“Stay where you are,” he growls. “We just came for him.”
“And I just came to talk,” she says, raising her hands, palms facing us. She doesn’t move. Standing in silence, she waits for us to decide.
“It’s true, Lennox. She just wants to talk,” Roley yells from behind.
“Weston,” I mumble. “What do we do?”
I can feel him thinking as he stands in front of me like a statue, muscles taut and ready to spring into action at any sign of deception.
“Throw your sword,” he orders, and she quickly complies, pulling it from the scabbard and tossing it out in front of her.She raises her hand up again, waiting to see if that will suffice. A Mara that is quick to agree to leaving herself unprotected doesn’t sit right with me.
Something is wrong.
“Is this a trap?” I whisper to him.
“I don’t know yet,” he murmurs back. He glances around again, looking for any threat that might come as soon as we relax.
“There’s no one else here,” Mara says. “It’s just us. Please, I just want to talk.”
“You didn’t seem like you wanted to talk to me at all a few days ago,” I yell. “Not when you were trying to attack me in the clearing.”
Weston grunts in front of me. “You left out that detail,” he grumbles.
“It’s fine. I had it handled. You taught me how to disarm her, remember?” I murmur back.
“Things have changed,” Mara yells. Her voice wavers slightly, and my curiosity piques. Weston’s does too, and his head tilts just the slightest bit to the side.
“What’s changed?” Weston yells.
“Can you just lower your weapons, please?” She’s getting impatient now, and I will admit, the malice and hatred in her voice and eyes from before doesn’t seem to be there now.
“I think she’s telling the truth,” I say to Weston.
“But can you trust her?”
Can I? Could things change so quickly that she is back to the Mara I knew before? My friend? What could make that change happen? Or am I about to learn another serious lesson in warfare and deception, one that Edmond couldn’t prepare me for without being thrown directly into it?
“She saved my life before. She didn’t even know me then. I trust her.”
He pauses for a beat before lowering his swords to his sides. At his cue, I drop my bow, pointing the arrow into the ground and still keeping it nocked so I can react to any trickery.
“Don’t move. We’ll come to you,” Weston orders, and walks toward her. I follow closely. He kicks her sword behind us, stopping just out of her reach.
“Talk,” he says gruffly, the all serious Weston back in full force.
Mara eyes him for a moment, before directing her attention to me, her eyes full of emotion, and her eyebrows drawn in.
Has she been crying?
“First, I need to say I’m sorry.” She gulps after the statement, eyes pleading with me to believe her. I stare back at her in shock, the apology the last thing I was expecting to hear when I thought she was going to ambush us.
She continues, “I’m sorry I hurt you before. I was too furious that you left us to see that you actually saved Roley.” She eyes Weston before turning back to me. “But it seems like you made the right decision.”
“What do you mean, Mara?” I ask warily.
She lowers one hand, reaching behind her, and Weston automatically levels a sword at her. She pulls her arm forward and holds her hand out toward us.
My gaze falls to what she holds, and I choke on the air.
