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“Who was your first? Obviously, it wasn’t your ex.” Was it one of the people who had made fun of her?
She paled.Just like that, the mask slipped back into place and her defense mechanism shot up like a wall—a far better sight than the defeated person she used to be. He knew that the defeated part had only been in the beginning as Emerald didn’t peg him as a person who let any kind of defeat last long. When she finally spoke, her voice was as cool as ever.
“An ex-pirate. He helped me navigate around the treacherous seas when I was still an inexperienced traveler and had to do missions for the council.”To prove myselfwas left unsaid.
“I see.”
Her chin lifted, green eyes studying him. The quiet sweep was thorough and made his body stand on attention.
“How did you teach Yu our language so fast?” she asked.
“Call it a Fae specialty. Em?”
“What?”
“The kiss…”
“I was taking the hypnosis out of you. That’s all it was.”
Shut down before he could even say anything, which was just as well. Rick swallowed down every argument that wanted to come out and nodded.
“Right.”
“And I don’t think this place is safe for us to sleep in anymore.”
As if on cue, Yu flew back into the cave, mouth splitting into a grin.
“Alive. Rick alive.”
Rick grinned back. “We need to work on how you phrase things, but yes. I’m alive thanks to you guys.”
Yu nodded, then pointed restlessly. “Dangerous outside. Go out morning.”
Emerald looked visibly disappointed but didn’t bother arguing, understanding that the pixie knew the layout of the land more. Rick shrugged.
“Well, I guess we’re stuck here.”
He tried to inject some cheer into his voice, but he wasn’t feeling it as he didn’t trust the cave any longer. Yu flew back and forth from his shield near the cave entrance before a distant howl outside sent the pixie scampering back inside. Emerald sighed and tugged her string from the water bank. Minutes later, Yu was back to sleep and Rick had positioned himself in a sitting position facing the water.
“She’s not coming back,” Emerald said. But there was a hint of doubt in her voice. “I’m pretty sure I scared her off.”
“I’m not taking any chances, especially since sirens are known to come back with twice the vengeance streak. Or so I heard.”
“Rick—”
“Go to sleep, Em.” Despite the firmness in his voice, he softened his next words and glanced at her. “At least one of us needs to be alert later.”
She still looked doubtful, but he watched the reluctance form before she lay down and got into a comfortable position. Rick would not have minded spending time just watching her.
Instead, he kept his gaze on the water as the hours passed.
The siren attempted a return, but one look at his steely gaze had the creature narrowing its red eyes before sinking back into the watery depths. Rick still didn’t trust it one bit, so he stayed where he was until it was no longer dark outside. That was a couple of hours ago.
“Are you sure you don’t want to rest?” Emerald asked for the nth time as they walked across a long expanse of the field leading to another forest—after Yu checked that it was safe and no creatures were lurking in the grass, waiting to pounce on them. The sun was shining brightly and relentlessly scorching, and he felt hot and irritable.
“No. I’m fine.”
“Flowers,” Yu announced. “Safe flowers.”
