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“Some of us had good intentions once,” he murmurs, finally letting go of me. “Come, I’ll give you a quick tour of the village before the hour grows too late.”
“I can go by myself.”
“You could,” he agrees. “You won’t.”
He holds out a hand for mine, and I cross my arms over my chest. “Walking won’t kill you, you know.”
He shakes his head with a dry chuckle, curling his hand into a fist and dropping it to his side.
“As you wish,” he replies, gesturing ahead of us to the door.
The walk into Videva is shorter than I expected and altogether a mistake since I can’t stop myself from noticing how tightly the leather of his breeches stretches over his muscular thighs or how well-fitted his tunic is across his broad shoulders. I should have let him shift us.
I know he’s powerful, strong. You’d expect nothing less from a god. But I also know the feel of those arms around me and the effortless way he pinned my body to that tree. I wish I didn’t. Or at the very least, I wish I could stop thinking about it.
The road widens when buildings come into view, lining either side of the packed earth. The people wandering from shop to shop stop when they notice us, dropping into deep curtsies or bows as Thieran passes.
I expect a healthy dose of fear on their faces. But like Corinne, I see only reverence and surprise, and I wonder how often Thieran actually visits his subjects.
“They respect you,” I say, stepping out of the way of a soul carrying a large basket on her hip.
“They’re simply stuck with me, that’s all. An unavoidable consequence of being dead.”
“Most people are stuck where they find themselves through no fault of their own. They live their entire lives where they’re born, having children who will do the same and continue the cycle. It doesn’t mean they don’t create happiness for themselves.”
“You didn’t.”
“Create happiness for myself?”
He shakes his head, stopping beside me when I pause to study a display of dried herbs hanging from the eaves of a squat, wide building.
“You didn’t live your entire life where you were born.”
My mother’s kind face swims across my vision, then my uncle’s cruel one, and I hug myself tightly. “Some circumstances are beyond our control.”
He doesn’t comment, leaving me to the silence and following me to the next shop that catches my eye.
We spend nearly an hour wandering up and down the streets of Videva, with Thieran pointing different places out to me or people stopping us to offer gifts. It all feels very normal, like any large village in Acaria, and I have to remind myself I'm trapped here against my will.
I decide not to gather any of the things on my list for my shielding ritual, instead making a note in my head of all the shops that have what I need. Thieran’s presence is slowing me down. I could have half of what I require by the time we’re finished and heading back to the barn, but instead I have nothing.
I should have insisted on going by myself. The sooner I get out of here, the better, and the potion I need for the shielding ritual has to cure for a fortnight before it’s of any use to me. I can’t afford to lose more time than I already have to my research.
Turning toward the farmhouse, I expect Thieran to head back to the palace and do whatever he does in his free time. But instead he follows me through the gate and around the back to the barn.
My irritation grows when he leans a shoulder against the stall and watches me. I need some peace from his presence and his scent and everything being so near him makes me think.
“Do you plan on following me around for the rest of my life?” I snap.
A slow grin splits his face. He’s amused. The bastard.
“Would you like me to?”
“No,” I say through gritted teeth. “I would prefer to never see you again.”
He steps closer, wrapping a loose strand of my hair around his finger. “We both know that’s not true.”
Slapping his hand away, I drill my finger into his chest. “You are the most arrogant, self-absorbed man I’ve ever met. You think you can—”
