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I hoped he couldn’t hear the incessant beating of my heart before I quit the room completely.
But I knew he detected all of that and more. And that was why his eyes were on me the entire way out.
Freya
If dying of embarrassment was a thing, I’d be dead. How could I have forgotten a weapon, especially after everything that had happened? Did I really think I was going to survive the forest without one?
I knew this man let me roll him over, let me stay straddled on his hips. He probably wanted to see what I could do, which made him more hunter than prey. And I was a pathetic scrap of a girl who had fallen asleep near a stream.
Fuck my life.
But all I could hear was my mother’s voice, her instructions, and I forced myself to remain where I was and ask for assistance. Maybe this man knew Cormac Grey, or knew where Cormac Grey and his academy was.
I took a moment to study him, and I was surprised to find he let me. He looked…scary. There was no better way for me to describe it. Long, white hair pulled back from his face, crisp blue eyes that were unflinching. He had a scar that ran down the left side of his face in a vertical line, giving his chiseled face a story it otherwise wouldn’t have. Broad shoulders, strength, and muscle filled the black robes he wore. The robes themselves were loose, but it didn’t deter from picking up on that brutal strength. He had a weapon at his hilt, some kind of sword, which added to the danger he posed.
But if he was a threat, wouldn’t he have killed me already? Wouldn’t he have done something much worse if that was truly his intention?
Trust no one, my mother’s voice reminded me.
I wished she were here to tell me what to do.
“Explain yourself.”
His voice was a command, even though it would appear I had the upper hand. Except, I realized. I didn’t. He let me think I was, which let me let my guard down, and I knew if I didn’t obey him, if I did anything out of sorts, I would pay. His crisp, blue eyes held a warning: he didn’t care if I was a scrawny female who probably reeked of blood, sweat, and grime; if I posed a threat to him, he would do what he needed to in order to neutralize me. My mother reminded me of that constantly. In the world we lived in, I always needed to be prepared to defend myself. Days of being underestimated as a woman were over, thanks to the dawn of the Vrykolakas.
“I –” I cleared my throat the second my voice cracked. “I’m looking for Cormac Grey. My name is Freya Foster and my mother…my mother…”
No.
Not now.
But before I could stop them, tears accumulated in my eyes and trailed down my cheeks. I tried to wipe them away before he could spot them, but I had a feeling he was too perceptive and noticed everything.
I sniffled, taking a deep breath, then another, the way my mother taught me. I couldn’t let my emotions get the best of me, especially when I needed to focus.
Thankfully, the man let me calm down.
“My mother sent me,” I managed to finish.
“Who is your mother?”
“Rosa Foster,” I said.
His face revealed nothing but there was something about his eyes, something that revealed he knew my mother in some capacity. I couldn’t explain it.
Without warning, he flipped me over so I landed hard on my back. I pressed my lips together to keep myself from revealing he had knocked the wind out of me, but I didn’t think it worked.
“Your mother would be ashamed you fell asleep on the bank of a river,” he growled, leaning towards me.
I jerked my head back, as much as it would go. I didn’t like the way his words affected me. I didn’t like that he was right. “My mother is dead,” I said.
This time, his eyes did widen. He didn’t apologize for my loss or offer me any sympathy. Quite frankly, I didn’t expect him to. I didn’t think someone like him knew what it felt like to care about someone else. But saying the words out loud made them true, truer than even watching her die back home. And that only made more tears come, and then snot dripped from my nose, and I was a mess underneath this hulk of a man.
Pathetic.
Everything my mother taught me was dead and gone, just like she was.
And he wasn’t wrong.
