Page 18 of Snake Eyes & Bad Luck

She stiffened, following the lines of his tail up toward his torso again. He laid curled up as he had before, hands under his head. All his hair draped down his sides like a silky curtain, and he was sporting five o’clock shadow, unlike when she met him. He looked ragged.

“How long was I out?” she murmured.

“Not long. Been a day. You and I came straight home. Didn’ even need to throw them off our scent on account someone scared them back into the castle.” He finally cracked an eye open to glance her way. Avelina wasn’t sure where to move, what to do, or what to say. Accepting that she’d done that was one thing, understanding that she’d driven four Paladins inside with their tails between their legs was a whole other.

“I think I made them see something,” she confessed with a single, heavy exhale.

“Ye think?” He snorted, finally sitting up. His tail shifted around her but didn’t let her go. Instead, he coiled up so that he pinned her in his arms, hands flat against his scales. “You made four grown men piss themselves and run away—”

“What? How do you know they—”

“Avelina,” he barked her name and her mouth clamped shut. Suddenly, asking him how he knew if they did pee themselves was no longer important. Not when my name sounds like that coming off his lips. He let out a long-held breath, eyes closed while he reined it in. Avelina shrank, curling up into a tight ball. Ah yes, this is where he hits me. This is where he cuts me up into cubes and feeds me to alligators. This is where he decides I’m not worth the risk. Then he opened his eyes and they were steady. Irked, sharp golden eyes with paper thin slits, but they weren’t furious. “Let me make this very clear, darlin’, cause I don’t think I have. You. Work. For. Me. Now. Am I clear?”

“Yes, sir,” she muttered, not sure why he was pissed or giving her this warning. He’d made it abundantly clear she worked for him and she had no choice.

“And if we’re cornered with four Paladins, and our escape window is closin’ in, don’t you dare pull yer fuckin’ punches. Kill them.”

“What!” she blurted out, eyebrows knitting down on her face. “You’re upset I didn’t kill them?”

“You had them scramblin’ all over themselves and you had the shot. But, instead, you forced them runnin’ back like howlin’ pups with their tails between their legs. Don’t you ever chicken out like that ever again. It’s kill or be killed out here. Yer not a Paladin’s daughter anymore, Avelina. Yer a dead girl. Yer a warlock.”

“I know that!” She bared her teeth only to shrink back when his face snapped close to hers. His nose brushed hers and every inch of her insides quivered. Her toes curled up and she involuntarily inhaled a breath through her nose. Unfortunately, all that did was fill her lungs with heavy smoke, not from tobacco but like a campfire, an earthy soap, and a touch of sweat. It wasn’t acidic or vinegary like she was accustomed to, and it left a weird tingle in her belly.

Overactive imagination already toyed with the idea of what he’d smell like if they were skin to skin. If they were hot and sweaty, their mouths meeting in sloppy kisses as they moved together in a tangle of sheets.

“They’ll kill ya without a moment’s hesitation,” he whispered darkly, those slits now large gashes through his glowing orbs. “They’ll gut ya and not cry a single tear over it.”

“I know,” she repeated, but her voice was much smaller. Callum spared a hand to grab her by the chin. He foisted her gaze from where it hid away from him up to his face. Frustration was no longer in his eyes. She couldn’t trust herself to know what it was, but if she had to guess, she’d put her money on hungry. Callum looked starved as he dragged his thumb across her chin, just under her lower lip. The instinct to bite it and draw blood was damn near overwhelming.

“Good girl, don’t ever forget it.” He tsked, throwing her face away from him as he pulled away. His tail uncoiled around her and Callum was already at the dresser. “Go wash up. I’ll rustle up something to eat and then we’re gonna talk.”

“About what?” she blurted out without consideration that his words were said with a finality.

“About what that stunt earned ya.” Callum slithered out of the room as she mimicked the words to his back. Flapping her fingers in a mouthing motion at him, she knew it was petulant. That she was being childish and silly…but so was he. He was livid that she didn’t murder people? Had she not saved their skins? Or was he miffed that she chased them off before he could skin them?

Jackass.

She pouted the whole way to the bathroom. When she stepped inside, however, she found the tub already full of steaming water. Avelina glanced back, trying to catch Callum, but he was either in one of the other rooms or outside the cabin. With a sigh, she closed the door behind herself and pulled off her shirt. It looked like he pulled her belt and skirt off and left her in everything else. She folded up all her clothes, putting them aside.

Avelina stepped into the hot water and melted immediately. Replaying everything that happened at Parandor on the back of her eyelids, she let herself soak. Bones. Muscle. Being. All of it drifted off her skin in that frothy tub. When her memory returned to the part where Lancelot glared at her, she rushed along, trying to fast forward through that heart ache. Only to slow down, her washcloth against her shins, scrubbing off the salt as she replayed the barn.

He’s so…weird. His mood swings were so different than any man she’d ever interacted with before and she wasn’t sure where she stood with him at any time. He was angry, and reckless, and cruel, but at the same time he could be… Now I know you’re not about to say nice. Her mind almost said incredibly kind and understanding. Callum? Kind? Please.

He genuinely could have left her back there with those Paladins. Could have decided she wasn’t worth the headache. Instead, he carted her back across the Grasslands and tucked her into bed. Granted, he did a lot of it to make her squirm, and he was a crass bullshitter.

I should have known he saw my book. Avelina glanced at the chest in the washroom where she grabbed her clothes yesterday. All of them were unsoiled, rolled up tight like when she put them in her bag. There was only one thing in there she’d cared about, and it was currently missing.

Her mind raced with idea of Callum finding the book, then spotting all her annotations. Then him reading said book. Would he also agree that third act breakup was a weak plot ploy? Only for her stop, dunk her hair into the water, and sit back up fully convinced Callum would never read a romance novel. He’d think it was silly.

He wouldn’t…right?

But there was a comfort in knowing the book always ended happily. The appeal of knowing, no matter how bad things got between the pages, that in the end, love would prevail? For the child of a loveless marriage, barely keeping her head above the waters of life, that was one of the few comforts she was ever awarded.

Minus Tala, damn I miss her. She had so much she wanted to tell her, so much she wished Tala knew. What would her best friend think of her new found magic? Would she approve of how it all unfolded? Would things be different? When Avelina was with Tala, she was never afraid. Her imagination never reigned supreme and she never let her mind wander to places it didn’t belong when her best friend stood beside her.

But I’m all by myself here. Just. Me.

Before she realized it, she was dressed in a simple black sundress with bloomers underneath. She padded out of the bathroom, barefoot, finding Callum at the table with two large bowls. He picked up his head, glanced her way, then nodded his chin at the chair across from him at the table. Avelina sank down into the seat, watching him nervously.