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But I was pretty sure that was a lie.
Chapter 32
Fife and I returned to camp with our armloads of wood. The wild urge for carnal revelries was still there, itching under my skin, begging to be satisfied—but for the moment, it was manageable. Fife was a master of charm and grace, as usual. He didn't look at all bothered. Unless you noticed how his sharp green eyes were a bit more intense than usual, flicking around the clearing, hinting at the heightened awareness beneath his placid smile.
I tried not to act like I'd just been up to something. But my cheeks were probably still flushed and I'm sure I was practically alight with the combination of afterglow, Fife's magic, and the scintillating touch of the wild moon on my skin. Whatever it was that gave me away, Bach seemed to notice immediately. The tall, broad-shouldered male stopped what he was doing–creating a ring of stone to contain the fire. He straightened, and I felt those bright blue eyes on me like a caress, before his gaze fell on his alluring bard friend.
"What did you do, Fife?" the leader of Raven team demanded, his voice a low, warning growl.
I froze for a moment, but Fife seemed unconcerned at the angry tone in Bach's voice. He just strode over to the campfire ring and deposited his stack of wood, then stood and gave his friend a look that said he thought Bach was being utterly ridiculous. "We spoke about the effects of the wild moon. Rina and I are in agreement about a great many things, it seems. Particularly when it comes to needlessly resisting the pull of the wild moon."
Bach lowered his head slightly as he glared at the smaller man, his black horns glinting in the moonlight, making him look like a beast about to charge. "Oh, I can guess just how thoroughly you spoke. Damn it, Fife, we have a reputation to uphold!" His eyes flitted to me and softened. "And we're not thoughtless animals, to take advantage of a female that way."
I huffed and got my feet moving, going to dump my pile of wood outside the ring of stones for later use. "This female is quite capable of making her own decisions, thank you," I snapped. Then I planted my hands on my hips and glanced around at Adder and Mirri before staring into Bach's guarded blue eyes. "Besides," I said with a smirk, "who's to say it wasn't the other way around? Maybe it was me who took advantage of Fife."
Bach snorted, and one of the others covered a laugh with an unconvincing cough. Mirri and Adder went back to what they had been doing, finishing a rough shelter in case it rained in the night. They worked efficiently. Already, the structure of branches and large leaves was nearly complete, with three sides and a flat roof, the open side facing the fire ring a few feet away.
"Do you spend a lot of time camping out in the wilderness?" I asked, thoroughly distracted by thoughts of character and usefulness–anything to avoid thinking about the interlude with Fife and the way I had just assumed the cleric was right when he said the others were interested in me. Presumptuous. Maybe no one else really had an interested in dallying the lowborn palace gossip, even with their moon-touched instincts riding them.
Mirri dusted off his hands and gave the broad leaf he had just finished securing one last pat before coming over to the fire ring. A kind smile graced his handsome face, as if there was no tension simmering around the camp. "Since we were boys," he told me happily. "We were always roaming the countryside like common forest spirits. Drove my mother crazy."
Bach huffed and squatted down to fuss with the stack of wood in the fire ring. "Everything drives your mother crazy," he drawled. "Because she is, indeed, crazy."
Mirri didn’t respond. He simply flicked a finger and set the wood alight with his fire magic. I glanced around the clearing as the fire flared to life. Like me, they seemed to have lost most of their belongings along with their mounts. But I saw a pile of random things stacked against a nearby tree, probably what was dropped during the attack. With Fife's spell ingredients stowed away on his person and Mirri's fire magic to keep us warm, we might make it through the night in good shape after all.
I made a mental note, then and there, to never store all of my things in one place while traveling ever again. Even if I was on horseback. Not that I planned on being attacked and separated from Balefire again in the future, but one never knew. Especially now that all the king and queen's veiled words and insistence on guards were starting to feel a bit more warranted.
A tingling surge of moon-flavored magic rippled through me, cresting and receding like the tide. But I did my best to ignore it. "Is there anything I can do to help?" I asked, joining the men around the fire ring.
Adder went to the pile of stuff that was stacked against a nearby oak tree and returned with a cooking pot and a heavy frying pan. "Maybe figure out what we're going to make for dinner, now that we've lost all of our supplies?"
I looked up into his dark eyes and took in his cool, guarded expression. Was this a test of some sort? "So, foraging, then. In the dark."
Well, sort of dark. It really was nearly light as day in the places where the silver light of the moon made its way through the canopy above us.
Adder arched one imperious silver brow at me. "Is the task beneath you, mistress?"
I narrowed my eyes at him. I supposed his mocking question was valid. I was playing the role of a palace gossip. It was entirely plausible that I'd be a stuck-up city dweller who didn't know the first thing about roughing it in the wilderness or rustling up my own food.
I rolled my eyes at him and took the cooking pot to use as a bucket. "I'm not the one who minces about looking the very epitome of a spoiled highborn."
One corner of his chiseled lips twitched, and I thought I saw a glimmer of his usual wry, cynical humor. His dark blue eyes looked almost black in this light, and they dragged over my body pointedly. "Very true."
It should have been an insult. Implying that it was obvious just by looking at me that I wasn't a highborn female. But paired with that penetrating gaze and that little smirk, it felt more like a compliment. Like he liked that fact.
I felt the tingling sensation of magic ramp up inside me again and turned away. The air felt heavy as the moon climbed higher, as if the magic of the woods and the magic calling to me from the moon above were saturating every breath I took. "I'll search along this deer trail," I muttered, heading that way without looking back. "There's likely to be food somewhere on their course."
"Don't wander off alone," Bach's deep voice commanded. He sounded so on edge. I'd never heard him be this snappish with his teammates before. But then again, I wasn't a teammate. I was an unwanted, moon-fueled temptation that might mess up his chance at being bonded to a noble who could bend the royal ear about Mirri's family troubles.
"I'll help," Mirri's warm voice called, pulling me out of my downward spiral of uncharitable thoughts. He jogged over and joined me as I stepped out of the clearing and onto the deer path.
I glanced at the handsome male in the moonlight. His beautiful wings were uncovered–there was really no point in hiding them way out here in the middle of the forest. They were tucked flat against his back, glinting now and then in the moonlight as he made his way down the narrow path, drawing up beside me when the underbrush allowed. His reddish hair was robbed of color in the moonlight, the silver glint making him look almost blonde and adding angles to his normally soft face. He whistled a jaunty tune as we went, both of us casting our gaze around from time to time to scan for edibles.
"So, you wanted to get away from Bach pretty badly, I take it?" I asked, a faint, amused smile curling my lips at the thought of how quickly Mirri had jumped in to volunteer to go with me.
He chuckled, the sound so warm that I wanted to curl up inside it and get lost. "Was it that obvious?"
I shook my head. "I get the idea that your leader can be a bit intense sometimes."
