Page 115 of The Fae Girl 1

He nodded.

“Because I couldn’t. You probably didn’t notice it, didn’t feel it, but I did, I felt the magic that they used. I felt all that death and that’s why I stayed. Because if I ran, all I would be doing is putting myself first. My own needs first. But if it stayed.” I shrugged again. “It sounds silly but it felt like if I stayed I might be able to help. Might be able to even stop something like that happening again.”

“That doesn’t sound silly.” He said. “It sounds like a good reason to stay.”

I’ll admit I felt relieved by his words. By his tone.

“I knew you were thinking of running in that moment, I could see you weighing it up.” He said.

“So what now? You tie me up and take me back as a prisoner again?”

“Why would I do that?” He asked frowning.

I looked at him half disbelieving the tone in his voice. “Because I almost ran.”

“But you didn’t.” He stated.

“But I thought about it. I really thought about it.”

“Do you want me to tie you up, is that it?” He asked with a slight smirk.

“I, no, but...” I fell silent because I didn’t know what to say.

“If I were in your situation I would have been tempted too.” He said. “Especially after everything that’s happened to you.”

I looked away knowing that he was referring to Rillon and ‘that incident’ and the last thing I wanted to do was talk about it. To think about it. To bring it up.

“So why did you bring me here if not to test me?” I asked.

“I wanted to show you what we are fighting. What we want you to help us in fighting. What this war really is.”

“Why couldn’t you just have told me instead of dragging me the whole way out here?”

“If I simply told you, you wouldn’t have understood. You wouldn’t have got it.” He stated.

“You don’t know that.” I replied annoyed that he’d just made that assumption about me like he knew me, like he understood me.

He gave me a hard look and I gave him one right back. “You should have given me the choice.”

“No one would have chosen to see what you saw today and you needed to see it.” He stated.

“How about we agree to disagree?” I said feeling even more annoyed before getting up and going back to sit beside Indi and Nela. And making a point of not even looking in his direction for the rest of the night.

We broke camp as the sun rose. We could have left later but we all knew this was the riskiest part of the journey. The part more likely for us to be attacked.

The part more likely for her to be taken.

Not that I think she realised the danger. She was still in a huff with me. Still making a point of not looking in my direction unless she absolutely had to. I’ll admit it amused me. That she was being this stubborn. That she was bold enough to be like that when I could just as easily tie her back up if I chose.

But I did make sure our speed was less punishing. I could see from the way she was walking yesterday that she was still unused to heavy riding. Besides, if we were attacked we might well need to make a dash for it. No need to exhaust the horses and potentially fuck ourselves up.

The girl was putting on a brave face. After a few hours riding I made another point of checking on her, on forcing her to acknowledge me.

“If you need us to go easier we can.” I said. The same line, or similar to what I’d muttered the previous time, or the time before that.

“It’s fine.” She replied. “I wouldn’t want to hold you up Prince Fain.”

I smirked but kept the pace. If she wanted us to slow down, then I was going to make her ask for it now.

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