Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 127722 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 639(@200wpm)___ 511(@250wpm)___ 426(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127722 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 639(@200wpm)___ 511(@250wpm)___ 426(@300wpm)
She lowered the knife and stopped her charge, and Huntley dropped his arm too. He turned to look at me, to give me a hard expression he’d never shown before.
It was almost too much to look at. “Come on, we’ve got a lot of ground to cover.”
After we stopped by the castle for Huntley to say goodbye to his mother, we grabbed a fresh horse from the stables and rode out into the open. The area before HeartHolme was an open field of weeds and resilient flowers. It was enormous, making it impossible for an enemy to approach the city without being visible from leagues away.
My arms were wrapped around his hard stomach as I held on, and I couldn’t see anything ahead because Huntley’s enormous body blocked everything from view. All I had were the sights to my immediate left and right. “Why don’t we take two horses?”
“Because I’m the better rider.”
“I can ride a horse pretty damn well.”
“Not well enough to evade enemies if we’re attacked.”
It was a long day of riding, bouncing up and down, the cold air freezing my hands in front of his stomach. But it finally came to an end at nightfall, and we settled in the shelter of the forest near the stream.
Huntley took care of the horse first, leading it to the stream and then feeding it oats.
I immediately pulled out my bedroll and lay down on the grass, exhausted even though I wasn’t the one controlling the reins.
Huntley tied up the horse then built a fire before he started to grill a fish.
I opened my eyes and watched him by the fire. “Where’d you get that?”
He gave me a cold look.
“I know, the stream,” I snapped. “But how did you catch it?”
“With my hands.”
“What are you? A bear?”
He ignored the question and kept cooking.
He was definitely the size of a bear. And he was mean like a bear too.
When dinner was ready, he served me a dish, and we ate in silence. The firelight was a welcome reprieve from the never-ending darkness of the forest. It also masked the sounds of the wildlife, of the hooting owls and snapping twigs from nighttime predators. But I knew it would be snuffed out the instant we were finished.
He finished first then sat with his forearms on his knees.
“What did your mother say?”
He was looking into the distance when he shifted his look back to me. “To be careful.”
“I can see how much she loves you.” It was the only time she didn’t look like a heartless bitch. She embraced her grown son like a boy, wore her heart on her sleeve, blinked through the moisture that built in her eyes.
His eyes shifted to the fire. “She’s a compassionate and fair ruler. You’ve never witnessed it because she can’t see straight when it comes to you. She loves her people the way she loves me. She’d sacrifice herself in a heartbeat to keep them safe.”
If Delacroix were attacked, my father wouldn’t be on the battlefield. He would send his soldiers to fight for him instead. Queen Rolfe didn’t take that approach. She was in the thick of it all, her sword and shield in hand, kicking ass. “If things had been different…perhaps she and I would get along.”
His gaze flicked back to me. “Things will never be different, but you’re going to get along anyway.”
That seemed like a hopeless endeavor to me.
“You’re going to do it—for me.”
“She handed me over to the Teeth to be eaten, and she tried to have one of her guys rape me. And you really think—”
“It’s in the past now.”
“Oh? It’s in the past? Because I don’t think my scars are going to be in the past.”
His stoic expression remained, his eyes devoid of emotion. “She agreed to try. I need you to do the same—”
“She was going to have me raped.”
“And I don’t regret that one bit.”
“Excuse me?”
“I don’t regret it because it led to this.”
My body sucked the air deep into my lungs. It was so quick, it actually burned a bit. My heart rate became irregular and unpredictable, painful. “That we’re married…?”
He didn’t shift. He didn’t blink. He didn’t anything. “Couldn’t imagine being married to anyone else.” His look remained unapologetic. He spoke words I was too afraid to say myself. “So, you’re going to try for me. And that’s final.”
We finally made it to the harbor outpost, and after a night of sleep in a real bed, we took off in the sloop. The fogbank was as thick as smoke, and it burned our lungs with every breath we took. I could barely see a few feet in front of me, but Huntley seemed to know exactly where we were going.
He controlled the wheel and barked orders at me, telling me to turn the sails so he could catch the right amount of wind when he needed it. Leaving the coast was the hardest part—because we were going right against the waves.