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“Fair point.”
“Don’t want any help on your mission, I take it?”
Juliana shook her head. “I—I can’t. Sorry.”
The two of them dropped it, not seeming remotely put out. They ate the rest of their humble meal in silence, Saoirse licking her fingers clean. Hard to imagine she was the monster that attacked her own husband last night.
“How’s the leg?” Juliana asked Owen.
He stretched it out. It had been freshly bandaged, although the shredded trouser leg remained as testament to the damage. “Fairing pretty well, thanks to your elixir. Will probably leave a scar. Won’t be the first she’s given me.” He glanced across at his wife and winked.
Saoirse giggled.
Juliana’s desire to get back on the road quickly piqued. “Thank you for breakfast,” she said, getting up.
The couple stared at her, exchanging glances. “You’re leaving already?” Owen asked.
“Need to make the best use of daylight.”
“It’s not been light long. You can tarry longer—”
She shook her head. “Thank you for your hospitality. It was a fair exchange for my services last night. I bid you well on your travels.”
She collected her things, double-checking her supplies. Everything was in order.
“Juliana—” Owen called out, as she shouldered her pack. “If your plan doesn’t work out, we’ll be here for the next few days. The mortal world—it isn’t anything to fear.”
But a cage is.And that was what it was to her—a vast, endless cage, that would keep her away from the closest thing to home she knew.
No matter how curious she was about what it was like, why her mother had chosen it,shenever could.
Whatever direction her future led, it wasn’t there.
She headed north instead.
Juliana walked for most of the morning, only stopping briefly to relieve herself, wash up in a stream, and attempt to clean the inside of her sheath with little success. She cringed at the idea of putting her blood-drenched blade inside it last night, but she’d not had much of a choice. Her father would not be pleased.
Not that she should care about his thoughts. Not anymore.
She shoved Briarsong back into the sheath, anger pulsing under her breath, and marched onwards.
The bronze of the forest gave way to brown and black, and she hit a portion of forest where the leaves vanished altogether, leaving little behind but thin, skeletal trees, so tall their tips vanished beneath a shroud of low-hanging sky. As she walked, the sky dropped further, until the entire dark forest was swollen with fog.
“Not creepy at all…” said Juliana, as if hoping the sound of her voice would dissolve the prickling of her skin.
If Hawthorn was here, he’d make stupid comments about the clouds or muck about or regale her with silly tales until she was torn between the desire to laugh or hit him.
She’d forget how to be afraid.
You are not afraid,she reminded herself.And you do not need anyone beside you. Least of all him.
She tried to repeat a list of old insults for him, but they felt flatter than they did before. Hawthorn’s stupid face kept rising out of the mist, alternating between smirking and glaring.
I hate you,Juliana hissed, at the same time asI miss you.
It felt like a very long time until nightfall.
She thumbed her pendant. It was ice cold. She had grown used to the warm weight of it against her chest, never really thinking of the magic attached to it, never understanding that it was warm because he was nearby.
