I read it again. And again. The letter was dated almost a week back. I balled it up in shaking hands, dropped it, and flattened it underfoot, then turned to find the newlyweds staring slack jawed at my blazing red face.
Though my lips trembled with effort, the smile I offered them was bright; perhaps alarmingly so.
“And how long will you be with us?”
???
I wanted the men gone and I was not subtle about it.
As much as I tried to avoid the Captain and his disconcerting effect on my magic, I was growing desperate enough that I’d taken to pestering him for brief, daily updates – always with the bar between us, and never with more than a few moments discussion. That day was no exception; someone had spilled an entire bottle of stolen mead on their mattress and I’d had to heave the whole thing down the stairs and into the tavern to dry by the hearth, while the few soldiers seated at the bar looked passively on with bleary, hungover eyes.
I watched the door keenly, poised to spring the moment the Kingsmen returned from their day shift. When the door finally opened, I moved to the centre of the bar and steeled myself, watching the Captain kick the snow off his boots before he entered.
“Any luck with–”
“Oh, hullo.”
The Captain affected a startled air, wide-eyed and blinking as though he’d only just seen me.
Every bloody day.
“Hello,” I said curtly. I set down the glass I’d been polishingwith slow, determined calm, and gave him a moment to cut in as he normally would. At his silence, I went on; “Your hunt today–”
“How are you?”
I broke off again, this time with an irrepressible huff of frustration. The Captain had swaggered closer to the bar, and now propped an armoured elbow against it, leaning on one side and smiling pleasantly at me like we were old friends catching up at the Sunday market. He was glowing with a slight damp sheen, dark waves plastered to his forehead by drying sweat, and a streak of what I hoped was dirt rather than old blood smeared across his cheek, neatly disrupted by the silvery line of his scar.
Behind him, his men were filing in looking similarly dishevelled, some of them collapsing in heaps at tables around the tavern while others half-crawled toward the door to the inn. The polite one – Brennan – approached the bar with orders of ale and cider echoing at his back. I held up a finger to let him know I’d be a moment, then turned wearily to the Captain.
His teeth flashed in a gleaming grin.
“Splendid weather, is it not? First day since I’ve arrived that it hasn’t snowed non-stop–”
“What are you doing, exactly?”
“Making a point.”
“Do you plan on approaching that point anytime soon?”
Mischief lit his eyes an almost eerie shade of green, but he sighed and stared off into the middle distance. With a dramatic shrug, armour shifting at his shoulders, he began to trace doleful little shapes on my countertop.
“Just that it’s alwaysDid you catch him?andWhen are you leaving?” he said, so morose it was almost convincing. “What happened toHow was your morning, Captain?orMy, you look especially handsome today?”
Despite myself, I rose to his dramatics, a hand splayed on my chest in false remorse; my Flame swirled curiously at my fingers, but mercifully made no attempt to breach my hold.
“Goodness, how callous of me. How about:My, you’re especially vexing today?”
His scar stretched taut with the breadth of his smile.
“I save my best for you, Rosie.”
“Rosaleen. Roz, if you must.”
“Oh, I must.”
My pulse gave an odd stutter, but I made sure he saw my eyes roll before I turned to take Brennan’s order. The Captain didn’t move away, and as he clearly wasn’t planning on answering my question – or even letting me ask it – I could only assume he was not quite done with antagonising me. Even with my back turned I could feel his eyes on me, the answering tightness in my chest that came with actively quelling my Flame, heart pulsing a half-beat faster with the effort. I peered over my shoulder, and indeed, he watched me still. Watched me as one might watch a bird in the garden, green eyes lit with detached interest. My magic twitched behind its too-tight cage.
Calm,I told it. Our new mantra, my endless plea.
