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Glancing at her, I reached out and gently touched her hair. When my thumb barely brushed over her tattoo, energy prickled across my skin.
I pulled my hand away, surprised.
Impossible.
Her tale couldn’t be true. No amount of magic could make me love another person. But I tapped my finger gently against her tattoo five times, just to watch the sparks.
When I returned to my pallet, I was pensive and yet optimistic for the first time in weeks. The odds were against me, but at least I had a plan that didn’t make me feel sick to my stomach with guilt and dread.
That might’ve been why I fell into a deep, dreamless sleep almost as soon as my head hit my own pallet.
And why I didn’t stir when danger entered our campsite at midday until Nicolette’s piercing scream jarred me awake.
12
Nicolette
It was the clicking that roused me.
I’d been so tired I couldn’t even remember falling asleep, and I was still deep under when something began to tick and clack directly next to my ear, followed by swishing sounds, like someone sweeping a floor. Then more snicks. Maybe an insect scurrying past.
A moment passed before I was able to drag my eyes open and spot blurry dark patches in front of me in the lighter sandy background.
I blinked drowsily, still half-asleep.
By the time I realized it was a scorpion that had sauntered right up to within a foot from my face, it was too late for me to do anything but scream.
So, scream I did.
Quite healthily.
And that’s when I realized the scorpion wasn’t alone.
“Omigod, omigod, omigod!” I screeched, jolting upright and then leaping to my feet, where I danced back on bare tiptoes, only to discover that not only was a horde of scorpions lined up next to my pallet in front of me, but there were more behind me, and to the left and the right as well. Our entire campsite was surrounded by a huge circle of them.
Thousands upon thousands of scorpions. Maybe millions.
“Holy shit,” I heard Farrow hiss from the other side of the sleeping horses. I spun his way to find him leaping to his feet as well and diving toward his satchel of supplies.
“What’re you doing?” I cried, vexed that no scorpions were even remotely close to him, which let him run freely, and flee freely, the lucky shit. I, on the other hand, had absolutely nowhere to go.
But he didn’t abandon me to my predicament. Instead, he called, “Don’t worry, princess. I know how to chase them off. Just hold tight.”
I inched my tiptoes further away from the line of scorpions by my pallet as they crept closer, their stingers arched over their backs and the ends of their tails twitching as if ready to murder me.
Sweat rolled down my back as my breathing heightened. “Hurry,” I managed to whimper.
The horses woke just as Farrow pulled a long stick free with a rag wrapped around one end.
Caramel and Mint didn’t seem to be fans of our guests either. They whinnied and began to struggle to their feet, prancing madly, which frightened a few scorpions back, but not nearly enough of them.
“Hold,” Farrow commanded them in a steadying tone before the pair stampeded us to death. Then he set a fire striker against the end of his torch, igniting the rags into flames.
“On our march across the desert to invade Donnelly, more soldiers than I could count lost their lives to scorpion attacks,” Farrow explained calmly as he patted the horses’ flanks when he passed by them before making his way to me. “It didn’t take us long to learn the little bastards abhorred fire.”
He easily hurdled a line of scorpions and landed on the pallet next to me to take my hand. I clutched his fingers gratefully as he taunted the scorpions with the end of his torch, jabbing it at them and shooing them back. The nearest ones skittered away, but the thousands more surrounding the camp rushed forward, as if to assist their comrades in distress.
“Are you sure that’s not just making them angrier?” I asked, sinking closer to Farrow, certain that once their reinforcements arrived, they’d attack and sting us both to death.
