24
It’sa comfortable bed.
I wake up startled, surprised I fell asleep at all. The room’s empty of both Roiven and the swords. I roll my neck and make for the door, then peer out. Roiven lies ontopof the small stone table, his feet on one of the benches, staring up at the sky. Overhead stormclouds swirl and race across the sky. The air tastes like it’s charged with electricity, and the ground in the courtyard is wet like it rained.
He’s fully dressed and his hair is pulled all the way back. There’s a smile on his face. It’s like part of him was missing, and now he’s got it back.
“How long did I sleep?”
“A few hours,” he says without looking. Roiven sits up slowly and turns to face me. “Do you feel rested?”
“Enough. Are your wounds…”
“I’m fine. Better than fine,” he says, and sits up.
He holds up a pear. I don’t know when the last time I even sawone was. I nod eagerly, and Roiven tosses it to me with the faintest hint of a smile.
The fruit is ripe and juicy. For a moment we just stare at each other as I chew. Roiven’s hands grip the edge of the stone table.
“About what happened in there,” Roiven says awkwardly. “I’m not used to stripping in front of people.”
“Don’t worry about it.” There’s a small voice in my head reminding me that sexcanjust be sex, and that nobodyelsewould need to know if I fucked him. But just because his body reacted the way it did doesn’t meanheis willing. And just because my body wants his doesn’t meanI’dstoop so low. It would disrespect the memory of all the lives he’s taken.
Then again, wasn’t he just protecting his people from knights like me? My lust evaporates, replaced with an uneasy heaviness.
“Do you still want to see the village?” he asks. I blink at him with a frown.
“I lost.”
“On a technicality,” he says with a shrug. I’m surprised to hear him admit it. “Besides… I might not trust you to wander on your own, lady knight, but I think it’s time you saw what I’m so desperate to defend.”
“Yes,” I say a little too excitedly.
I feel pathetically eager as Roiven leads the way out of my courtyard and into the one where Avreen stood guard this morning. I follow, my legs wobbling.
“Are you certain you’re up for this?” He glances at me out of the corner of his eye.
“I can walk.”
His own movements are stiff as he leads me through two more courtyards. Each one is built on the same pattern as the last: wooden doors on the sides of a small, open stone room with beautiful, lush, plants growing throughout; an open arch behind us andanother straight ahead. It’s more like a hallway than a maze. I go slowly, examining everything as Roiven watches me closely.
“Beautiful,” I whisper to a bush with clusters of bright-pink roses, a color so vibrant I don’t think I’ve ever seen it before. The air smells fresh, and fragrant; flowers and dirt after a storm. I nearly cry.
And then we enter a courtyard with no other open archway but the one we came through.
“That can’t be it,” I argue. He can’t possibly call this a village. But Roiven points to the right. I follow his finger and then frown.
There’s a well, with a ladder sticking out of it.
He’s stopped walking, and I take the opportunity to lean against the courtyard’s wall, hoping I look nonchalant instead of exhausted. Do his people live underground?
“Promise me something before we go down.”
“I know you think I’m a stone-blooded killer, but you took my sword, so I don’t know what you’re worried about.”
“No.” Roiven smooths a hand over his face. He draws a breath and looks at me. “Will you try to believe in it?”
“What?” I blink. The expression on his face is perfectly grim as his eyes lock with mine.
