Oath of the Alpha - Eva Dresden Page 0,12
every mouthful but forcing it down. She needed to figure out a way to get a blade and carry out her plan before they arrived at whatever location they headed toward. Rhyn and Miyenth would not tell her, both making wide-eyed stares at each other when she asked. Aida wasn’t allowed to speak to the other men either, not since she had begun staring. Their twisted faces, marred by thick scars, blackened scabs, and crusted patches, were a horror to behold. The evil visage she’d witnessed by firelight grew no better under the sun’s warm rays. Each one worse than the last, Rhyn had no true explanation for it. Miyenth kept saying it was for their sins but wouldn’t clarify or expand further on it. Much like the land they now traveled through, they were gnarled and twisted, blackened by something otherworldly and ominous. Turned fetid, it was rot acting as if it were still alive.
“I don’t care what you think. You’re not taking her,” Rhyn snapped, stepping into Miyenth. The paleness of his face blotched with red, darkness seeping across his features and twisting them from smiling thief to something dangerous and mean.
“She could tell us what she’s worth, Rhyn.” Miyenth shrugged, calm as could be while the huge leader crowded her toward a stand of gnarled, feeble trees.
“And curse us all while she’s doing it.”
“Pah, she’s not a mage, just a—”
“Do. Not. Say it.” Rhyn heaved a huge breath, scrubbing a palm over his face and up into his hair. Clenching the red-gold locks in a tight fist, he shot Aida a sidelong glance. Features smoothing, he slid from anger to the curiosity that seemed to guide him as often as instinct. Jerking himself out of a considering frown, he turned to Miyenth and gave a firm shake of denial. “No. It’s too dangerous.”
“We only have her word on it. How do we even know it’s true?”
“Your magic doesn’t work on her, so you want to see if… that woman can do something you cannot? Are you even listening to yourself?”
“She’s helped us before.”
“Once, Miyenth. She helped us once, and it cost us dearly.”
“You worry too much, Rhyn. I think she would be more interested in this than in making us pay.”
Rhyn threw up his hands, letting them slap hard against his thighs. Glancing at Aida once more, he chewed at the wiry bristles decorating his lower lip, considering what he seemed so intent to deny. Muttering under his breath, he stalked away, reaching back to snatch Miyenth’s arm at the last moment. Dragging her after him, he moved them far enough away that Aida could no longer hear their intense, hissing whispers.
Now could be her chance to sneak away to where the horses were hobbled and pluck a knife from some random pack. To a man, they bristled with arms of all kinds, and even an arrow would do. Sucking her lips in between her teeth and trying to hide her actions, Aida looked through the tangled mess of her hair to make sure none paid her any attention. Knowing she failed as every man within sight turned, their sullen gazes boring into her, she bowed her head over the shank of meat and the waterskin clutched in her hands. She’d been foolish to think she could sneak through a camp of thieves.
Hands trembling as her stomach lurched, a rush of ice burning through her chest, Aida wondered if she wasn’t being foolish altogether to think she could kill herself, plunging a dagger into her heart. Gasping though her lungs remained frozen, refusing to take in precious sips of air, the bitter welling of emotion slipped over the rim of her lashes. Bleak rivulets, raw and stinging, coursed down her paling cheeks, chilling her to the marrow as she stared unseeing at the smeared blur of the forest floor at her feet.
A hint of cedar teased her senses. Warm and musky, it stung her raw nose all the same. Somehow, she felt the yearning for Er’it’s rough touch even then, knowing he wouldn’t let her do it, understanding he’d kill her in the end as well. Still, she cried into her upturned knees while the memory of his coarse palm slipping down her back peeled away her resolve bit by bit. The fever dream of his lips against hers plunged Aida into an Abyss of her own making. Her despondent thirst to know the world when she had squirmed under Otaso’s rule was as dust to her