Marked, page 11
“But?”
“But you found the door open to the storage house after I killed those hunters.”
“So there’s at least one person involved who survived?” She huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. “What now?”
Warmth spread across my chest as my plan formed in my mind. “I’m going home to eat and then I might go see what I can find out about the rogue hunters. Maybe I’ll find your thieves along the way.”
18
After I said goodbye to Sley, I continued home. The wind whistled through the leaves but thankfully no rain. I loved the rain, but we saw so much of it in the fall, winter and spring, that I always worried I’d start to grow mould.
I exited the woods to find Ace and Paul sitting on my front step. Biting back a groan I stopped short. What did they want now?
When the men saw me, they both stood.
Nala whined and broke off into a gentle lope to enter the tree cover. She often did that to take care of business or to stretch her legs. She’d be back.
I turned to Ace. "Didn’t you see enough of me earlier?”
Ace had the decency to look away, his jaw clenching.
My brother looked back and forth at us, his brow furrowing more and more with each snap side to side.
“I don’t even want to know what that’s about,” Paul said, finally breaking the silence. He held out a scroll bearing Queen Titania’s seal. “Here.”
Snatching it from his hand, I tore through the seal. As I quickly scanned the contents, my stomach dropped. The queen commanded me to investigate the hunters and track down their origins. Queen Titania’s orders were not unreasonable, and I already planned to do exactly that. But I still wanted to toss the parchment into the nearest fire. Why did she feel the need to put the orders in writing? Did she think I’d let this go? The only reason I hadn’t marched right back into the forest was because Orion told me to wait for Nala to heal.
I shook away the annoyance and focused on my rage. Though Nala wasn’t a hundred percent, she had recovered quickly since her healing session with Orion.
I needed to look at this a different way. It was finally time to seek out those responsible for hurting my familiar. Shaking away the annoyance from the letter, fiery determination ignited in my chest. The hunters might’ve died in their futile attack, but there could be others like them lurking in the shadows, stealing our food and supplies. And if they existed, I’d find them.
The lack of rain worked in my favor—the tracks would be easier to find and follow.
“Do I have to take him with me?” I jerked my chin in Ace’s direction. The orders hadn’t technically specified the inclusion of a partner.
“Of course,” Paul said. “Think of it as a great bonding opportunity.”
“Bonding?” Phaaning unlikely. The pervert watched me bathe.
And I’d liked it.
Paul shrugged. “Training opportunity, then.”
I glared at Paul, debating whether or not I could convince him to change his mind. But it wasn’t really up to him. The queen might’ve left out the mention of Ace in this order, but her previous letter had been clear. I couldn’t disobey her command.
“Fine,” I reluctantly agreed. “But he stays out of my way. This is my investigation, and I won’t have him slowing me down.”
“I’m not incompetent,” Ace growled. “I won’t get in your way.”
“We’ll see,” I said.
Paul smirked and left without a goodbye. He was entirely too amused with the turn of events, and I didn’t appreciate any of it.
“Come on,” I said.
Ace trailed behind me as I stepped into my cozy cabin. The lingering smell of last night’s fire mingled in the air with glue and leather. As I rummaged through my belongings to gather gear for our hunt, Ace wandered around the living room, his keen gaze scanning the titles on my bookshelf.
Nala scratched at the door and Ace took a break from studying my collection to let her in. She sauntered past to make her way to me. After a few aggressive bag sniffs, she flopped down at my feet.
Ace waved at my bookshelf. “You read a lot of romance.”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
“It’s a little unrealistic.”
I shrugged and shoved bandages in my carry bag. “That’s how I like my men.”
“Fictional?”
“Exactly,” I said. “Much more enjoyable than reality.”
He held the door open for me. “There’s something wrong with you.”
“Is there?” I slipped past him and let the fresh air wash over me. How dare he critique my choice of reading? “Come on, girl.”
Nala yipped and followed me out the door.
As we left town, I spotted Blake walking past Maria’s place. A sweet aroma wafted from the bakery and my stomach rumbled with thoughts of Maria’s cinnamon buns. But other thoughts quickly spoiled the temptation of pastries. Was Blake involved with the thefts or was finding his scarf near the looted barrel an unfortunate coincidence? My heart skipped a beat as I watched the queen’s messenger disappear around the corner.
“Wait here,” I quickly instructed Ace before spinning around to catch up with the messenger. Nala trotted alongside me, her face turned up, her brown gaze watching me intently for a command. I had none.
“Blake!” I called out, my voice cutting through the quiet of the street. He stopped and turned to face me, a smile fading from his lips as his gaze slid to my right.
I groaned inwardly, knowing that Ace must be close behind me, obviously ignoring my order. Now wasn’t the time to scold him, though, I needed to talk to Blake.
“Hey,” I said breathlessly, only now realizing I hadn’t planned what to say once I reached him. I wanted to ask about his red scarf, but now that I was in front of him, I wasn’t sure how to bring it up without the conversation sounding like an interrogation. “I just wanted to check if there were any messages for me?”
Blake’s eyes flickered with surprise as he looked at me, his expression guarded. “Not today, sorry,” he replied. His gaze kept shifting over my shoulder, and I knew Ace had caught up to us.
I sighed inwardly, realizing my attempt at privacy and subtlety had failed miserably. “Right,” I muttered, feeling a flush creep up my cheeks. Nala leaned into my legs, and I reached down and ruffled her fur. “Any gossip from town?”
He peered at me as if I were a puzzle he was trying to solve only to realize I was missing a few pieces.
“Not much,” he said. “The queen is spending more time out of the castle while the king is rarely seen in public. People are speculating there’s trouble in paradise.”
“Is there?”
“I’m just a messenger, Emi. They look as equally unimpressed with each other as they usually do,” Blake said.
Huh. That sounded about right. The king and queen weren’t known for showing affection toward each other.
“Anything else?” I asked. He hadn’t mentioned news of Dita, which was odd.
He paused, tapping his chin. “The vendors of Wast are excited about the upcoming visit from Vitor, but that’s nothing new.”
The monarchs from the two major cities on the mainland were meeting to amicably discuss trade. I’d only been to Vitor a few times and disliked it almost as much as I did Wast. It didn’t help that my only knowledge of the city beforehand was that Old Man O’Reilly and his asshole nephew both came from Vitor. That was enough to taint my first impression and to this day, whenever I thought of Vitor, I imagined a whole city of O’Reillys—male, female, young, old, small, and big—grumbling and sneering as they milled around town.
I shuddered at the involuntary image. “Okay. Well, thanks.”
He nodded and made a move to leave, but before he could make his escape, I reached out to stop him. My grip on his arm was gentle yet firm. “Wait,” I said. “I need to ask you something else.”
His expression turned serious as he looked down at my hand gripping his arm. “Okay.”
I let go of his arm. “I remember you used to always wear a red scarf.”
A faint smile tugged at the corners of his lips as he shifted his weight back. “You wanted to ask me about a scarf?”
I nodded, my cheeks now burning with embarrassment with what I planned to say next. This was going to get awkward, but I was willing to let my ego take a hit to get more information for the investigation. “Yeah, I really liked it and wanted...I wanted to get one for someone else.”
Ugh, I was terrible at this.
Thankfully, Nala didn’t whine to give away my discomfort.
Blake’s eyes flicked to Ace standing behind me and his lips curved up. “Is that so?”
I cleared my throat and pulled at the neckline of my shirt. “Yeah, where did you buy it?”
“Sley is your best friend and a skilled seamstress,” Blake replied smoothly. "I’m sure she could make you one.”
“And if I didn’t want her to know?” I bit my lip and hoped the messenger fell for my poor acting skills. I didn’t risk glancing at Ace.
He raised both eyebrows in amusement. “Then there’s a merchant who comes to Wast for the Sunday markets with a booth of them. But buying a scarf seems like a silly thing to keep secret.”
I winced and nodded, trying to seem sheepish. “Maybe I’ll grab one when we get back.” I paused and pretended to inspect his neck. “Should I get another for you? I noticed you’ve stopped wearing yours.”
This time, Blake grimaced and looked away. “Maria took it.”
“Maria?” Now that was unexpected.
“Please don’t tell Sley,” he pleaded.
“It looks like we both have our secrets,” I said, keeping my tone light and teasing. I was definitely telling Sley.
19
With an unusually warm autumn day, the heat of the sun bore down on my head and shoulders. I wiped the sweat from my brow, while Nala pranced along, her head held high, her snout open, her tongue flopping out of the side of her mouth. A few crows circled above, occasionally dipping down to land on a branch and click at me, while quail ran through the underbrush beside me.
“Are you going to ignore me this entire trip?” Ace asked. As if to show his displeasure, the oversized brute stomped through the forest beside me, snapping every branch and crushing every pinecone under his giant feet.
I didn’t reply, content to let him sweat a bit.
“I take that as a yes,” Ace muttered under his breath.
As much as the idea of ignoring him the entire trip tempted me, even I, with all my childish behaviours and stubbornness, knew communication was key to a good partnership.
“I’m still waking up, and I’m still angry at you,” I said.
“It’s midday, you bathed and ate. You even interrogated the queen’s messenger about his fashion choices. How long, exactly, does it take you to wake up?”
I ground my teeth together and balled my hands into fists. “Oh, don’t you worry, buttercup. You’ll hear lots from me soon enough and you’ll then be wishing for silence.”
“I thought you were over this whole partner thing. Why are you still angry?”
I took a deep breath and counted to three. “I am angry because you saw me naked.”
“From what I hear, that’s a requirement to being your partner.”
I spun, my hand drawn back, and struck. My fist connected with his jaw and pain shot down my arm. Ace’s head snapped back, but before he could react, I stepped in and drove my other fist up in a vicious uppercut.
But this time, I wasn’t so lucky. My blow never landed.
Ace moved.
He blocked my strike, stepped in, and caught my arm under his.
My heart hammered uncontrollably, and I tried to reverse my strike to hit him one more time.
He caught that arm, too. I stood so close to him, my chest pressed to his, my ragged breath hitting his neck.
Nala growled behind me. She’d attack if I gave her the command. Tempted, I opened my mouth.
Ace clicked his tongue and peered down at me. “Violence is never the answer.”
“Neither is being a dick.”
He smirked. “Seems like you have a few things to learn from me.”
“Being a dick?” I raised my eyebrows. “I think I’ll skip those lessons, thank you.”
He shook his head. “Your bow work is phenomenal, but without it, you’re not as dangerous as you need to be to match that mouth of yours.”
“My mouth?”
His gaze drifted down to my lips, and I instinctively licked them.
“Your attitude,” he clarified, his gaze still fixated on my mouth. “It keeps getting you in trouble. Some things never change.”
“You might be good at hand-to-hand combat, I’ll give you that.” Begrudgingly. “But your manners suck.”
Something flashed in his gaze, but he quickly blanked the emotion away. Releasing my arms as if they’d suddenly caught on fire, he stepped back and created space between us. He ran his hand through his hair. “I shouldn’t have said that.”
“And?”
He frowned.
“Are you sorry?”
His frown deepened. “I said as much, didn’t I?”
I shook my head. His apologies were as good as my brother’s, which meant they were terrible. “Like I said, you could learn a few manners.”
“Why?” He started to walk along the trail again, and I turned to join him. “Would grovelling on my knees before you change the value of what I said or the intention?” he asked.
“I would like to see you on your knees.” I bit my lip. Maybe I’d like that a little too much.
He raised his eyebrows, his gaze cut to the side to watch me as we walked. “Is that so?”
“Not like that.” I added.
He scoffed and his knowing gaze told me he didn’t believe me. That made two of us.
“Crawl your mind out of the gutter, Mouse,” he said. “And explain why you were interrogating the queen’s messenger about a red scarf and then you can explain what we are looking for.”
“A red scarf was found in the storage house. It may or may not be connected to the thief or thieves who are stealing our town’s supplies.”
Ace pressed his lips together and nodded. “And you think Blake is involved?”
“Just following the evidence.”
“It’s pretty weak,” Ace said.
I blew out a long breath. “I’m aware of that, but aside from suspicions, it’s all we have right now.”
Ace shrugged as if my struggle to solve the storage thefts were of no consequence. He studied the forest around us. “And now? What are we looking for?”
“The rogue hunters.”
“Obviously,” he replied, tone dry and not conveying any appreciation for my forthcoming nature. “I knew that part.”
“Did you? That’s lovely,” I said. “I feel it’s safer not to assume a level of comprehension when it comes to conversing with you.”
“Allow me to clarify my question.” He scowled, his lips pulling back to expose his white teeth. “How are we going to find the rogue hunters?”
“We’re going to reverse track the hunters who attacked me and Nala.”
“I’m surprised you haven’t gone after the hunters sooner.”
I waved at the path behind us where Nala followed in her gentle loping pace. Her tongue lolled out the side of her mouth. “I try to avoid venturing into the sacred forest without my familiar, and she needed to heal. I was also busy vetting you, if you don’t recall.”
Ace scrunched his face as though he smelled something foul. “You’re not the only hunter in camp. Why didn’t your brother go? Or your boyfriend?”
“My boyfriend?”
“Onion.”
“Rye isn’t my boyfriend,” I said.
“Well, he’s a terrible partner or whatever the phaan he is.”
“And why do you say that?”
“Because he hasn’t gone to check out the hunters. He hasn’t tried to track them down. If you were mine, I’d destroy the whole phaaning forest and slaughter anyone involved.”
“If I was yours?” That thought both horrified and excited me. I squeezed my eyes shut briefly. How dare I like the sound of that. How dare my heart forget so easily the hurt this man had caused.
He mocked my romance books, for phaaning sake.
Ace took a long-suffering breath as if his comment was somehow my fault. “Don’t flatter yourself or start getting ideas, Mouse. It’s a figure of speech. I meant if my significant other was attacked like you were, I’d do everything in my power to ensure it never happened again.”
“Trust me, I don’t find any of that flattering.”
He glared at me for another full inhale and exhale before turning away. “You’re an infuriating woman and intentionally missing the point. Where is the sense of immediacy? Of retaliation?” He waved his hand at the path in front of us.
“Right here,” I growled and thumped my chest with the flat of my palm. “The anger and rage are right here. I don’t need my brother or some fling rampaging into the forbidden forest for me when I’m more than capable of doing it myself. I don’t know where you’ve been all these years, but I’ve been here, working hard earning my place. I’m not helpless. I am not a simpering maiden in need of rescuing or a mouse that cowers from danger, and the sooner you realize that and manage your expectations accordingly, the better.”
Ace’s eyebrows rose with each word, but he remained blissfully quiet.
“Besides, only guardians can enter the sacred forest. None of the non-galeons are allowed to enter and galeon descendants are forbidden from hunting in these woods as well. They’re only supposed to enter it if they’re pulled by the call of a familiar or they have a familiar that wants to play in the fields.”
“Play?”
I shrugged. I had no intention of explaining the inner mechanisms of familiars when I sometimes questioned my own understanding.
We walked in silence after that while I fumed, and Ace quietly contemplated whatever thoughts ran through that smooth brain of his.
