Page 192 of The Call of Crimson
I grab all the sugar cookies in front of him. “And I’m taking all of these. You don’t deserve them.”
Ayden stares at his diminished pile of sweets and frowns. “Very well,” he sighs.
I fall back into my chair, shoving a cookie into my mouth. “You seem more upset I took your cookies than you were over being punched.”
“I really like sugar cookies,” he grumbles.
“I could punch you again, if you prefer,” Aurelius offers, and I snicker.
“No, no, I’m okay,” Ayden says, throwing up his arms placatingly. “She can have whatever cookies she wants from me.”
“Deal the next hand,” I demand as I lick the sugar crystals off my fingers in an exaggerated motion meant to taunt him.
Ayden deals the cards, doing his best to ignore my childish behavior. “At least you only have one illusion left to identify,” he says casually.
“What have you identified so far?” Aurelius asks.
“When I had him arrested in Rimor, he wasn’t actually in the room. We arrested an illusion as he watched from elsewhere,” I explain.
Aurelius contemplates the answer a moment before saying, “The forest on the way to Prudia.”
“Come again?” I ask.
“Think, Princess. What did you see that no one else did?” Aurelius asks, and Ayden stiffens. He’s onto something.
I think back to our time in the woods, fighting a blush at the thought of what we did there while Ayden watched. What had I seen that led me there?
“Lord Craylor,” I realize. “He was never really there, was he?”
“Lord Craylor was gone long before we left for Prudia, love,” Ayden confirms. “I needed to see what you’d do when confronted with your mother’s murderer.”
“If I ever see him again, I’ll slit his damn throat,” I growl.
Aurelius slides me a chocolate cupcake and pats my hand gently in reassurance. He pulls his hand back when the queen shoots him a seething glare. I bite off a piece of cupcake and look at my cards. I will not let this information ruin our solstice celebration, even if I have to eat all my cookies by the end of the game.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
OPHELIA
It takes us two days to reach Caedel, or what remains of it. The city had been the first attacked and evacuated by Jade. What was once our most prominent border town is now smoking rubble.
To avoid being seen, we fall into a strange rhythm. Cillian’s gift grants us the unique ability to move undetected by day, but since we’re in the part of the year with the least amount of sunlight, we opt to sleep during the brightest part of the day. Cillian covers Elijah and me while we rest, and we keep watch over him in the early morning hours before the sun has risen.
Snow falls on our second day, getting heavier as we near the border of Prudia. Thankfully, the mercenary garb is outfitted for any weather condition. The cloaks provide plenty of protection against the biting cold, but I can’t shake the dampness that clings to my bones.
We’re all running on fumes by the time we reach the empty city walls. There’s been no attacks, but we all feel it. It’s the sense of anticipation, of someone watching our every move.
The streets are littered with debris, some buildings even still smoking. Occasionally, we pass the fallen soldier, but what’s worse is when we pass the bodies of innocent civilians. I shoot up a prayer to the gods for all those that we pass along the way. It’s wrong to leave their bodies in the street, and something aches deep inside of me for their souls.
“They should have been burned,” I say solemnly.
“There wasn’t time,” Elijah explains. “Jade couldn’t even afford the time to burn her fallen with the effort it took to evacuate the city.”
His words don’t make me feel any better. They don’t assuage the wrongness I feel at seeing the dead neglected so carelessly.
The setting sun casts an amber hue over the city, turning the freshly fallen snow to a golden shade that almost seems beautiful. Eventually, we find a moderately intact inn.
“We’ll stay here for the night,” Cillian declares.
