It was new. Brand new. The date just two days before by her own calculations of her time there.
“This is recent…” Emmie breathed, surprised to be holding what she had been asking for from Mathias for a week.
“I just brought it back today, picked it up at the drop point yesterday —” Victor started to speak, but Mathias cut him off.
“She doesn’t need the details, just read it.”
“Fine.” Swallowing, she skimmed the first paragraph and then started back at the beginning.
Brothers,
We are all relieved to learn that you are planning to join us soon. I reviewed the recent guard information as you asked, and I agree that the Southeast edge of the wall is the best point if you come after nightfall. When the clock strikes nine, wait for fifteen minutes and the space should be clear. The next group to join you there will be friendly, and can help you find your way to the gates to open them.
There are many sympathetic to our cause within the city, and although we must always be careful about our meetings to not be a large group, I can safely say that you will not be abandoned once you are inside.
We are spreading the word here, my brothers, and we cannot wait to have you home. There –
“They’re ready for us!” Victor cheered, and the other men started to clasp hands and slap each other on the back. Even Lucian was smiling, pride showing on his face when he looked up to catch her gaze.
“Wait! What else does it say?” Mathias shut down their celebrations, staring at her.
Emmie looked back down at the letter. “It just talks more about being prepared for you all, and wanting for you to create a signal in the woods on the western side to draw attention if there is any need. He suggests a fire.”
“We can do that!” Ben laughed, leaning over to place a hand on Lucian’s shoulder as he grinned. “Looks like we may actually be able to go home.”
“All right, then if we’re aiming for the southeast edge, it looks like this would be the straightest shot to the gates.” Mathias leaned forward towards the table, and the rest of the men leaned forward too, putting their backs to her.
Emmie stood still for a moment, waiting for someone to say thank you, or to at least acknowledge her help. The wall of masculine muscle in front of her became increasingly frustrating as they seemed to immediately forget her. Stepping forward, she tried to peek between them at the table, but their arms were pointing at various points as they argued with each other over how many to send to go over the wall and how many to keep at the gate. How many to start the fire, and who to send to which spot. Names she could barely recognize left their lips and her head spun. She was infuriated by her inability to see over their broad shoulders. Finally, she pushed herself past the men to one side, pressing herself against the wall to find a gap on the other side of the table between Ben and a man she didn’t recognize.
The table had seemed much larger when it was just she and Mathias staring at it all day.
“So, they go over here,” Lucian spoke seriously, planting his finger at a point on the wall, and then he dragged it along the outline of a street. “And then move towards the gate this way. Can the guards get us that far? It seems like a long distance.”
“There aren’t many guards on the street from what I know, and they would have alerted us in the letters if that was a concern. They know we want to make it to the gate.” Mathias was focused on the map, and Emmie leaned forward a bit to orient herself and understand what all of the lines and squares and rectangles meant.
“Okay, so if we have their support, we’d just have to keep any people we run into quiet as we moved.” Victor was talking, and Mathias just nodded with him.
Something’s not right.
“Exactly, but this late in the evening. There won’t be too many out and about. People will be home preparing for the next day, or sleeping already.” Mathias mumbled, leaning closer to the map, and Emmie wanted to shove him back as she stared at the buildings, and the streets, trying to figure out what wasn’t clicking.
“What about weapons? Do we know what we’ll be up against?” One of the unknown men asked.
Why are the markers so hard to read?
“Single shot pistols or rifles at most, and the aim on those is bad. As long as you’re not right up against them, they aren’t very accurate. The real problem is the swords. All the guards carry them, and our knives won’t be much help. The spears will be good, but enough blows with a sword will break one.” Mathias was thinking, and Emmie wished they’d all shut up a minute so she could think. “I hate to load anyone down, especially someone going over the wall, but it may be best to strap two spears to their backs. Have a backup if their first fails, but they’ll only need it if they meet up with other guards.”
“How likely is that?” Lucian asked, and Emmie almost screamed as she tried to lean further across the table to read the tiny, faded script on the map.
“Not very —”
“Where are you wanting to go over the wall?” she asked, and Mathias glared at her for interrupting him.
“Sit down and be quiet, girl,” he huffed. “It’s not likely they’ll meet other guards, like I said earlier, at night they are mostly near the city center, the big houses, and on the walls.”
“Just point at where you want to go over the wall again!” Emmie raised her voice, and several of the man glanced at her.
“Be quiet!” Mathias thundered, but Victor leaned forward to plant his finger on the map, and Emmie ignored his outburst to focus on the place Victor had pointed to.
“Wait, that’s —”
“Just go sit down, we’ll talk in a minute.” Lucian leaned around Ben. His voice was clearly meant to be calming but Emmie felt a surge of rage inside her.
“I’m not sure if we should start that far north, wouldn’t it be better to just go along the south wall?” The other unknown man spoke up, and she opened her mouth to speak but Mathias was too quick.
“If there are guards on the south wall, they’d see us and start the alarm. Going here,” he dropped his finger on the map and kept talking, “will mean that we have the cover of buildings to move.”
“But we’ll have to fight at the gate?” Ben asked, and Emmie felt her blood rushing her ears as they blatantly ignored her.
“Yes, we will have —”
“SHUT UP AND LISTEN TO ME!” Emmie screamed and most of them looked at her wide-eyed, except for Lucian and Mathias who just looked angry. “If you go over where Victor pointed, you’re dropping into a suicide mi —”
“Sit down, and be silent,” Mathias growled.
“Do you want to know the right place to go over, or not?” Emmie snapped.
“I think we can talk in a minute, just sit down.” Lucian’s voice was deadly calm, and she knew she should listen to it, well-aware of what lay just on the other side of that misleading tone in his voice, but this was too important.
“Fuck off! Mathias hasn’t been captain of the guard in seven years! I was just in the city! Barely two weeks ago, and THAT is a fucking death trap. That big building you have labeled as a fabrics factory is now the guard barracks! You want to climb over the wall and land right in front of where half of them sleep at night, go ahead, but personally if I’m going to risk my life, I’d like to do it with a little bit of up to date information!” Her rant ended and half the eyes were focused on her, and half were focused on Mathias.
“Is she right?” Ben asked.
“How old is this map, Mathias?” One of the unknown men asked, but Mathias was building towards an explosion – she could see it in the vein pulsing beside the thick scar at his neck.
“You need to go sit down, Em.” Lucian’s voice filtered in, soft and subtly threatening, but she didn’t break eye contact with Mathias.
“Maybe if he could actually read half these letters, he would have known about the fucking building, or about his own son trying to reach out to him!”
“EMMIE!” Lucian shouted, an
d she knew she’d crossed a line.
“Get out.” Mathias spoke low, and she waited for any of the other men to stand up for her, waited for Lucian to stand up for her.
“Fine.” Emmie shoved past Ben and Lucian and then reached between him and Victor to plant her finger on the map two streets north of where they had planned. “THAT is a clear spot. It’s quiet and no one fucking looks once it’s night. I know that for sure.” Glaring at Lucian once more, she gave him another chance to support her, another opportunity to acknowledge that she knew the safest place because it was where she had climbed over herself, but he only looked angry.
“Out!” Mathias roared, and she threw her hands up.
“I’m leaving!” she shouted. “You’re fucking welcome for saving all of you in advance.” Emmie turned before any of them could speak again, ducking out the door and leaving it wide open.
Rage was making her pulse pound at her temples, a headache coming on fast as she ground her teeth together. She had only walked a little ways away when she heard Mathias’ shout escaping the house. “You call that having that little bitch under control?”
His words were like a knife in her side. Lucian had her under control?
We’ll see about that.
Chapter Fourteen
Emmie walked for a while, trying to find the sewing group so she could rant to Alice’s sympathetic ear, but she never found them. Instead, she fumed until she wandered into the woods, finding herself at the edge of the drop where Lucian had stopped her on her first night in the village. She stared down at the angry water and it helped a little to see the water turn white as it pounded against the rocks in a torrent towards wherever it went. A quieter creek flowed on the other side of the village, but this vantage point served her perfectly.
Angry, loud, and undeniably powerful.
Nothing would survive unbroken if it fell over the drop into the rapids below, and she knew why Lucian had stopped her that night – but then the memory surfaced of him choking her on the forest floor. Leaving her hands tied so she was defenseless.
The villain.
She had seen that side of him again when he snapped at her in Mathias’ house, refusing to recognize that she was trying to help, that she had earned the right to help. He had said he believed in her, but when it came down to it, he didn’t. Without her, they wouldn’t even be trying to enter the city! Mathias would have given up!
Emmie chucked a branch into the rapids below, watching it drop and then be absorbed instantly by the rushing water. It was satisfying, and so she reached back to grab another stick and throw it in. Then a rock. A twig. A handful of leaves. Soon she was scrambling to sweep everything within reach into the torrent under her feet, but the storm inside her wasn’t any quieter.
“Dammit!” she screamed, her voice tearing as it echoed off the rocks across from her.
Settling her face into her hands, she hated that there were tears brimming the edges of her eyes. Wiping at them she tried to focus, and even with the recent memory of his betrayal with Mathias, all she could think about was Lucian, the hero, her hero. The way he kissed her gently, the way he ran his fingers or his lips over her most ticklish spaces just so he could tell her how much he loved to hear her laugh. The way he smiled at her when he was really happy, when the weight of the entire village wasn’t on his shoulders, when they were just them.
She loved that about him.
Her entire being jerked.
Love?
She wanted to pull away from the word, but it was there, like flotsam floating on top of the river – impossible to ignore. There was no way she could love Lucian. No way she could love the twisted, complicated, dominating man he was.
Could she?
Emmie groaned, dropping back hard onto the ground until all that was visible was the swaying of the trees and the fading light of the sky. Pinks and oranges and gray-blues. Something sharp pressed into her back, but she ignored it. It was fitting that as she thought about Lucian she should look at something beautiful, and be in pain simultaneously. What else was a perfect metaphor for their relationship?
If she could even call it that.
Either way, there hadn’t been much of any type of relationship today. He hadn’t had her back, hadn’t supported her, hadn’t been there for her when it mattered.
You didn’t have to out Mathias. Her mind spoke up, and she wished she could drown it in the river and suppress the truth of that statement. Damn them all. She had just been so angry. She didn’t deserve to be dismissed, cast aside, not after it had been her to inspire Mathias to even try. He was acting like it had never happened!
But they were secrets. Everyone had secrets, and they were important. Vital.
Lucian had kept her secret, as far as she knew, but she had just blown the top off of Mathias’ in front of his most trusted group – which she was clearly not a member of.
Opening her eyes she stared up at the sky and wished for a moment that she hadn’t told them about his past, about his son, because maybe now they wouldn’t even listen to her. Maybe now they’d land in the laps of the guards just to spite her, and who would die because she’d wanted to make a point? Would Lucie lose Evan? Would Alice lose Quentin?
Would she lose Lucian?
Her chest ached and she hated herself for it. Hated that even the idea of him being hurt made her stomach turn. Seeing his smile in the early morning hours as he leaned over to pepper her with kisses – for that not to happen again would be a crime. A crime worthy of banishment, except she would be the offender this time.
“Fuck.” Emmie muttered, pushing her hands into her loose hair. It was probably full of leaves by now, but she didn’t have the energy to care. She hadn’t worn it in a braid for two days because Lucian had said he liked her hair down, and this was the consequence. She was a mess, outside and inside, because of him. “This is what happens when you —”
Love someone, her brain tried to fill it in, but she pushed that idea back and locked it away in the darkest part of herself.
“This is what happens when you try to help someone,” she finished to spite herself.
Her stomach growled and she laid her hand over it, hoping to silence it with a touch, but once her body had recognized the absence there was no fixing it. She was too used to steady meals, to the help of the village – because she sure as hell had never contributed, either here or in the city. She was useless, inside or outside the walls.
Emmie sat up and kicked her feet against the ground, the underbrush cascading over the edge of the rocks to tumble down into the river below, but not even that could make her feel better now. With a growl, she pushed herself off the ground, staring down into the roiling waters below once more before she turned and headed back towards the village center. The last time she’d made this walk her hands had been bound, and Ben had been dragging her. This time her head was up, her hands free, and all she wanted was to eat and sleep.
Away from Lucian.
When she stepped up to the serving table, Amandine was on the other side, and her forehead creased as she caught sight of her. “Emmie? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
“Are you sure? You look —”
“I said I’m fine! Can I just get something to eat?” Emmie snapped at the woman and she flinched, pulling back, and while she instantly regretted it, no words surfaced to smooth it over. Still, Amandine gave her more than she should have received considering her position in the village. “Thank you,” she mumbled and started to turn away.
“Come back if you want to talk, Emmie. Really, I’ll listen.” Amandine’s kind words were a twist of the proverbial knife inside her, and she sought out one of the smaller fires to sit down and eat alone. The heat bled into her skin slowly, but her core was still cold and Emmie knew that nothing external could fix that. She was hollowed out by her anger.
If she could just sleep, put some space between her and the disastrous meeting at Mathias’, she might be able to think more c
learly. Currently her head was a thunderstorm, full of whip crack lightning strikes where she remembered Lucian telling her to sit down. Each of those memories were followed by the deep, rolling thunder of his kisses, his touch. The way he made her body shake and tremble.
Two halves of the same person. Villain and hero – and she couldn’t see clearly enough through the haze of every day life to decide which side of him was stronger.
“Emmie!” Lucian’s voice broke through the static in her head, and she turned towards him on instinct. “Come sit with me, let’s talk.”
Of course he would show up to confuse her even more.
Instead of the angry, brash Lucian she had expected to find after she had stormed out of Mathias’, he was smiling. At her. And as much as she wanted to scream at him, to tear him apart, to demand he explain himself – the offer to talk, to hear him explain, was too tempting. Especially with a calm, happy Lucian. “Okay.”
He grinned and beckoned her to follow him. With a sigh, she stood and walked after him, but instead of going somewhere private, Lucian joined a group of men around a larger fire.
So much for talking.
There were too many people around to have the kind of discussion they needed to have, and part of her felt relieved that she could put it off, but the other half was furious with him for calling her over like a dog only to ignore her.
“So, like I was saying, Theo said they were near that grove of trees that has the weird bend in it, the ones by the curve in the rough river.” Lucian nodded when a few of the men recognized what he was saying. “Right, so he said they had Paul walk around the other side to spook the deer, and out came three does and a buck! They missed two of the does, but their spears caught the buck and a doe right on target. I’m thinking if that’s where they are bedding down, we should go back next hunt, don’t you think?”
“It sounds like a good idea, we’d need to leave a bit for them to feel safe again, but with that many you have to think it’s a common spot.” One of the other men spoke up, and as Emmie finished the last of the food on her plate she had to fight the urge to hit Lucian with it. Hadn’t he asked her to talk? Did he really think the earlier situation was over? Did he really think she’d just forget about it and be willing to listen to him talk about hunting?
Taken by the Enemy Page 18
