to complain about, some way to waste his time before he could do his job.
You don’t know me, Truett.
“I think I should just speak the truth. I know you were embarrassed because I took off the way I did. Perhaps it caused you some issues in Hawkseye. I also understand you think me going to take care of the mothman means I’ll be easier to convince to help you go back to repair the damage.” They all stared at me in silence. I did not know them well enough to know what they were thinking but that was fine by me. “I’m perfectly willing to come for this event only. In return, you’ll let me go home. You don’t even have to go with me when I go back home, and my pain will be my own problem. Now that I understand what to expect when visions hit, I can take steps to stop the side effects. I’m good with herbs, so I’m sure I’ll figure it out. How does that sound? You’ll get what you want, and I get what I want.”
Truett’s horse moved slightly left. “I think that is called a quid pro quo. That’s what you mean, correct?”
Oh, I loved old, archaic expressions, and the ones that were the least used were my favorites. “Yes, indeed. That is what I meant.”
