Page 44 of A Lie so Pretty and Poisonous

His eyes widened and flashed like a storm. “For. What?” he growled and lowered his face closer to mine.

I mocked a laugh and placed my hands on my hips. “Typical man. Can’t thank a woman for coming to their aid when they were clearly in over their head.” I looked him up and down and took a step toward him. “Get your ego in check! Or is it because I am human that you don’t see my worth?”

I shouldn’t have felt such satisfaction from the look on his face when I didn’t cower to his intimidation. We stared into each other’s eyes, neither wanting to be the first to break, tempers warring.

Darragh’s energy shifted. His eyes softened, his tense body slackened. “My lady, I apologize. My anger should not have been directed toward you. You’re right. Thank you for helping me. Had you not, I don’t know what would have happened. I let my emotions linger from taking out those three seraphs after you fled.”

I sucked in a soft breath and blinked. I was not expecting that. I had anticipated arguing and yelling at each other for a few more rounds. I had never once had a man genuinely apologize to me. Or thank me. Never in the same breath. Is this a trick?

Several breaths of silence passed. The words had tipped out of my brain.

Darragh inclined his head. “I am sorry for my temper, my lady.”

I swallowed and nodded. “Rory,” I whispered. “I—It’s alright. Emotions are high. I understand.”

He took a hesitant step toward me. “I should have asked before. Are you injured?”

“I’m fine.”

A twig snapped, and I jumped. Darragh took another step toward me, his hand on a dagger at his hip. He looked down at me. “Let’s get back to the horses and make camp. We are too exposed out here for my liking.”

“We are staying out here tonight?” Being away from Cora and her not knowing where I was would cause her to panic. It was causing me to panic.

“I wish we didn’t have to. It will take hours to get out of the forest, then several hours to ride to the castle. It will be pitch black soon, and it is dangerous, not only for the horses to navigate the terrain, but for us. Militia members often move at night.” He scanned the forest.

“But…Cora. She will undoubtedly worry that I abandoned her. Won’t the royals worry about what happened to us?”

“To you, yes.” His phrasing made my heart clench. “You needn’t worry, my lady. I will send Stolas with word of what happened to one of my lieutenants, and he will cover for both of us.”

“Stolas?”

“My raven. Now, let’s move quickly to the horses so I can secure us a place to rest for the night and get a message to the castle.”

Maybe he would rest all night, but I certainly wouldn’t be able to. Not only had I just begun to process everything that happened, but now, I had to stay all night in the forest filled with dryads, militia, and a six-foot-five-inch moody wall of muscle. Little sleep would be had.

It was hard to distinguish the actual hour in the density of the forest, but night was certainly coating us. Sticking close to Darragh’s barely visible, shadowy form was the only way I was able to navigate the terrain without running face-first into a tree or falling into a gully. How he was able to move so quickly and with such confidence in inky blackness was astonishing. Seraphs, I said to myself with an internal eye roll. The Divine really left humans to traverse through life with no advantages.

It took Darragh a much shorter time to find the horses than it took me to find Darragh. He was only a couple of miles away, but in my wanderings, I looped around and backtracked, and by the grace of Clotha, somehow stumbled upon him.

Astorath was agitated when we approached, knocking his big head into Darragh in a manner that said, “Where were you, idiot?” Darragh put his forehead to Astorath’s and stroked his head. Celeste had wandered out of their little rock enclosure and was munching on some grass. She was not going to wait and see what happened to get her dinner. Understandable.

We decided to make camp where we originally left from, positioning us between the two craggy rocks and giving us some semblance of shelter. It wasn’t perfect, but Darragh said it had a good vantage point to spot anyone who might walk up to us, and it was enclosed in the back.

I wanted to hold it together, but the later it got, the more I was convinced Cora was in hysterics that I wasn’t back at the castle. Shifting awkwardly on my feet, I watched Darragh unhitch Astorath’s and Celeste’s saddles. I wrung my fingers and fidgeted with my hair. By the time he lit a tiny fire, I was pacing and chewing on my fingernails.

Darragh eyed me. “Is something wrong?”

“I worry about Cora.”

He shook his head. “I’ll call for Stolas. That should have been the first thing I did upon arriving.” He stuck his index and little fingers into his mouth and whistled twice. A moment passed before a large, shadowy form dove from a tree top and landed on Astorath’s saddle. Darragh stroked the feathery chest of the bird as Stolas cocked his head, assessing me with wise eyes.

Darragh scribbled a few words on a torn piece of parchment, tightly rolled it, and tied it to the thin leather strap that wound around Stolas’ leg. “Take this to Lieutenant Osman. Quickly.”

“Thank you!” I addressed Stolas. His assessing eyes blinked at me, and then he shot up to the blackened treetops out of sight.

“I don’t have much food, but would you like to share the bread and cheese I have, my lady?”

“Rory,” I reminded. “I am a little hungry.”