Total pages in book: 161
Estimated words: 162269 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 811(@200wpm)___ 649(@250wpm)___ 541(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 162269 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 811(@200wpm)___ 649(@250wpm)___ 541(@300wpm)
“I just need a minute,” she repeated.
“You need to take care,” Brix said low. “Because I’m not going in there worried about you. Are you hearing me?”
Serena straightened her shoulders.
Then she nodded.
Brix looked to Chu. “We’ll go in, see if we can procure some supplies. Rendezvous with Fern’s women. Get some blankets at least. Food. We’ll be back and then we’ll get stuck in.”
Chu nodded.
Brix jerked up his chin to Gal, gave Serena a stern look which stated she was to look after herself, then turned and stomped away.
Gal put his hand on Serena’s shoulder.
She looked to him.
“He’s a horse’s arse, but he’s right,” he said. He turned his attention to Chu. “Take care. We’ll return. If you recover and decide to go in, we all know the checkpoint.”
Chu didn’t nod again.
He went from crouching in front of Serena to twisting to sit his arse beside her.
Gal watched this before he took off after Brix.
“This is not making me happy,” Chu said to her.
“It’s just that I’ve never cast that spell before. I was unprepared for how much energy it took to hold the three of you with me.”
“We need your magic for our disguises, my princess,” he reminded her.
She did need her magic.
They had decided. She would magic him to appear Airenzian—a shift of the eyes, a different cast to his skin—and somewhat the same for her—dark, straight hair, olive skin.
She was already wearing Airenzian garb. It was just, when they were in the city, she wouldn’t wear her weapons as she was then.
She blew out a breath, shook her head sharply and turned to him.
“I have an enormous amount of power inside me, Chu. If we had attempted to make that jump with my normal powers, we would have been lost on the magical plane, I am certain. But in the now, I have more than enough for that with much to spare. It was fine when it was stored untapped. But I tapped it. I simply need to order it and we can proceed.”
He studied her face for a lie.
And when he assessed she wasn’t giving him one, he asked, “Can you walk?”
“Of course, I can bloody walk,” she muttered.
He grinned at her, pushed to his feet and reached a hand down to her. “We are in the open, princess. And exposed. Let us find cover.”
She considered smacking his hand away and taking her feet on her own power, but she decided against that, grasped his hand and allowed him to pull her up.
He did not take her far, in amongst some evergreen trees.
The chill was fierce, and she worried about the smell of the air.
She scented snow.
She knew Chu scented it too, when they made haste and together, they worked, gathering some pine boughs, some fallen branches to use as supports and combing the floor of dead needles, and in no time erected a small shelter of boughs, and under it, a thick blanket of needles to sit upon to protect them from the cold earth.
Serena stood before it as Chu unsheathed his sword, tossed it under the boughs, and settled into it.
She swung his mantle off, stating, “Take your standard.”
“Keep it,” he muttered.
“Chu—”
She said no more as, quick as the strike of a snake, he reached out, clasped her hand and yanked her under the shelter, onto his lap. He then pulled his mantle from her hands, whipped it about them, and cocooned them both in it.
She did not wish this to be a warm and comfortable position.
But she could not deny it was.
“Does this suit, my princess?” he teased.
Instead of deigning to answer, she huffed out a sound and turned her gaze to scan the beyond.
He wrapped his arms and the ends of his mantle around her.
“If you relax, it’ll be more comfortable,” he suggested.
She tried to relax.
She did not succeed.
“Rena,” he murmured. “What’s the matter?”
Ha-Lah said they must learn to talk.
And she was right, they must learn to talk.
Or she must.
Chu seemed to know how.
And now they had nothing to do but sit, stare at nature…
And talk.
“Is it your wish to…?”
She could not finish.
“Is it my wish to…?” he prompted.
She drew in an unsteady breath.
“Serena,” he growled, giving her a squeeze of his arms. “Talk to me.”
She turned to face him.
“Do you wish to marry?”
His head jerked.
She understood that with no words.
And she suddenly needed to get away.
His arms kept her where she was.
“If you do not wish it, I would understand,” she said quickly, again facing the beyond.
“You would understand?”
She did not understand the emphasis.
She also didn’t ask him to explain.
“Yes,” she forced out.
“Rena—”
“I am…we could just—”
“Be quiet, warrior, and look at me.”
Slowly, she turned her head to look at him.
“Do you wish to get married?” he asked.
Absolutely not.
But…
She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth.
“Gods, you do,” he whispered, staring at her mouth.