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I bristled at his tone. I’d given him no indication that I had nefarious intentions, and my sole goal was to rescue Will. I promised my help, yet he still expected an ulterior motive simply because I’m female. “I am after ensuring the safety and wellbeing of those I love, nothing more.”
“Well, since you’ve said that, I think I’ll just believe it.” He mocked. “No, words are easy enough to spout. I think I’ll wait and watch your actions, they’re a better indicator of your truth than your mouth.”
I opened my mouth to retort, but he cut me off.
“If your words really do match your actions, then you have nothing to fear, do you?”
I hated that he had verbally cornered me, but even more so, I hated that he made sense. “I guess time will tell,” I retorted stiffly.
He watched me a moment more before abruptly standing up. “I’m going to relieve Tuck. We’ll leave at first light.”
I shared a glance with Will as we readied our sleeping bags around the fire. I had many questions about his change and this bond between him and Einri, but he still seemed too raw to ask about it just yet. But soon.
“He’s not a bad man,” Little John interjected after a few moments of silence. “He just has a few demons he struggles with.”
I nodded distractedly, my eyes darting to the edge of camp as Tuck joined us for the night. It took me a while to fall asleep.
The gates of Castle Hill had never looked so foreboding. Will and I sneaked through the empty gates, and then into the castle. Little John had gone in front of us to clear the gate guards and would meet us at Epione’s.
Our years of sneaking through the castle and exploring would help us today. If anyone caught us, I didn’t know what would happen, and neither one of us wanted to find out.
Our job was to find Brex, get as much information from her as we could, then take it back to the others. We would come up with a more detailed plan once we had more information. My anxiety was high as all the possible ways this could go wrong bounced around my thoughts, until I was so wound up I was practically jumping at my own shadow. Will laid a hand on my shoulder.
“‘Row, easy. You’re making my wolf anxious, and Einri isn’t here to calm him down.”
Whispering my apologies, I put all my focus on doing as he asked. It was harder than it should be, I realized. “Do you feel that?”
“What?” He looked around.
“I don’t know, I just... I have this feeling that something is terribly wrong.” I rubbed my arms, feeling a tangible pricking of my skin.
He looked at me. “You’ve been acting strange since we entered the castle,” he observed. “Are you worried about Brex?”
“Maybe that’s it.” I answered slowly, even as my gut told me that was only part of it. “I don’t know how else to explain it.”
Nodding, he continued creeping down the hallway we had entered. “Then let’s take extra care not to get caught.”
I appreciated his unblinking trust in me as I followed him to my rooms.
The passageways were eerily silent - even more so than usual. There were only one or two servants, all easily avoidable and no guards nearby. Will and I shared quite a few worried glances the deeper into the castle we went. Something was scarily wrong.
We finally made it to my quarters, I opened the door quickly, and we slipped in.
“Brex?”
“Thank the Maiden you’re alright!” Brex’s head popped around the door, following her words. “After I heard about the raid, I had begun to fear the worst.”
I jumped. “Why in the name of Nidar were you hiding behind the door?”
With a smirk, Brex held up a cooking pot. “Just in case it wasn’t you.”
Will sniggered. “You should have been expecting something like that, Arrow.”
My heart warmed at his teasing, even as I rolled my eyes.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” I turned to Brex. “Once again we need your skills, friend.”
“I suspected as much. Best sit down, there’s a lot to tell.”
