Page 40 of Prince of Blaze and Embers
“What were you in Bramblebash, Ash?” His words made every last ounce of pride in me fly away like birds before an incoming hurricane. “Tell me what you were.”
“A slave.” My shoulders hung like a wet blanket had been thrown over them.
“And what are you now?” As he asked that, I not only felt scolded but humiliated. His words squashed me back to my reality.
“Your slave.”
“Good. Maybe you should start acting like one then and less like you have any say in these matters. All your questions are wearing on my last bit of patience, and while we’re here squabbling, I could better be spending my time trying to find a place tokeep you alive while I figure out our next move. Now do me a favor and get into the house so I don’t have to look at you and answer any more of your questions.”
His gaze locked onto mine as I fought the tears back. I didn’t want to give him that. I didn’t want to give him the pleasure. Part of me wanted to argue—to tell him how I felt, and how I thought he felt. But the rational side of me knew what he said was true.
I was his slave, and slaves do what their masters say.
This dream of me being with him was all a fantasy.
The kiss was real, but that’s all there was, and all there’d ever be.
I was a fool for falling for him.
His handsome looks had surely plucked at many girls’ heartstrings. I was just his newest victim.
I spun, and Bella walked me back to the house.
The only tears that came were after the door was locked behind us, and I let my back rest against it before I slid down and cried into my knees while she held me.
CHAPTER 18
My arms and shoulders burned like magma formed in my muscles.
“Digging is so much harder than it sounded,” I huffed, taking a break and crossing my arms atop the handle of the shovel.
“Stop yer whining.” Bella thrust the blade of her shovel into the forest dirt, heaving it out of the freshly dug hole that was eight feet long and almost four feet deep. “We’re almost done. I am going to chug an entire glass of wine when we’re done with this.”
The sunlight sparkled through the trees like ice crystals. A summer breeze wove through the trees of the Faewood as I stomped on the shovel, throwing a load of rocky dirt out of the hole. “We’re going to race with that first one, and I’m gonna leave you eating my dust.”
“You’re on.”
“That’s got to be deep enough.” I wiped the dripping sweat from my brow with the back of my arm.
“Yeah,” Bella agreed. “We’re gonna lose the daylight soon. That’ll be good enough.”
The plan was simple, well, simpler than the actual ‘digging thehole’ part. The dragons would incinerate the bodies of the ones that attacked me, but the armor and weapons needed to be buried… hence the giant hole in the ground.
The men had already removed all the armor from Rone and his ogre and had piled high the swords and spears the monstrous Sythers had.
After climbing out of the hole, we tossed it all in. It clacked and banged as it all landed on top of the last heap. Rone’s whip was the last to get thrown in, and I spit onto it for good measure.
As we began shoveling the dirt back onto the pile of weapons, the thought of going back to the house sent a sadness sinking in my heart. I didn’t want to go back to see him. I knew there was good in him. I knew he wanted me, but the way he talked to me in front of the others—it was nothing like the way he spoke to me when we kissed—but perhaps that was the way he played girls like me.
I’m so stupid. So, so stupid.
He’s a handsome fucking prince, and I’m… I know what I am; nothing.
“Stop thinking about him.” Bella’s words cut through the clear doubt that had deep roots growing in my brain.
“How’d you know?” She always could tell, not sure why I doubted that.
“Because you get all gloomy and stop talking. Stop worrying about him. We’ve got more important things to worry about than that devilishly handsome ass.” She sent me a sly wink, tossing another heap of dirt into the hole.
