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Balefire crawled out of my pocket with a squeak and darted under the blanket, where he burrowed around until he made himself a nest in my lap. I watched in tense silence as my wet, sullen mates got into the carriage with me and settled in their own seats.
"Finally," Fife said, bending over to wring the water out of his ebony hair. He then waved a hand and muttered a drying spell, and the sleek, flattened strands once again returned to their normal curly state. "I was sure you'd insist on riding until we all drowned!"
I narrowed my eyes at him and muttered the one tiny warming spell my brownie heritage allowed. It would help speed the drying of my clothing, but I'd still be damp for a while. "If you wanted to ride in the carriage, you could have done so at any time," I told Fife tersely. "No one forced you to ride."
His beautiful face showed nothing but haughty disdain. "Imbecile."
I arched a brow at him. "Asshole."
Yes, we had resorted to acting like children. But I found it hard to care.
Mirri held up his hands, glancing between the two of us. "Please. This isn't helpful."
Fife huffed and turned to look out the window with his long, perfect, upturned nose in the air. It was a clear dismissal, since he couldn't actually see out the window right now for all the rain. What a brat.
Adder crossed his arms over his chest and stared at me with no expression on his face, as if silently judging me. Bach was an immovable mountain on the seat beside me, his expression giving away nothing of his thoughts.
The carriage started moving, and we all swayed along in awkward silence for several moments before Bach finally spoke. "It would have been rude for us to take the carriage and leave you in the rain."
I turned to look at him, where he sat on the bench beside me, carefully not touching me in any way. "Since when do any of you care about being rude to me?"
He finally looked at me, his expression bland. "You're the steward. You outrank all of us, even if we are nobles. We're dukes now, but only because we've taken your title. We are only co-stewards. We have to follow your lead for the sake of appearances, my lady."
I groaned and ran a hand over my face. "What a bunch of nonsense," I muttered tiredly. Straightening, I glared around at all of them. "The next time you need something, just say so, damn it! I couldn't care less about society's expectations or who outranks who. I thought you would know that about me, at least. How was I supposed to know you were all suffering against your will?"
Mirri gave me a small, sad smile. "You could have asked."
I rolled my eyes. Sure, just ask the sullen jerks if they were comfy, or if they needed anything, or if they wanted me to pat their little heads and rub their tummies like coddled children when they wouldn't even talk to me! I clenched my teeth together and kept my bitter words to myself.
Fife did more magic, and I clenched my teeth to keep from sighing at the delicious feel of his power. A wave of dry, warm air moved through the space, drying everyone's hair and clothes. Except mine.
I didn't give him the satisfaction of seeing me upset. Apparently, the pretty, mischievous little cleric turned extra snotty when he was mad. Good to know. It wasn't going to keep me from pissing him off in the future, though. I was good at ignoring petty cries for attention. Usually.
I bent over and wrung out my hair, just as Fife had done moments earlier. But I made sure the water droplets hit his boots and splattered him in an unnecessary shower.
He waved a finger and was immediately dry again. He didn't stop staring out the window.
After that, we mostly rode in silence. Mirri attempted to engage me and the others in conversation a few times, but the attempt always died out before we spoke more than two words to each other. Give them time, he'd said. But at this pace, we'd still be at odds a hundred years from now! I closed my eyes, tipped my head back against the seat, and feigned sleep.
It was pure pretense, of course. There was no way I could fall asleep with the constant tension in the air, no matter how exhausted I was from the rain, and the riding, and the emotional stress of the last few days. But I was sick of looking at the gorgeous bastards.
I spent the entire time going back and forth between feeling guilty for my deception and feeling the need to scream at the men currently stuffed into the carriage with me.
Bach smelled like heaven, like sea waves against damp stone, and his leg occasionally brushed mine as the carriage bumped along. Fife was talking to Adder about something to do with spelled bowstrings, his musical voice calling to me, even when I knew he hated me. Adder's deep rumble of a reply was too low for me to make out words, but it made me remember the way he had lured me in and held me mesmerized during our tryst in the woods. Mirri was fussing over Balefire, feeding my offended rat bits of dried meat to try and coax him out from under the blanket and win his favor.
For a while, I almost forgot that we were broken. That we weren't actually a family.
I must have fallen asleep. I woke when the carriage hit a bump in the road. My face was resting against some kind of soft-but-serviceable fabric, and my hard pillow smelled like every sexy dream I'd ever had. It took me far too long to realize I was resting against Bach's shoulder. Damn it.
I sat up abruptly, my head banging into his chin when he turned to look at me, startling a curse out of the big male. "Sorry," I muttered immediately, trying to right my blanket and fix my tangled hair. Balefire had nuzzled up into my wavy tresses at some point, and they were a literal rat's nest. The pooka bit my finger when I tried to dislodge him. "Ouch! You asshole."
I stopped flailing around long enough to realize that everyone was watching me. Embarrassment flooded my cheeks with heat. "What?" I snapped.
"It looks like we've figured out your new duties as co-steward," Fife said to Bach in a flat voice. "Apparently, you're furniture now."
I rolled my eyes. "I fell asleep."
"We noticed," Adder commented in a droll voice. "You snore like a swamp cow."
