Page 42 of Ember and Eclipse
Something unspoken rested between his words.You are safe.
Slumber blessedly took her before she thought much of it.
Chapter XXIV
“We’llneedtomakecamp farther from the road and with no fire. It will be a game of dodging the Monsos from here until we get to Romulan territory.”
Devdan sometimes spoke to her like he hadn’t hunted her down to drag her back to Romul. Like they were just on some merry trip together. Rel opened her mouth to say as such and then thought better of it. Instead, she said, “I didn’t think they usually came so far down from the mountains. We’re still a couple of days from Heigar’s Pass.”
At this, Devdan hummed behind her thoughtfully. “I didn’t think they’d be this far out, but it’s been a problem in the last few months, thanks to Romul’s advance into the mountains.”
“But I thought Imperator Othonos had no desire to fight against the Monsos. I remember him distinctly saying there was nothing south of Romul worth taking. ”
The hunter dismounted and offered to help her. She denied him, slowly pulling her leg across and sliding down.
He led Friend away from the road, and she followed after him, waiting for his explanation. Had so much changed since she’d been gone? Imperator Othonos was greedy when it came to land and power, but he also had paid the price of spreading himself too thin, thousands slaughtered in ill-prepared for battles. She remembered many dinners where he spoke about nothing being south as if Romul was the center of the world.
When Devdan had picked their location, a patch of dry grass with craggy stones at their back that blocked some of the harsh winds, he prepared Friend for the evening.
Rolling her eyes at the fact that he was ignoring her question, she found a flattened boulder to sit on.
When she was settled, she looked back up to find Devdan staring at her. It was something in the way that he was standing and how he almost seemed uncertain when he was the most self-assured person she’d ever met.
“What is it?”
“ImperatorRalenOthonos may not have had any interest in conquering the entirety of Heigar’s Pass and going into coven territory, but Imperator Asear Othonos is not his father.”
She froze as an icy finger of dread ran down her spine. “Asear is dead. I killed him that night.”
Devdan’s voice was carefully devoid of emotion. “No, you didn’t. Burned him badly, yes, but he’s not dead. He’s the one who pulled me from farther north and ordered the hunt for you.”
The world shattered into a thousand pieces, and her vision couldn’t keep up, fracturing into piercing white and the darkest of black.
“He’s dead.” She exhaled sharply, her lungs feeling like the gods themselves were squeezing them. “I saw him,” she gasped.
Rel didn’t realize she was standing until a hand wrapped around her arm. She tried to pull away.“Don’t.”
She could hear the rumble of Devdan’s voice, but she couldn’t decipher what he was saying. Asear wasalive. He sent the witch hunters after her. And he would be the one who punished her for the crime.
The world around her turned back on suddenly.
“You knew,” she seethed as her panic transmuted into blind fury. “You knew I thought he was dead.”
Devdan nodded, but his face held no smug look of satisfaction.
She shoved him, wanting him to react. His foot only slid back half a step. She wanted him tofeelall her anger, and she didn’t know how to express it other than through violence.
“And you were going to take me back without telling me.” Her fist connected with his ribs, and then her other did until she was pummeling him. The strikes hit his chest, his stomach, his sides. Hard hits that echoed in the outcrop.
He let out a couple of soft grunts and tensed his muscles against her onslaught but otherwise made no move to stop her.
“Fight back,” she ground out, but as she raised her hands to pound them against his chest again, he caught her forearms. She was left with heaving breaths, and the fabric of his tunic twisted in her fists.
“I can’t go back,” she said, looking up at the hunter who was far too close.
He opened his mouth to speak but closed it a moment later.
“Let me go, Devdan.”
