The only thing that she knew without question was that she didn’t trust him, which meant that she was going to have tofigure out what connected all these cases together so that she wouldn’t have to see him again. That meant spending another day with him, Ashlyn realized on a pathetic groan as she took one last bite of ice cream before placing it back on the small table. With a sigh, she dropped her head back against the tiled wall as she closed her eyes and found herself thinking about intense green eyes before everything slowly faded away.
Ráth Finnéin, Ireland
932 A.D.
She was dying,Lasarín realized as she lay there, trying to find the will to go on, or at the very least, the strength to roll onto her side so that her face wasn’t pressed against the floor. After a moment, and a pathetic whimper, she finally managed to find the strength to push herself up onto her side so that she could glare at the man responsible for her impending death.
When she realized that he was already fast asleep, Lasarín narrowed her eyes on the large man that decided that the best way to hide her was to work her to death. From the moment the sun came up until long after it went down, he made her work and when she wasn’t working, she was training, which usually ended with her face-first in the dirt.
It wouldn’t be a problem if she’d at least figured out a way to get close to the king, but unfortunately for her, and her poor muscles, she hadn’t seen the king once since she got here. He stayed in his house, surrounded by guards and servants during the day and only went out late at night when she was too sore to do anything more than lie on the pallet Shayne made up for her,the same one that he’d added extra furs to, hoping that it would entice her to stop crawling into his bed every night.
His bed looked more comfortable than hers, Lasarín couldn’t help but notice as she took in the large bed against the wall, the wood platform that held up the thick wool mattress that was a lot more comfortable than the fur pallet that she was currently lying on and-
This just wouldn’t do.
Not at all, Lasarín decided with a heartfelt sigh as she moved to push herself up only to decide against it when her muscles protested the move and settled for crawling across the large room instead, pausing by the fire to throw another log on top of it, before she made her way to his bed, where she grabbed hold of the mattress and somehow managed to pull herself up without groaning pathetically.
Once she was sure that she wasn’t about to fall over, she ran her eyes over his back only to wince when she came to the welt that she made by accident this morning when she got her hands on an axe and decided to see if her skills had improved since yesterday.
They hadn’t.
Thankfully, Shayne managed to duck when the axe went flying out of her hand. She probably should have run faster after that, but in her defense, her life flashed before her eyes before self-preservation kicked in. Next time, she would run faster, Lasarín promised herself as she tightened her hold around the mattress and pulled herself up so that she could crawl onto his bed, and since that was all her muscles would allow her to do at the moment, she promptly fell face-first on his bed with a muffled sigh.
“We talked about this, lass,” came the muttered words that had her wincing.
“I’m already asleep?” she said, hoping that would be enough to get him to let her stay.
“Yer on top of the furs, lass,” Shayne pointed out with a heavy sigh.
“There are more furs on the pallet that ye were kind enough ta throw together for me that yer more than welcome ta,” Lasarín said as she moved to burrow beneath the furs to make it harder for him to drag her off the bed only to end up twisting half her body to the left and she wasn’t exactly sure what the rest of her body was doing. The only thing that she knew was that everything hurt.
“Yer too kind, lass,” Shayne drawled as he turned over onto his side and-
“What exactly are ye doing, lass?” came the curious question as she wiggled in a desperate attempt to throw herself onto her back.
“Burrowing?”
“I can see that,” Shayne said dryly as he reached over and took pity on her by pressing his finger against her forehead and gently pushed, causing her to fall onto her back.
“Ye want ta tell me what’s wrong?” Shayne asked as he shifted to get more comfortable.
“I’m currently plotting my revenge for making me climb up that tree,” Lasarín said, willing her arm to move so that she could grab hold of a fur and pull it over herself only to release a pained groan instead.
“How is it my fault that ye chose ta climb up a tree, lass?” Shayne asked, sounding genuinely curious.
“Because ye looked pissed,” she pointed out.
“Well, ye did just throw an axe at my head,” he reminded her as he pulled a fur over her.
“I was testing yer reflexes,” Lasarín said, really hoping that he didn’t threaten to spank her ass again.
“And when ye fell out of the tree, lass?” he asked as she felt the bed shift.
“I wanted ta take ye by surprise,” Lasarín said, closing her eyes as she slowly exhaled, more than ready to finally pass out.
“Ye did, lass, especially when you started making that weird groaning noise. It was a bit off-putting,” Shayne murmured absently as she felt him climb off the bed and-
“Would it help if I apologized for kicking yer shin?” Lasarín asked as she found herself dragged off the bed and thrown over his shoulder.
