His eyes darkened as that vein in his forehead reappeared. I knew I’d said the wrong thing before he spoke and cursed my runaway mouth again.
“I can handle it. I’m not going to have sex with you because you feel sorry for me or think you have to feed me.”
I grasped his arm when he sat up and stopped him before he rose. “That’s not what I meant! I don’t feel sorry for you.”
I gulped when his head turned toward me. He’d never hurt me, but if I was an enemy and he looked at me like that, I would have tucked tail and run. Instead, my hand tightened on his arm.
“I’m not going to deny myself either,” I said. “We can work through this together.”
His fingers entwined in mine, and he lifted them to kiss my knuckles. “We should return to the others.”
I glanced at the lightening sky and sighed. I wasn’t ready to resume our search for the elusive horsemen, especially since I sensed a distance in Hawk. I’d said the wrong thing, and I couldn’t figure out how to make it better without baring more of myself to him. I wasn’t ready for that.
I let him pull me to my feet and wiped the leaves from my ass before gathering my clothes. We stopped to bathe in a river yesterday, but I stopped at the stream and knelt beside it to splash water on my arms and face. Hawk knelt beside me and scooped some water into his hands to scrub his face.
Leaning back, I studied his profile as water dripped from his chin and onto the ground. Cold dirt slid between my fingers as I resisted the impulse to touch his cheek; I pushed myself to my feet instead. I didn’t know what to do about the realization I was starting to care for him more than I’d anticipated. I’d rather face the horsemen than the turbulent feelings churning inside me.
I jumped to my feet and started tugging my clothes on. The wetness of my skin made dressing more difficult, but eventually, I got my clothes settled in a way that felt okay instead of clingy and twisted.
I finished tying my boot as the distant, lonely howl of something drifted over the land. I froze and dropped my hand to the knife on my belt as another cry pierced the night. “Is that the hounds?” I asked.
“It’s too far away to be them.”
“Are there more hellhounds out here?”
“No. The hounds stay with Kobal unless commanded otherwise, and I know he didn’t leave any of them out here.”
“Then what is it?”
“It could be anything. We live in a world that belongs to Hell too. Whatever it is, it isn’t close, but we have to get back.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Hawk
Aisling stayed by my side as we traversed through the mountainous passes. I didn’t think we had any chance of finding the horsemen out here, but none of us were ready to give up yet.
“Do you know where we are?” Corson asked Wren.
“No. I’ve never been this deep into the Wilds before,” she said.
A shadow blocked out the sun filtering through the sparse trees as Caim flew low overhead. He stayed out of view as he scouted ahead and behind us to make sure the horsemen hadn’t somehow doubled back to come up behind us. The hounds slipped in and out of the shadows as they took turns going ahead before returning to the others.
I watched Aisling as she walked with her head bowed and a pensive look on her face. I’d love to know what she was thinking, especially after our conversation earlier. I didn’t know what to make of this woman who was so eager and warm in my arms but also quick to hold herself apart from me.
Was it a fear of commitment or something more? Sometimes, I swore we were getting closer and then she’d pull back again. I knew women were a mystery, but she was a conundrum I didn’t think I’d ever solve.
Then, she looked up at me and smiled in a way that lit her face and caused her eyes to sparkle in the sunlight. For a second, I couldn’t breathe as the beauty of her struck me. I didn’t care if I never figured her out if she smiled at me like that every day for the rest of our lives. This conundrum had wormed her way into my heart, and I wasn’t going to let her go.
Caim landed ahead of us and settled his wings against his back as he strode toward us with a perplexed look on his face.
“What is it?” Corson asked.
“There’s a town with people in it ahead,” Caim replied.
“People are livinginthe town?” Wren asked.
I understood her disbelief; during my time in the Wilds, I’d never seen humans living in a town. The Wilders were nomads who moved because of the weather, food supply, or level of risk.
