AllFreeNovel
Share Us
And he proceeds to drill me like a savage.
We both know he's doing it because he wants to, and while I didn't win this round, I didn't lose either.
I'm back in the most amazing bath tub ever crafted, when Ryther brings me fresh clothes, similar to the ones from yesterday, but cleaner. On top of the pile, I can see the iron arrow tip and the stone the stranger gave me.
My heart tightens in my chest as I take it in. I wonder where he is, whether I'll see him again.
"That's one rare stone, and well crafted too," Ryther says, a little too lightly, his eyes following my gaze. "Where did you get it?"
I don't know why I'm reluctant to tell him about the man. "Someone gave it to me."
"Someone," he repeats. When I don't fill in the blank, he adds. "They gave you one of the four lostdragon cores that belonged to the elder kings and queens at the dawn of time and haven't been recorded for the last five thousand years?"
I blink several times. Well, I guessed it looked expensive. I just hadn't thought it was the holy grail, either.
"Yes. They did."
"Without demanding anything in exchange?"
I roll my eyes. "I don't appreciate the interrogation. But again, yes. No favors were demanded. He told me to take it in order to avoid broadcasting my location with my wayward thoughts."
Come to think of it, I should keep it on me.
"He," Ryther echoes.My pride would have liked it if he sounded jealous, but he's just pensive. "And would he have been tall, pale, uniquely annoying, and clad in white?"
The annoying thing aside, that's spot on. "You know him?" I stand. "What's his name? Is he around?"
Ryther groans. "That's Loch, the Prince of Lies. And he does nothing without an agenda."
"Do any of you?" I return, with an eye roll.
Loch. That suits him, somehow.
"He was nice. I'd love to see him again."
"You will not thank him."
Like I'd be dumb enough to thank anyone ever again. "Look, you might have a good cock, but don't think burying it inside me occasionally gives you the right to tell me what I should and shouldn't do."
"Actually, keeping you alive despite your best efforts to end up murdered does give me that license. Loch is dangerous."
"So are you."
"Yes but?—"
"No buts. I like him. I will keep liking him. This conversation is only making me like you less."
He stares at me, eyes narrowed.
Now that he's no longer snapping at me, though, I realize he doesn't quite deserve my attitude. He is trying to keep me alive. And I haven't made that easy.
"Look, Loch—if that was him—did not ask for anything at all. He told me I was a woodland hag, showed me the direction of the river, explained I could call on nature, gave me that stone—dragon core—and then, he was gone."
Ryther's eyebrows inch up. "A woodland hag?"
I shrug.
"It…makes sense," he admits, somehow reluctantly. "But how would he know that? I never knew the queen had been anything but—well, herself."
