Page 187 of The Eye of the Fifth
Now was not the time to ask.
‘Do it quickly,’ he said.
Disgust tainted her soft features as she wrenched her hand from her nose and mouth and hoisted herself into the cart. Through the cracksin the wood, her smooth golden-brown skin became visible as she stripped herself bare. Gedeon averted his gaze to the sky above.
A minute later she reappeared, dressed head to toe in a dead slave’s beige apparel. It hung from her figure like a sack. The rags were fairly clean, with no signs of blood or death, save the smell. Gedeon whipped his magic through the material, cleansing the stink.
Kyra breathed. ‘Thank fuck. I thought I was going to throw up.’
Gedeon almost grinned at the remark. A tongue as vulgar and wild as hers would be condemned in his mother’s court. Profanities were untoward, a language for commoners. Though, as brothers did, he and Sekun had flung their fair share of obscene words at one another growing up.
Rarely in jest.
‘Take your hair down,’ Gedeon ordered Kyra. She glared at him. Mother above, she was stubborn. He added, ‘To cover your ears. The slaves are human.’
With a quick hand, she loosed the strand of leather that bound her hair in a swirling nest atop her head. It tumbled about her shoulders with no pattern, the curls falling this way and that, like the roots of a tree twisting to find rich ground.
There was beauty in this female. Such raw beauty.
She flung the ribbon into the cart.
‘Well. You look the part,’ he said, looking her up and down. ‘Can you play the part?’
‘I suppose this will be the performance of my life.’
‘It will need to be. Ensure they do not see your ears. Do not let them cut you, or they will see you heal too fast. Don’t talk, or they will hear your voice is not of this land. Run slow. If they fight you, fight back like a laboured, human slave. If your movements are too quick or too strong, they will suspect. I will be right behind you.’
‘And if they go for the kill?’ she demanded. ‘Then we’re fucked.’
Judging by the pile of dead in front of them, the slaver’s took no issue with killing their rebelling subservients. But Gedeon was sure he knew what words to say to keep their blades from drawing blood. Hehad told her this already. Patiently, he reminded her, ‘This will not work if you do not trust me.’
‘Are you honestly surprised that I might not?’
Gedeon arched a brow. He hadn’t considered that her mistrust of him came from doubting his integrity as an ally. ‘You think I'm duplicitous.’
‘Who’s to say you only agreed to this mission to deliver me to the Empress yourself? Surely there’ll be an abundance of forgiveness and glory awaiting you if you did.’
‘Do you doubt your own instinct, Kyra?’ Gedeon replied. ‘Search yourself for the answer to your question. Let me know what you come up with. I’d be intrigued to know what you truly think of me.’
‘Oh, trust me, you don’t want to know.’
Gedeon looked at her then, but her hard gaze was on the horizon, set with a cold, simmering anger. It was difficult to imagine she had ever felt called to save his life.
‘Shall I tell you what I think of you first?’ Gedeon offered.
‘Let me guess,’ she said with heavy sarcasm, then began reeling adjectives from her fingers. ‘I’m a reckless, impulsive, stupid, powerless brat who doesn’t think-’
‘Yes,’ he agreed. ‘But you are also so much more than those things.’
She shot him half a glance. ‘You don’t know me very well.’
‘I know you well enough to know that there is power in you that even you don’t see. And I’m not talking about magic. I’m not talking about being a Warden.’ Soft surprise flitted over her face. ‘All of those things you mentioned, they are surface level. But beyond them, at your core, there’s something stronger that drives you… andthat’syour power. It led you to free your brother. It led you here. And I believe it will lead you to be a great Earth Warden. If only you get out of your own way.’
Gedeon brushed dirt from the front of his jacket, then looked up to find her staring at him. He smiled. ‘Now, would you like to tell me what you think of me? I swear to only be a little offended.’
The corners of her mouth tilted up. ‘I do doubt my own instinct, you know.’
‘Why’s that?’
