by H. D. Gordon
She swung her feet over the edge of the bed and pulled her boots on. She ran her hands quickly through her hair, hoping it wasn’t a lavender mess atop her head. “Starved, actually.” She went over to the table and took a seat, fixing her hair again.
He slipped whatever was in the pan on a plate and set it in front of her. The smell of cooked meat floated up to her, and her stomach growled again. She looked down at the plate and her mouth fell open.
Charlie chuckled at her expression. “What?” he asked.
She shook her head. “Nothing. It looks great… Where’d you get this stuff?”
On the plate was an omelet with what looked like tomatoes and spinach wrapped inside. Charlie gestured to the night outside the window. “Well, I know it ain’t a proper dinner, but I figured you might want breakfast since you slept all day. I took the eggs from a nest I found while I was climbin’ a tree, and thought you might like those more than the rabbit I saw from up there. The spinach and the tomatoes have been growing out back for years, and we just happen to have come when they’re in season. I got other stuff out there, too. Onion, green beans, squash… If you don’t like it I could hunt up somethin’ else.”
Surah wasn’t aware of it but a small smile had formed on her lips. Would this man ever stop surprising her? He was a musician, a bar owner, a painter… the brother of a homicidal maniac, and now, a farmer. She knew men in the kingdom who couldn’t even wash their own clothes if asked, and women who couldn’t fix their own hair. She wondered not for the first time if all commoners were so self-sufficient, or if that was just something Charlie practiced. Because she was a princess, and had received trainings over the years in everything from knot tying to hunting to etiquette and horseback riding, she could be quite self-efficient herself. This was not the case with most royals, however, and living amongst primarily Highborns her entire life had made her lazy.
“This is perfect,” she said, when she realized he was still waiting for an answer. “Thank you.”
Charlie sat down across from her and gave that half smile that never failed to flip her stomach. If he kept doing that, she might not even be able to eat. “My pleasure,” he said. “Gotta keep our strength up… for everything that’s ahead.”
Surah paused with a bite midway to her mouth. Like that, her good mood was gone, and all the troubles of her life came crashing back to her. “What is ahead, Charlie?”
He was silent for a moment, studying her with his jade eyes. Then he nodded toward her plate. “Eat first.”
She sighed, but obeyed, apparently past the pretense that because she was a princess she was not used to taking commands. When the commands came from Charlie, they didn’t bother her so much. Maybe it was the unreserved, plain way he spoke them.
She finished her food quickly, took her plate and fork over to the sink and washed them by hand—somehow using Magic to do this seemed silly with Charlie around—and returned to the table. She raised her eyebrows. “Now?”
He smirked. “Now is fine, my lady. Unless you want me to go steal more bird eggs for you.”
“I’ve had my fill, thank you, and they were delicious, by the way.”
His smile grew. “’Course they were. I made em.”
She sighed and leaned forward, resting her forearms on the table. “You done telling me I should leave?” she asked, and waited until he gave a small nod, that guarded look passing over his face again. She stopped her eyes from rolling. “Good. Then we need a plan.”
“There’s an understatement.” He stood from his chair and held a hand out to her. “Let’s take a walk. Helps me think.”
She placed her hand in his, noticing for the first time she was not wearing her gloves. When their fingers touched, she was glad for it. He seemed to be in a much better mood than before. “Hold on a second,” she said, and went over to the bed, where she’d left her cloak. She slung it over her shoulders, fastening the top of it around her neck.
When she turned back to him, he was grinning. “It’s still pretty warm out.”
“I know,” she said, and flipped the back of her cloak to the side, revealing some of the weapons hidden in the folds. “It’s not for warmth. It’s for protection.”
He nodded thoughtfully. “Ah, so if a demon flies outta the forest, you can slay it while I scream and run for safety?”
She smiled. “Something like that, though you don’t strike me as the running and screaming type.”
One side of his mouth pulled up. “’Course not.”
She laughed and took his hand again when he offered it, wondering at the way he seemed able to make light of any situation. They stepped out of the cabin together, and Surah’s breath caught in her throat as she looked up at the sky. Out here, where there was little to no light pollution, every star overhead was visible in full force, like tiny diamonds scattered across a black blanket. No clouds obscured their shine, and a quarter moon did little to compete with them. The two of them began walking, and Surah slid her arm through his elbow out of habit, but for possibly the first time in her life, she didn’t mind being escorted around. It seemed none of the things that normally bothered her applied when it came to Charlie.
They walked in comfortable silence for a while before she remembered there was a task at hand. Or several tasks, depending on how you looked at it. “Let’s start with what we know,” she began. “Theodine Gray is no doubt searching for us, and I’d bet all my marbles that he wants you dead. No hearing. No trial. Just dead, and he’s got all the Hunters at his disposal to make that happen.”
“I don’t get why that man hates me,” Charlie said matter-of-factly, as if this did not concern him, and his mind was elsewhere. “I get the feelin’ this is all very personal to him.”
Surah looked over at him, at the way the starlight glittered in his dark hair and light eyes, and the fine lines of his face. She pulled her eyes away again so she could concentrate. “Well, the position he last saw us in couldn’t have helped any, but you’re right. I had the feeling he didn’t like you from the moment he met you back in the bar.”
Charlie hesitated for a moment, studying her in the darkness. “That’s actually not the first time we met.”
Surah’s head whipped toward him, and his hold on her arm tightened when she stumbled over a rock. “Thanks,” she said, glad that it was too dark for him to see the blush forming on her cheeks. “What do you mean? You two knew each other before we came to your bar to investigate Merin Nightborn’s murder?”
Charlie nodded, then shook his head. “I wouldn’t say we knew each other. That just wasn’t the first time our paths crossed. The first time I met Theodine Gray was very long time ago, when we were both hardly more than children.”
Surah found herself leaning closer. She didn’t fail to notice that he hadn’t said the only time he’d met Theo, just the first time he met him. She wanted to ask him if that meant they had shared other encounters, but thought if she did so he might pull away again. “What happened?” she asked.
He shrugged. “We got into a fight.”
Her jaw nearly hit the ground. “What? How is that possible? I mean, how, considering both of your… positions, were you even near enough to each other to get into a fight?”
A corner of his mouth lifted and he gave her a sidelong glance. “You don’t need to sugarcoat it. What you mean is, how did a common man like myself get into a fight with a Highborn like Theodine Gray and walk away in one piece?”
Surah’s blush deepened, but she nodded.
He ran his free hand down his jaw. “Well, I was near the castle one day, lookin’ for some food I could take for me and my brother. It was something I had to do often after our parents died. Most of the time we could set traps in the forests and catch rabbits or other small game to eat, but when we got desperate, Michael would have me sneak over to the dumpsters behind the royal bakery and see what I could find… Highborns throw out a lot of perfectly good food. Anyhow, I was searchin’ through the stale breadcrumbs and
empty icing containers when the back door to the bakery opened. I had just enough time to hide behind the dumpster before two people came out. One, as you’ve prob’ly guessed, was Theo, and the other was the baker’s boy.
I knew his voice because he was a nice kid. Arron, I think his name was. He used to sneak me extra food every once in a while, or set it in a box beside the dumpster so that it wouldn’t be dirty when I came to get it. So there I am, crouchin’ behind the dumpster, and I hear a sound like a hard slap, and then a squeal of pain from Arron.”
Surah swallowed, snapping her jaw shut when she realized it was still hanging open. “What happened next?”
Charlie sighed. “I didn’t know at the time that it was Theodine Gray. I knew the name, of course, but I hadn’t memorized his face the way I… memorized some royals.” He looked over at her and her heart did another small flip. “I peaked out from around the dumpster and saw them both, Arron sprawled out on the ground, his hand to his cheek, which was bright red in between the cracks of his fingers, tears wellin’ in his eyes.” Charlie shook his head. “Theo was standin’ over him, his back to me, but I could tell just by his voice that there was a smile on his face, that he was enjoying it.”
“Wait,” Surah said. “How old were you?”
Charlie’s head tilted. “Oh, fourteen or fifteen, I s’pose. And Theo, from my estimate, was about the same age as me, but you see, Arron was no older than nine at the time. And that’s a highball.”
Surah shivered, even though she was plenty warm under her cloak. She wasn’t sure she wanted to hear what happened next.
Charlie continued. “Then Theo says, ‘I gave you very specific instructions. Don’t they teach you common scum how to read anymore? How hard is it to make a purple cake with flowers on it? Or are you too stupid to figure out even that simple task?’ or something along those lines… Arron tried to tell him that he did exactly as he’d been told, that he would make another cake if Theo wanted, and he was crying in full force then. I mean, tears were streamin’ down his cheeks and drippin’ off his chin. He looked so scared, so… I don’t know, innocent, I guess.”
Charlie grew silent for a moment, and Surah could see that his eyes had gone distant, as if he were looking back into the past and seeing the poor baker’s boy as clear as day. She supposed he was. She was looking back into the past as well, remembering a four tier purple cake that Theo had brought her for her thirteenth birthday. She’d accepted it with a thank you and a smile and nothing else, not particularly caring at the time that Theo had probably expected a bigger to-do about the gift. It had been lovely, with white flowers crawling up the sides and tiny butterflies made of icing perched atop it—which was why she remembered it. Had her nonchalant reaction been responsible for whatever Charlie was about to tell her next? She had a sinking feeling the answer was yes.
After a while, she couldn’t take the suspense, so she gave Charlie’s arm a light squeeze and smiled up at him, though it was a touch strained. “Please, continue.”
Charlie stared at her for a moment. “You okay?”
Gods, this man missed nothing. She was an expert at concealing her emotions, and he saw right through them. “Fine,” she said. “What happened to Arron?”
He gave her a slightly dubious look, but continued. “Theo kicked him,” he said. “That’s what happened. And he didn’t just kick him, I mean he kicked him. Hard. Right in the worst place a guy can be kicked. Arron let out a shriek worse than any I’ve ever heard, and I… I guess I saw red.”
A dark look had come over Charlie’s face, a look she had only seen on him once, when he’d been defending her against his brother. It was a dangerous look, one that made his usually soft eyes appear harder, his perfect jaw more pronounced. She realized heat was spiraling in her stomach and chastised herself for finding him even more attractive for it. Her voice was small when she asked, “What’d you do?”
“I came out from ‘round the dumpster and shoved Theo back a few steps so that I was standin’ between him and Arron, who looked both relieved and horrified to see I was there. Even then I think he was worried about me. He really was such a sweet kid. I asked Theo as calmly as I could to leave the boy alone… and he laughed at this like I’d just suggested he take his clothes off and run around the city naked.”
Surah nodded. Yes, this sounded like Theo. She knew there was a reason she’d never really liked him, despite his handsome face and polite charm. Seemed he wasn’t so nice to those he didn’t consider his equal.
“For the record,” Charlie said, “he swung at me first.”
Yep, that sounded like Theo, too.
“I guess he didn’t expect me to be able to fight, seein’ as how I was just a dirty little common boy stealing old bread from the castle, so he was surprised when I blocked his fist and sent mine straight into his jaw. It knocked that smug smile right off his face.” He paused and looked over at her. “I ain’t proud of it, though.”
Surah nodded and knew he was telling the truth. She may not know him that well, but she knew somehow that Charlie was not the type of man who felt the need to exhibit his masculinity through hurting others. Now that she was thinking about it, she thought she remembered Theo’s jaw being swollen at her birthday celebration. If she remembered correctly, he’d told everyone he’d been injured in training. Guess he was too embarrassed to admit the truth.
“I have a feelin’,” Charlie said, cutting into her thoughts, “that he’s never forgotten that, that he still hates me for it after all these years.”
“How’d you get away? Didn’t someone hear Arron’s cry?”
Charlie smiled at her now, and she was happy to see his calm expression back in place. “Yes, someone did. Arron’s father came out then and saw us all. It didn’t take long for him to guess what had happened, so he sent Arron back inside and shooed me away. I think he had already apologized to Theo about a hundred times by the time I was out of earshot, and by Theo’s angry shouts, I don’t think any of them were accepted. In fact, I remember him yellin’ after me that I better stay away or I was going to get it—or some stupid threat boys make to other boys. I got outta there pretty quickly, and that was the last time I took old bread from the castle.”
She couldn’t exactly say why, but she got the strong feeling that the story did not end there. “And that was the last time you saw Theo until we walked into your bar a week ago?”
He stared at her a moment, then he nodded once. “Yes, ma’am… I mean, my lady.”
“You may as well call me Surah. It’s not like you acknowledge any other social rules.”
His eyes widened in mock hurt. “You sayin’ I’m rude, Surah?”
She surprised herself by leaning her head against his shoulder, and smiled a little when she felt his body stiffen. She decided not to push for much more just yet. She didn’t know much about him but she knew he was not the kind of man things could be pried out of. He had to be eased out of his shell. She chose her words carefully. “I would never say such a thing, Charlie… I had a feeling you two had met before, just by the way he looked at you when we came to the bar, and if I know Theo, he certainly has not forgotten getting knocked out by a commoner. You probably offended his very existence.”
Charlie sighed. “And now he thinks I’ve stolen his girl.” He glanced around. “Let’s start heading back. We should prob’ly stay close to that shield, or whatever it is you created.”
Surah allowed him to steer her back toward the cabin, but she was still stuck on the first part of what he’d said. “I am not ‘his girl,” she said, instead of what she was really thinking, which was: You have.
Charlie chuckled. “Whatever you say, Princess.”
She gave him a scowl that made him laugh harder. She shook her head and continued. “Okay, so Theo hates you, and Black Heart—”
“Michael.”
“What?”
“My brother’s name is Michael.”
Surah was sure to hide the pang this made in her
chest. “Whatever you say, Charlie. As I was saying, your brother hates me and has some crazy vendetta against royals. He stole the Black Stone and almost succeeded in killing both my father and me. All the other Highborns are upset because two families have lost daughters, and they don’t feel safe. They were all but calling for your head back at the castle.”
“So what you’re sayin’ is, I can’t go back?”
Surah chewed this over for a moment. “I’m saying we can’t go back.”
Charlie pulled Surah to a stop and took her gently by the shoulders, forcing her to look up at him. “You don’t know that,” he said.
Her brow furrowed. “Yes, I do.”
He ducked his head so he could look her in the eyes. She was so much smaller than him that she still had to tilt her head back and look up at him for it to work. Charlie took a step closer, well into her personal space, and her breath caught at the very serious look on his face. “I’m not gonna tell you to leave again, but you should weigh all the options. Who knows how long Theo can go before tellin’ people about us? You said yourself that the Highborns were callin’ for my blood. What do you think they’ll do to you if he tells them you helped me escape? He has to tell them somethin’, because they’ve lost their prize prisoner. Do you think he loves you enough to keep you safe from their wrath by keepin’ you and me a secret? If you went back soon, you might be able to stop him before he says anything.”
“I don’t know what Theo will do,” she said. “And you can’t know what Bl—uh, your brother will do. We know each wants one of us dead, but that’s not at all what I’m most worried about, so stop trying to convince me to go back.”
Charlie’s head tilted a little, his eyebrows going up. “No? So you’re not worried that a man who’s practiced in killin’ wants you dead?”
