The Rising (The Rising #4) - Kristen Ashley Page 0,32
fullness of her glare.
She also did not have the patience for it.
She thus walked around her and resumed her path to her tent.
A tent Gal and Brix were now standing outside, also watching her.
Goddess, she hoped they were too far away to hear that gnat comment.
But seeing them, knowing why they stood where they stood, their gazes upon her, she thought it was funny that she knew them such a short time, but she felt their strength at her back far more thoroughly than she’d ever felt Heloise’s or Genia’s.
Or Darma’s.
And she’d been to battle with them so many times, she’d lost count.
By the goddess, she’d been a fool.
It was with blatant design that Chu had positioned himself as such that he was not only close enough to watch her work at the pyre, but she’d have to walk by him on her way to the tent.
This she did not looking at him.
Even so, this did not deter Chu speaking.
“That was well said.”
She ignored that and continued walking.
She also shot a look to Gal and Brix that shared without words she was in no mood for the mood she saw on both of their faces before she slapped the flaps back on her tent and entered it.
Gal and Brix, as they were wont to do, ignored her mood and charged in behind her.
“We must speak,” Gal stated.
“We must not,” she replied, throwing herself down on her pallet and casting her mind about for something to do, anything that would make her appear busy enough they’d leave her be.
She should be meditating before the ceremony.
One look at her friends and she knew there was fat chance of that happening.
“He’s pining for you,” Brix began, darting his arm out behind him to the tent flaps, finger pointed, indicating Chu, “in direct vicinity to you.”
“And?” she asked.
Brix’s brows shot up before they darted together.
“We must hear this story of what happened between you and him,” Gal declared.
“We need hear no story,” Brix put in. “He’s a Trusted. Trusted are trusted. He wears the green and red against the black on his mantle. He has Mars’s ear.” He tossed his hand to indicate Serena. “And he fights gallantly at her side not only for this righteous mission, but in protection of her person, and she walks by him without looking at him?”
“Maybe he hurt her,” Gal returned to Brix.
Brix made a chuffing noise, but then his eyes shot to Serena.
“You are strong,” he said.
“Even a strong woman can be hurt by a man,” Gal declared. “For the Green Man’s sake, Brix. Hurt comes in a variety of forms. And the worst of it is the kind that does not leave a bruise that can be seen.”
Brix’s eyes, still on her, went squinty as he demanded, “Did he hurt you?”
“Brix—”
She got no more out.
He made his own (correct) assumptions, thus turned on his boot as if to march out, she knew, to confront Chu.
Bloody hell.
Except he did not get to do such.
The tent flaps slapped aside and instead they were all confronted with…
Chu.
She cast her gaze to the ceiling of the tent, praying, Goddess, deliver me.
Chu’s deep voice sounding brought her attention back to the tent.
“I would have words with Serena.”
“And I would have Sinchella, the fairest maid of The Doors, take my cock,” Brix retorted. “But she prefers gnomes with a great deal more coin than I have, so there’s little chance of that. As there’s less chance of you speaking to Serena if she does not wish to be spoken to.”
It was at that, Serena was again surprised at her reaction for she not only wished greatly to burst out laughing, she wished even more to rise, walk the four feet of the tent to Brix, and give him a hug.
“Serena,” Chu called.
“We have said all there is to say,” she reminded him.
“And that says all that needs to be said in the now before you leave,” Gal added, speaking to Chu.
“Little mouse,” he murmured, eyes glued to Serena.
It was the wrong thing to do.
Gal’s silent anger filled the tent.
Brix’s filled it with words.
“Never pick a fight with a gnome, Trusted,” he spat. “We have a direct line to your balls, so we do not consider it a low blow.”
“Calm,” Chu growled. “It is my pet name for her.”
“She is no mouse,” Brix retorted.
“She’s my mouse,” Chu returned.
“That’s absurd,” Brix shot back. “Think of another pet name. Like firebrand.”