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“I need to check on your leg,” Gavin continued. “Don’t think I didn’t notice how you’re walking.”
She opened her mouth, ready to tell him she was fine again—but then again, being touched by him, even if it was only to heal her, didn’t sound half bad.
“Thanks,” she said. “After we eat and bathe, though. I feel like my clothes are going to walk away from me at any moment.”
He laughed. “Same.”
* * *
Erden came back with venison, root vegetables, and a large carafe of ale. Violet found infinite joy in calling him by the wrong name again, especially since he made a point of not speaking to her when she opened the door.
The stew wasn’t half bad either, and by the time the three of them huddled in front of the fire, her clothes were dry. Her stomach was eager to be filled with something other than cured meat and stale bread, and the fermented taste of beer made for a nice change.
With their tongues loosened by the alcohol, they’d shared more in the last hour than they had during the last two days of traveling together. They had left behind the horrors the three of them had lived through under Julius’ hands, and if she closed her eyes, she could almost fool herself into believing that Mios was a long-lost friend instead of a stranger she’d only just met.
Was that how Gavin was able to connect with so many people so readily? How did he manage to get complete strangers like Harry and Laura to do what they did for him?
“So I take it you two are running from your crown?”
Violet’s gut feeling was to tell him to mind his own business, she wasn’t about to air out all of their secrets to a near stranger, even if she did like him. However, after all that happened with Harry and Laura, she wanted to try to be more open. “The Society of Crows is chasing me down for escaping my husband.”
Mios’s gaze traveled to Gavin, and his shapely eyebrows arched. “I thought you two were married?”
“We are…” Gavin said.
“It should be easy to go back and tell them you are together, no? No need to keep running.”
If things were that easy, but she didn’t want to get into the whole child thing here with the both of them.
“There is nothing easy when it comes to the Society of Crows. They are a bunch of corrupted pricks.” She said instead, “and I did kill one of their members on the way out, Morgan was demanding to see us come together during our wedding night, which is illegal. When I challenged it, things got ugly. She threatened to let Julius–well. She’s dead now.”
Why did she need to explain all of this out loud? It didn’t matter how she said it, and how much he hated the bitch, she still felt guilty about it.
“See you come together?”
Shame and anger churned inside her by just remembering that day. She hated she became flustered all over again, and it became even worse when Gavin’s eyes burned into her, with an intensity that melted everything in their path.
“Consummate our marriage, have sex, fuck—”
“Ah, if someone had demanded to watch me take my beloved, they would be dead too.” Mios agreed and leaned back in his creaking chair.
The cracking of the fire filled the silence that came over them, and his words did appease her. Maybe opening up wasn’t so bad.
“So, what about you? What brought you to the Iron Kingdom?” she asked Mios, spooning some stew into her mouth. The wind howled through the gaps of the ill-fitted windows, bringing a breeze that burrowed into the deeper layers of her clothes.
Mios stared intently at the crackling fire. For a moment, she thought he might ignore her question, and her curiosity spiked higher with every second that drifted by without an answer. “I’m looking for a god stone,” he said eventually.
“And what’s that?” Gavin placed the empty bowl by his feet and leaned forward. “Is it a magical artifact?”
“It is. A powerful and rare one at that.”
“It must be, to make a Lionborn leave the Gold Kingdom,” Gavin said. “What does it do?”
Another moment slipped past as Mios seemed to deliberate how truthful to be. This time, the silence stretched long enough to grow uncomfortable. Violet kept spooning bite after bite into her mouth to avoid saying something. “It’s said that a god stone hides your magical abilities. They are somewhat of a myth, but I know for a fact that they exist. I’ve seen one in the past.”
Wait a second. Violet’s heart was beating too fast all of a sudden, and time seemed to contract and expand around her. Was the god stone the artifact Luelle had said she needed? Could it be the same as the Stone of Clemency?
If this rock could hide one’s magic from the world… could it also hide it from a god? Violet’s throat closed up as she inhaled sharply. Her body prickled with a rush of adrenaline, and she fought the sudden need to pace around the room and demand some answers.
