Page 45 of The Legacy of Ophelia
As we said our goodbyes, a heaviness settled on my shoulders, like those clouds lining the skies had crashed to the sand. If Valyrie’s warning was right and we were truly about to face the echoes of ancient wars among gods, would I ever see my friends again? When all was done, if we defeated Echnid, would we all still stand here?
Tolek, Cypherion, and I exchanged a final glance as I walked away. “Keep yourselves safe,” I said, my voice cracking over the emotion I suppressed. “Please.”
“Don’t worry, my lovely Rina,” Tolek said, forcing a bit of his usual humor to the surface and slinging an arm around CK’s shoulder. “I’d be willing to wager every bit of wealth in the Vincienzo accounts that we’ll win this one.”
And everyone knew Tolek Vincienzo never lost a bet.
“You cannot possibly thinkthis is the best way to travel,” Lancaster complained for the tenth time before the sun had even set that evening.
I tightened my hands on the reins, attempting to focus on the dusty horizon and the mountains in the distance. “As I have already said, horses are the fastest means of transportation available to us.”
“And as I have said, you are not truly looking at all of our options.”
“Please, enlighten me then. Because for all your complaining, you have yet to provide an alternative.”
“Because you are too stubborn to listen,” he mumbled.
I refrained from answering to demonstrate my keen listening capabilities.
“We run,” Lancaster said.
I barked a laugh, looking over at him. “Are you serious, or did all of that grumbling you’ve been doing mean you suffered a stroke?”
He didn’t even flinch at the insult. “I am serious.”
“Then I hate to ruin your plans, faerie, but we cannotrunfaster than these horses.”
“I can.”
I scoffed. “You cannot outrun a horse.”
“Have you ever seen the fae? Outside of that battle in the mountains, when we were surrounded by such potent sources of Angel power suppressing us, have you truly seen my kind?”
Aside from him, Mora, and those in Ritalia’s court, no. He took my silence as the truth.
“Running would be faster,” he repeated as if he’d won.
For him, perhaps. But I, a mere human, snapped, “I regret to remind you thatIam not in fact fae.”
“I promise,” Lancaster said, voice low enough that I looked at him. His eyes dragged up my body, from the warrior boots laced at my ankles up my leather-clad legs and the knives at my waist. Landed on the ones whittled from a cypher. “I know precisely what you are.”
I gulped past the hatred deepening those words. “Then we cannot run.”
Lancaster sighed, mumbling to himselfagain, and stopped his horse. Swinging down in an impossibly smooth dismount, he stalked to my mare.
“What are you doing?” I flinched toward my cypher dagger.
“Relax, Bounty.” He lifted his hands but seemed to think better of it and dropped them to his sides. “I am going to carry you.”
I laughed, nudging my mare into motion. “No, you’re not.”
Lancaster strode alongside us, not faltering. “Yes, I am. We are in somewhat of a hurry, are we not?”
“You can’t run all that way.”
“Trust me, Bounty, stamina is not a problem for me.”
I didn’t allow myself to think too deeply on that statement or consider why my skin flushed at the low tone of his voice. “We told the camps it may be weeks before we arrive, depending on travel conditions,” I said, refusing to look at him.
