He looked down at me with an unreadable expression. “Sylvians are sly. You can’t trust any of them. I’m surprised the soap and the leather were your only problems.” He gave me his back and started to get the horses ready. It took my muddled brain a few minutes before I realized he didn’t answer my question.
* * *
As we headed out of the city and onto the dusty paths, I thought about the fortune teller. Her omen left a bad taste in my mouth, and I became even queasier than I was before. I thought about all the different ways I could die. Most were impractical, but my imagination was far from reasonable.
Falling onto a cactus and one of its thorns piercing right through my heart.
Asphyxiation by a dust storm.
Falling off Gallant and breaking my neck.
Falling off a cliff.
A lot of fallings. Premonition, maybe? I hoped not . . .
The ridiculous list went on and on until Weston looked at me with distaste. Perceptive much?
It was midday, and my headache had passed when I watched Weston slip his cloak on. I looked at him with a grimace. It was blazing hot out, and he was putting on a cloak?
We had barely said anything to each other, and I wasn’t going to start now. He would only ignore me, and it really made me feel like punching him when he did that. I would rather live, so I kept my mouth shut. His behavior was odd, but it usually was so I didn’t let my imagination go wild this time.
We stopped at the first tree I had seen in a while, and I sat under it to get a break from the sun’s heat. A stream flowed beside it, and the sound of the rushing water was calming enough that I almost fell asleep.
My eyes opened at the sound of many horses’ hooves hitting the ground. We had passed many travelers, so I didn’t find it odd that they were on the path. I found it odd that they were slowing when they saw us.
I glanced at Weston, uneasiness settling in my stomach. He was getting a drink from the stream, with his cloak still on while the men rode up next to our horses. There were four of them, completely covered in white material. The only visible part of them was their dark eyes. I jumped up when they began to dismount their horses.
“Weston,” I urged.
He didn’t turn around, not even when one of the men said, “My, my, what do we have here?”
“Weston,” I hissed.
He didn’t move, and I was perturbed but mostly scared, as terror crawled up my back. I felt for the knife in my sheath, and the white-clad men watched the movement.
“A fighter, huh?” one of the men said as he nudged the man next to him. “I always like the fighters, don’t I, Keistan?” He walked towards me, and I stepped back in Weston’s direction, but the man was faster than I thought and lunged at me, grabbing my wrist. He twisted it so hard that I thought he had broken it. I cried out, and the knife tumbled out of my hand.
“Weston!” I screamed while the man’s leather glove bit into my pained wrist and he pulled me over to their group. Fear snaked through me. What was Weston doing? Why wasn’t he helping me?
“We’ll deal with your beau later, but it looks like he’s pissing his pants over there with the thought of fighting Untouchables.” The men were so unconcerned with him that they had given him their backs. The breath was knocked out of me as the man slammed me to the ground. Even though I was fighting to catch my breath, I could still make out Weston’s taller form behind the man in front of me before a knife sliced the white-clad man’s neck open.
It felt as though it happened in slow motion as the man fell to the ground, and Weston snapped the neck of another before the other two could even react. The men hurried to take off their gloves, but a knife ended up in the crux of the third man’s neck. The last man had one glove off before his neck was cut from behind. He was so close to me that thick, warm blood sprayed across my face. It dripped down my cheeks as I watched the man fall to the ground with his mouth open.
My stomach rolled, and I wiped some blood off my cheek with the back of my hand. I blew out a breath, trying to calm my nauseous stomach. My gaze traveled to Weston, the metallic taste of blood in between my lips. He was watching me while he stood in the carnage. He had lost the cloak somewhere in the act, and he looked like a true Titan at that moment.
Bloody. Cold. Unstoppable.
I glanced away from him and down at my blood-stained body. The first thing that came to mind was a question. “What are Untouchables?”
“They kill with only a touch,” he said indifferently.
We stared at each other for a moment.
I got to my feet, calmly brushing the dust off my hands. “Are you saying that I would be dead if just one of those men had touched me?”
“Essentially.”
Red spots clouded my vision.
“Are you mad!” My heart thudded out of control. “They almost raped me while you kneeled at the stream like an innocent bystander! Did you want to watch? They could have killed me when they touched me the first time!” How could he have let it go that far? I didn’t think I had ever been angry enough that my hands shook because of it.
His eyes hardened. “They wouldn’t have killed you until the first man got his pants down. They’d want you alive as long as possible. They wouldn’t want to fuck a cold body,” he told me while standing in the middle of four bloody, dead bodies.
My blood ran cold at his indifference towards my rape and murder. He was an assassin, so why had I expected any different? I stared at a drop of blood running down his arm, and everything became clear to me in a rush.
“Why the cloak? You knew they were coming? Didn’t you?” I asked.
“Yes.”
I expected him to deny it. But why would he? He had no conscience.
“You’re disgusting for even letting it get that far!” I snarled.
“I saved your life. Have some respect. If I didn’t do what I did, you would have been dead. One look at the brand on my arm and not one of them would have put their guard down enough for me to do anything. So shut your fucking mouth. I didn’t have to save you.”
“You put that cloak on long before they came into sight! There was plenty of time to elude them, and you knew it. The whole thing was unnecessary!”
He didn’t answer the question, but I read the dark truth in his eyes. A shiver went down my spine as a storm of resentment and distress blew around me with the next breeze.
There was time to evade them. He didn’t want that.
He wanted to kill them.
And I was his bait.
CHAPTER TWELVE
DOUBLE REALITY CHECK
My hands shook as I washed the blood off my body in the stream. A part of me hated Weston for how he used me. Another was grateful that those men couldn’t harm any other women. The last part of me was disgusted by my weakness.
I had no chance. None.
It showed me exactly what would happen to me out here if I were alone. A couple more seconds and the fortune teller would have been right.
“I want you to teach me how to fight,” I said as I turned around. There was still a red cloud over my mind and if he refused, I would kill him.
“No.”
I grabbed my knife out of the sheath and threw it at him. He stepped to the side and dodged it with an amused look. I looked for something else to throw, but there wasn’t anything but a small stick. And I didn’t want to look that pathetic.
“I need to learn! Especially if you’re my escort. Who knows what will happen to me?”
He narrowed his eyes. “Have I let anything happen to you? Have you been raped? Murdered? I don’t think you’ve even been scratched.”
“I have a bruise on my tailbone from being pulled off the bed this morning, and my wrist is sore from an Untouchable twisting it while I tried to fight him off alone. So yes, I would say you let something happen to me.” When he didn’t say anything, I added, “You owe it to me after you almost got me killed.”
“I owe you nothing,” he growled, and I
realized it was the wrong thing to say.
I tried again. “I wouldn’t need you to save me all the time if you just taught me some things.”
He was still for a moment, his face unreadable. When I thought he was going to refuse again, he grabbed the knife off the ground. “Your throw was embarrassing,” he said as he handed it to me. “You can either throw it by the handle or the blade. You want to throw this one by the handle.” My hopes rose when I realized he was giving in. “Wrap your hand around the knife and leave your thumb against the spine.”
I did what he said.
“Like this?” I asked.
He adjusted my grip, and I noticed the drying blood on his arms and hands. How did I end up here? In the desert while a bloody assassin taught me how to throw a knife?
“Take a relaxed stance and envision the knife sticking into the tree. Try it.”
I did what he told me and threw the knife. It bounced off the tree and hit the ground.
“You snapped your wrist,” he said as he headed over to get the knife.
“No, I didn’t,” I replied, my blood not yet cooled from the incident. And filled with frustration that I was elated he would teach me. He had almost gotten me killed, and yet he was essential for me getting to Undaley.
“You want me to teach you?” he snapped, and I bobbed my head. “Then quit being a brat and listen to me,” he growled. He had me practice it a few times, and when the knife stuck in the tree, excitement bloomed in my stomach. Maybe I could learn enough from the assassin to be able to travel alone if he decided to use me as bait again.
I stepped around the dead Untouchables, being careful not even to touch their white-clad bodies. “Where do these Untouchables live?” I asked as I mounted Gallant.
“They are raiders. They don’t settle anywhere specific.”
When we headed out again, I searched the land, not trusting Weston anymore. Although, I didn’t think I could have ever sensed something as far away as he did. I asked him how he could, but he only gave me that look that said, You’re annoying me.
My Sylvian shirt was covered in blood and dust, but I didn’t change it. It would have been too hot to wear anything else. My mind kept wandering back to what had happened, and it made my skin flush with an angry heat every time I thought of it.
“Don’t ever do that again,” I said.
He glanced at me but didn’t give me an ounce of assurance. The thought that it might be more dangerous being with him than being on my own popped into my head.
When he scoffed in disbelief, I knew he could read my mind.
* * *
We continued down the dusty paths for quite some time. I’d heard of the desert but never imagined I would see it. It was tedious in its dust and sand and never anywhere I would want to settle.
Although, I was enraptured as we passed by the orange canyon walls. Pictures moved on the rock walls, depicting people shooting arrows, dancing, giving birth, and many different scenes.
The beauty of it had me forgetting many of my problems. The pictures looked real enough that I would have believed they were happening if not for the too vivid colors and the scenes dissipating when another one took over.
“What is this?” I asked Weston when a dancing scene disappeared into a woman giving birth, sweat trickling down her face as her moan of pain hit my ears.
“A picture appears on the wall when a member of the tribe dies. How they died is what they are doing on the wall.”
“How do you die dancing?” I asked with wide eyes. Now I had to worry about dancing, too?
That damn old fortune teller.
Weston gave me a sideways glance, and the thought that he could read my mind annihilated all my other thoughts. How was I going to have any privacy? I thought about just telling him everything in my head. Shouldn’t he know everything, anyway? What if he didn’t? What would he do with the information? A series of questions that were essential to my decision flooded my mind. A series of questions that I was worried he was hearing.
I remembered how he had saved the boy in the tavern, but I had seen a different side of him. One I couldn’t trust. At least with the truth about the magic; my life was practically in his hands.
Unfortunately.
“I only saved the boy because you were clearly going to make a scene, and trust me, you would have been the entertainment for the rest of the night if you did,” he said.
It took me a moment to realize that he took that from my head. “So you saved me twice then?” If he was so bad, why would he save me?
“Three times,” he said flatly.
I scoffed. “I don’t count what happened back there. You put me in that situation. If you are so cruel, why save me?”
“I’m not a voyeur, especially to rape. Which would’ve happened to you in the tavern. You would have been screaming and thoroughly ruining any quiet in the place.”
My stomach rolled, and I looked at him with distaste. I didn’t know this man at all.
“And you never will,” he replied dryly, taking more from my head. This was going to be very inconvenient. He could read my mind, and I didn’t know anything about him, besides the fact that he had no conscience. It was far from fair, and I wanted to level the playing field.
“How can you read my mind?” I asked.
“I’ll tell you that after you tell me what the hell you are.”
I scowled. “First off, who. I’m a human being, not a what. And second, how do you not know that already? You can read my mind.”
“I would rather endure a fortnight of torture than listen to your simple-minded thoughts all day.”
There! He admitted it. I smiled at the small battle won, and then my smile fell when I realized his insult.
“Hey! My thoughts aren’t simple-minded. I would hate to be in your head.”
“Yea? Why’s that?”
“I can only imagine what’s in there. Something like Kill. Smash. Kill.”
He actually laughed. A deep laugh that I could feel flutter around in my stomach; his voice did strange things to me. Gallant nearly stopped as I unconsciously pulled on his reins while I watched Weston with wide eyes. Who knew he had a carefree side to him? A strange revelation.
I felt breathless as his eyes flickered with something dark, and a sly smile formed on his lips. He dragged his gaze down my body, and I could feel the heat from it linger on my bare skin. I shivered from the onslaught.
“You forgot one thing,” he said roughly.
My heart fluttered out of control. I wasn’t a stupid girl. I might have been inexperienced with men, but only because I chose to be. This was flirting, and my entire body flushed while I became aware of it.
It took only seconds to remember that he had just told me he only saved me from rape because it would have ruined the quiet atmosphere. That helped to calm my rapid heart rate. Did he think women were that easy? And then I thought about the women at the tavern. And realized it would be that easy for him.
He smiled. “Easier than that.”
I glared at him. “Stay out of my head.”
The damn inconvenience of him reading my thoughts had me trying not to think of anything while we continued down the trail. It gave me a headache, and I was relieved when he started talking so I could focus on something else.
Little did I know it would be worse . . .
“You want to volunteer as bait this time?” he asked.
“What?” A cold sweat covered my skin as I processed what he was saying.
“I’m giving you a chance to do this willingly, so take it.”
“More Untouchables?” I asked.
He nodded.
“What am I supposed to do?” I didn’t believe I could do this after what had just happened to me.
“All you have to do is pretend to be walking down the path while I hide behind those rocks.” He pointed to an area that I didn’t even look at, nervousness clouding my thoughts.
“How many?”
“Sev
en,” he said, unconcerned.
I blanched. “Seven? Can you even kill that many?”
“Why don’t you just worry about standing on the path and looking pretty?”
“Yea, I’d be pretty until they touch me, and then I won’t be so pretty anymore, will I? I’ll be dead!”
“They won’t touch you,” he said while he got off his horse.
“No, I won’t do it.” How could he even expect me to do this? Blood still clung to my skin from the last time I had been bait.
“If you do this, I’ll teach you how to fight. As well as you could, anyway,” he said while he gave my body a pitiful glance.
“You already agreed to teach me!” I said, feeling cheated.
“I never said I would teach you.”
“But you didn’t say you wouldn’t, and then you taught me how to throw a knife. What kind of message do you think that sends me?”
“Shut up and get off the horse.”
I shook my head. “No, I’m not doing this. It’s so easy for you to risk my life, isn’t it?”
“You want an honest answer to that question?” he drawled.
I clenched my teeth. I hated how he couldn’t even pretend that he cared. It made me want to scream. “I’m not doing it.”
His gaze bored into mine. “You will do this, or I will make you.”
“I’ll scream that there is a Titan behind that rock,” I threatened, my blood boiling.
He smiled viciously. “You wouldn’t. Who would take you to Undaley? I can guarantee you that the Untouchables wouldn’t.”
“I’m not yours to use as bait! If they touch me, I’ll die.” I believed with everything that if I did this, the fortune teller’s omen would come true. My chest tightened with fear at just the thought. I wasn’t ready to die.
“Thank you for the offer, but I’ll have to decline,” I said, trying to calm the anxiety I felt. He only ran his thumb across his lip thoughtfully before heading over to my horse. I hopped off the other side. I walked backward while he walked towards me. “I’m not throwing my life away to satisfy your lust for blood!” I cried.
“You seriously want to do this right now?” he growled while he strode towards me.
A Girl Named Calamity (Alyria Book 1) Page 9
