Page 160 of Phoenix's Fire

So I kept to the important things. "Did she know about Meri?"

"Yes," he hurried to assure me. "They have Meri and she's going to be okay."

"Will they kill you if you have to hunt again?"

He shook his head. "I'm supposed to wear the fletching on my belt. I now have two yellow and one blue arrow. Good luck charms, I call them. The Dragons will be told not to shoot me if they see them."

Slowly, I nodded, filing all of that into my mind, but it kept bringing me back to the same thing. Even with everything he'd just said - as shocking as it was - my thoughts kept jumping back to him. This man was not just my only friend, he was also my last chance to escape this place safely.

"Please don't die," I breathed. "I don't want to be stuck here alone, and what if I can't get out -"

"Hey..." he breathed. "You had plans before I shoved my nose into them. Callah, this is good. This is nothing more than us securing our escape plan, right?"

I nodded. "Okay."

"And," he went on, "it makes us allies. So if I have to propose, I will. We'll pretend, Callah, just like we are now. I'll keep saying you're pretty, and you'll keep blushing, right?"

The words were barely out of his mouth before I glanced away, feeling my face warming up. "But we're just pretending, right?" I asked.

"You are pretty," he mumbled.

"But - "

"And my friend," he hurried to explain. "A pretty friend. Other men know you're pretty too, and if we weren't friends, they'd all be trying to get your attention. So I say things about how much I like you, and how I'm going to make you keep healing so you'll be as good as Mrs. Worthington. That way you can patch me up since I'm a hunter."

"Yeah?" I asked, liking that, even though I knew we weren't going to stay here.

He just shrugged. "You're a good healer."

"And your arm needs to be treated," I reminded him.

A funny little smile took over his lips. "Men say their wives nag them when they do things like that, but I kinda like it."

"When I take care of you?" I asked.

"Yeah, I guess?" His hazel eyes jumped up quickly, then shifted to his meal. "I'm supposed to take care of you, though. I want to provide, but I also don't."

"I don't understand," I admitted.

"Callah, the meat? It's Dragons. It's not like the animal that grabbed me. It's like the man Ayla was fighting beside."

"But..." Okay, that didn't make sense. "Why?"

"I don't know," I admitted. "There has to be more to eat out there, but we always go to hunt Dragons. They say we have to defeat the Devil. That fighting them, and bringing them back for our meat? It's helping to win the war."

"Are we?" I asked. "Tobias, are the Righteous winning?"

"No."

"What happens if we lose?"

Slowly, he stirred the congealing mess on his plate. "I don't know, but I think it might be a good thing. I think Ayla will make sure you're okay, and if you speak up, I will be too."

"I'll speak up," I promised. "You're the one taking care of me."

"Trying."

"But you are," I insisted. "Tobias, ever since you started courting me, I'm no longer being pressured to be a better woman, or to become more appealing to a potential husband. If anything, I'm given more freedom because of it."

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