AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Some strange emotion worked through me…
“I’m sorry… For making you risk your life.”
“I would do it again in a heartbeat, Mareina.”
Chapter
Thirteen
MAREINA
Beside me, Nakao rode on the largest horse I’d ever seen. Though it suited him, considering he appeared only a couple inches shorter than Malekai’s six foot eight inches. Nakoa’s horse, Pumpkin- or as he affectionately pronounced it, “Punkin”,had a darkest umber coat and black mane that even I found enviable. The hide of her legs flashed with long black fur, referred to as ‘feathering’, below the knee.
When we’d returned from the fire, he’d baby talked to her and given her and Chihiro several apples before we’d left. Pushing away the warmth of watching him do so was a painful thing.
Among a number of other things I was entirely unwilling to examine, I felt indebted to this male that I was supposed to murder.
We’d laid on the ground in silence, watching that house burn to the ground from a safe distance away as our bodies healed. Nakoa had not only ensured they had a room at the inn for the next several weeks paid for, but hewilleda considerable sack of coins into his hand and given it to the woman before we left. The act had made my heart squeeze, and my gut clench with preemptive remorse.
This was a good male.
As we rode closer and closer to The Sentient Forest, civilization seemed to disappear entirely. The woods were thick, and I could feel just how alive, aware, and observant it was… Watching us as we road on the lone path that tread through the dense trees that filtered out all but the barest slivers of moonlight. Tiny lights zipped, floated, flew, and flickered throughout.Sprites.Never lingering in one spot or getting close enough to ever be able to make out any discernible attributes aside from the glow they emanated in the night.
That pressure between my shoulder blades pinched tight and ached as anxiety for what I knew I had to do sank its claws deeper into me the closer we drew to his home. The few people we’d passed along the hour-long journey had all greeted Nakoa affectionately and with warmth. And for no other reason than the fact that I was there beside him, they’d even offered me warm, though curious, smiles. It was a foreign sensation to be greeted in such a way. Everyone in Bastrina was, naturally, stand-offish with me at best.
I was still lost in thought when the wood suddenly gave way to a clearing where moonlight illuminated a large cabin and a beautifully laid garden. A tree adorned in long moss with a trunk nearly as wide as Chihiro was long. It had a couch-like swing hanging in front of a large pond where groups of prites danced on the cool summer breeze.
Something in my chest twisted painfully at the realization I’d never be able to come back here. It looked and felt like such a haven of…
Peace.
I wanted this. A haven. Peace… A family like this male had cultivated for himself despite having no one but his mother.
My heart gave a painful thump as my thoughts drifted to Malekai, but Nakoa's impending doom drew me right back to the present.
He seemed to be nothing like Zurie’s other targets.
Mildly arrogant, maybe…
An outlier? Clearly.
Deranged? Probably/Kinda.
But bad? No.
When someone had sinister intentions, it oozed off them. They radiated it. And they certainly didn’t have such a large group of friends and family vested in their lives.
For the most part, when Zurie sent me totake care of someone,most of them werestarklyamong the dregs of society. And it wasn’t far-fetched to imagine that they deserved to meet such a sudden and violent end.
The touch of Nakoa’s gaze pulled me out of my head to find him patiently watching me with an unreadable expression. When I finally turned to look at his ash and soot-streaked face, a corner of his mouth tilted in a soft smile. Something seemed to pull tight between us as if trying to draw me closer to him, and I quickly shoved it back.
He grinned wryly, eyes twinkling with a hint of pride.
“Home sweet home.”
Chapter
Fourteen
