Page 90 of Vathia
“Anything?” I perk up.
“Not with other males within earshot of your delicious screams,” he finally admits.
With a quick motion I sit up. “What do you mean other males? That’s why you wouldn’t defile me last night?” I pout as he throws his head back and groans. “Lennox and Roz are like brothers. Family.”
“I know, and that’s exactly why. I would fuck you in front of strangers if you asked me to. ’Cause I can kill them after. I can’t kill those two, though. So be patient with me.” He grabs my hand and places it on his cock. “Trust me, I want nothing more than to have your tight cunt squeeze the life out of me, but—and I can’t believe I’m saying this—we need to wait.”
With a dramatic sigh, I roll off of him and walk over to my pack carrying my clothes. “I guess I understand and will respect your wish to wait.” Off comes my tunic. “I respect you so much for not wanting to kill my friends, too.” Off comes my pants.
Jesper curses. “Ravina,” he growls.
I turn towards him completely naked. “Yes?” I smile.
“You’re going to be the death of me.”
Making my eyes wide and doe-like, I gasp. “Whatever do you mean?”
Before he can say another word, I grab my clothes and blink to Aemon’s tent laughing. I can tease, too.
Aemon clears his throat, his eyes dancing with lust and mirth. “What are you doing, Rav?”
“Teasing Jesper for getting me riled up, and then denying me to save my friends.” I quickly get dressed and I barely hold it together as I hear Jesper cursing up a storm on the other side of camp. At least it’s an entertaining start to our day.
***
THE COOL CRISP mountain air smells like the place I once called home. It’s nostalgic but not in a way I miss. Shalo was an awful place to live, and the only good memories I have there are with Aunt Gretchen and finding Nero. But a few other good ones were in these mountains where I taught myself to cook and hunt, to gather and track—where Nero and I could be ourselves for a few hours or sometimes days if I could get away with it.
Killian stays firmly behind me, my silent protector, while Talyn leads and Aemon stays near the back, making sure no one gets left behind. Meanwhile Jesper bounces between everyone making light conversation.
We went over the maps before we left, and it’s supposedly an eight hour trek if we keep pace with minimal breaks. Walking for hours is nothing for me now, in fact it almost seems peaceful.
“Can we stop for a quick water break?” Mel asks from somewhere behind us.
Our line slowly comes to a halt as we all take a few sips. “Are you okay?” I ask her.
She hesitates but nods. “Yeah, I’m just really anxious. We’ve been at this for what, six or seven hours? I thought we should stop before we get there.”
Talyn overhears her. “I was planning to stop us anyway. I don’t want anyone too tired if we need to fight when we get there, but I also don’t want to be caught in these woods after dark.”
“Neither do I,” Killian adds. “I saw basilisk and goblin tracks about an hour back. I’d rather get there, grab the stone and blink back.”
“Ugh, remind me again why we can’t blink there?” Mel asks before she chugs back some more water.
“We can only blink to places we’ve been before. It’s kind of hard to adequately visualize a place otherwise,” I tell her.
“We should get moving,” Talyn states as his gaze roams the foliage around us.
I place my water container back in the pouch around my waist and we are off again. The later it gets, the more noises we hear in the distance. Some of the sounds are raising the hair along my skin. It’s not until we hear something that sounds like a bunch of foliage breaking heading right toward us that everyone flies into action.
“Weapons out!” Killian bellows, staying at my back. Ever since that night we spent cuddled together in the library, something between us has shifted. Now he’s always with me in my waking hours, always within eyesight.
He places his hand on my shoulder and peers down at me. “Stay by my side, Little Warrior,” he grumbles, not looking away until I nod my promise.
The next thing I know, tiny boil-covered beings rush out at us. Goblins. Their fingers are long and sharp as knives, and their teeth are just as razor-sharp. Mel curses as their stench finally reaches us.
Ember’s magick pulses around us, so similar to Killian’s, as she wields her blades, cutting through them with ease.
I reach for my magick, using the vines to trip or string them up out of the way so I can cut them down. There’s easily fifty of them and it’s pure chaos. Tiny monsters of terror and bloodshed. From what I remember learning about them at Phixmery, they have no empathy. Destruction is all they know and they’re very defensive of their territory, which we must have walked into. Which means that Lord Craven’s safe house is right in the center of goblin grounds.
