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Of course, I wasn’t that person anymore, was I? In some ways I still crouched in my little cell. Not really free at all. Trapped by my own fears.
Larch trotted at my heels and I wheeled around and hissed at him to go away. He watched me impassively.
“Go take your master a hanky or something!”
“It’s not safe for my lady to be alone out of camp.”
“Don’t worry—I’m thinking lightning strikes at anything that moves at the moment, including annoying little Brownies.”
Larch considered me for a moment. “I’m surprised you let him manipulate you like this.”
I huffed, at a loss. Hurled the apple at nothing in particular, then turned and continued walking. Larch followed. I was tempted to give him a little shock, just to jolt him out of his confidence, but I didn’t want to risk really hurting him. Maybe I’d practice on Dragonfly.
Larch had a point though. Rogue was deliberately pushing my buttons, which I saw coming a mile off and still walked right into.
And I couldn’t escape the parallel, that here I was, storming off to take a walk around rocks and trees, all because I couldn’t face some guy again. Though the deadly dark image of Rogue leaning against my bench, dangerous velvet framed by jewel-tone pillows and hot morning light while that pink-and-gold faerie…tended to him was wildly removed from Clive spouting convenient statistics to his cronies.
Finding a secluded spot under a tree, with a lovely view of the falls, I plopped myself down, wiping the sticky juice off my hand on the lush grass.
“Please go away,” I begged Larch. He looked dubious. “If Rogue leaves and I’m still here later, you can sign me up for karate lessons or whatever, okay? For now, give me a knife or something.”
“Do you even know how to use one?”
“What’s to know? You stick the sharp pointy part into people you don’t like, right?”
“Getting it into the proper position takes a bit more trouble than that.” But I could tell he was amused.
“Look, I’ve used thousands of scalpels and I’ve cut up more chickens and veggies than that. Give me a knife and if someone gets close enough to me to hurt me, that’ll be close enough to slice them up.”
He didn’t look happy but bowed gravely and handed me a gray-handled knife on open palms, like a ceremonial offering. I set it on the grass beside me and watched absently as he headed back the way we came. Wedging my back against the tree, I drew up my knees and hugged them, then laid a cheek on my knee, watching the bright splash of water.
I tried some calming breaths, but my heart still roiled.
I was losing track of my role in this game and needed to keep my eye on the prize. Get out of my bargain with Rogue—and Falcon, if possible—and get myself back home. Getting myself home would solve all of these problems.Focus.
In some ways, it would be so easy, so gratifying to just give in. Just eat the pomegranate seed—aren’t you hungry? So juicy and sweet…Hades was both Persephone’s captor and her husband, enemy and lover together. Perhaps the Greeks understood that message—two faces of the same coin. And then I would be as lost as Persephone, facing the winter of her heart.
“You missed the show.”
I sighed and didn’t look up. “Speak of the devil.”
“Sulking?”
“Thinking.”
“Well, get up—I want to show you one more thing.”
I turned my head and squinted up at Rogue, the high sun outlining him in cerulean. He held one long-fingered hand down to me, to help me up. The way he was silhouetted, I couldn’t tell if he was still hard or not, if it had been a trick or real. I hadn’t been sitting there all that long. But then, how long did it take? Not long, in my experience.
I decided it didn’t matter and I needed to keep compliant with our bargain. I gave him my hand and let him haul me to my feet. His fingers caressed the sensitive skin under my wrist. I clamped down on my shivering response. At least I was wearing more than I had been last night, even if they were technically nightclothes.
“Now what?” I asked. “What’s your new battle strategy?” That would decide mine. For the moment. Then I’d develop a long-term plan. “I should warn you that last trick didn’t advance your cause.”
“That all depends on what my cause is, doesn’t it?”
“You know, you could just explain…”
“Spread your legs.”
