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We’ve had all sorts of raw, physical encounters, but I think I might like this one better than almost all of them. This is a closeness that doesn’t require him to be sated by my body. This is a togetherness that nourishes us both simply by being. I love it. And I love him.
Twelve
Blaire
I’ve literally never been this happy at any time in my life. My days are spent in the stables, and my nights are spent in Equs’ bed. We ride, we train, we fuck. It’s perfect.
If there’s any downside, or if there are two downsides, it’s that Equs is called away to the city sometimes to be a king, and Vulpes and I loathe each other without ever really speaking to each other. I know Vulpes thinks I am entitled and spoiled, and that I don’t deserve to have the position I have. He thinks I fucked my way to having access to these stables. I guess I did, but if I did, I wasn’t trying to.
Anyway, I don’t care what he thinks. The only alien opinion I give a shit about is Equs’.
Night is falling and I’m about to do my last checks on the horses. Equs is in the city. They need him for some boring king-related stuff. I’m going to spend some time with Gossamer’s foal, who is growing like a weed and getting braver every day.
The officials have been keeping him later and later, I’ve noticed, tying him up with all manner of bullshit associated with running a kingdom. I think he hates it as much as I do, but at least I don’t have to go down there myself. I’ve managed to avoid that city completely. I don’t even know what’s in there, really. Should I be curious? Well, I’m not, even if I should.
Just as I start going down the stairs, I hear the squeaking of dozens of wheels in the distance. Every nerve in my body is suddenly on edge. My breath stops to let me hear better. I know that sound. That sound has ingrained itself in my very cells.
“Vulpes!”
He’s the ever-present shadow of the stables. I can’t see him, but I know he’s close.
“What?” He looms out of the darkness, like a bad-tempered Lurch.
“They're coming!”
“What do you mean? He grunts the question at me.
“I mean they’re fucking coming. The Eponites.”
“They’d never dare attack the city.”
He’s right. They don’t dare attack the city. What they dare attack is the stable. The stable contains young stock and valuable horses, many of them trapped in stalls. My fucking stable.
They’re on top of us even quicker than I thought. It is as though they explode out of the night, hollering at the top of their lungs and shooting their arrows at us. They have taken a page out of Equs’ playbook, and some of them are flaming arrows, shot toward the wooden construction of the stables.
“Get down,” Vulpes orders, pushing me down when I don’t move quickly enough.
“Fuck getting down,” I curse, scrambling up to my feet. “Get the horses!”
* * *
Equs
“Sire, the stables are under attack by the Eponites.”
In the midst of an almost impossibly tedious meeting, those nine words rouse me immediately.
“Unleash the hounds and alert the troops. An attack on the city cannot be tolerated.”
The words are coming out of my mouth even as I move with aggressive haste from the chamber, sending papers and counselors scattering everywhere.
I have to get back to Blaire. I know Vulpes will protect her, but she has already been nearly killed in one Eponite attack. A second one may finish her off completely. Even the briefest contact with the poison could send her body spiraling into a state of sickness from which she might never emerge. If she has been hurt in my absence, I will never forgive myself.
Nothing in these papers, in this city, or on this planet is worth anything compared to her. I have never, in my life, feared loss as much as I fear her loss. This is the dark side of love. It is the aspect that makes the prospect of living without your mate seem absolutely torturous. I am riding the precipice of a very dark void as I run from the city to the stables. It is a twenty-minute walk, but it feels like an eternal run.
My warriors are falling into formation around me, not one of them needing to be ordered, every single one knowing what is needed from him. We arrive as one unit atop the hill, where the stables are well ablaze. The horses have been set free to run as they need, but it is still a horrific sight.
My men break off to fight the fire. I look for Blaire. I cannot find her, but I find Vulpes. He is hurling buckets of water at flames that seem to refuse to be put out. The Eponites have used some form of oil in their projectiles. It has splattered everywhere and ensured the almost complete destruction of my second greatest pride and joy.
