enter it?”
“To stop you from having to marry the winner, of course.” He raised his hands palm up and the look on his face bespoke truth. “Why else? If you had to marry the winner, then you would be forced to stay here and get married. I can't let that happen.”
“What do you mean, you can't let that happen?” I argued, feeling my famous temper start to rise at his nonchalant attitude. “What gives you the right to decide my future?”
“Everything,” he yelled out. “Because I am tied to you until we reverse this. So right now, your future includes me. I need you free and not tied down to travel and find a way to break this curse. And once the bloodbond is broken, you can then be free to make whatever stupid mistakes you want to with your own life.”
“What if I don't want to help you?” I said in anger, because I hated that he was deciding my future without even asking me. “What if I want to stay and marry and rule my clan?”
“You want to marry the brute that did this to you?” He said in disbelief, pointing to my face.
My chin jutted out in defiance, and without thinking I blurted out, “It's better than the alternative.”
He snickered. “Ha! I'm not that bad. I'm not even going to marry you. So what if I win, I just delay your plan a little bit. You can have another stupid Kragh Aru tournament in a year, after you've helped me.”
That wasn't the point; he didn't understand my feelings of trying to prove to my family that I was strong enough to run the clan by myself. He didn't even ask me why I had entered the competition. I was too tired to fight with him, and I was getting more annoyed with him every minute; plus I was feeling overwhelmed.
“Well, your plan will only work if you win tomorrow,” I said slowly, trying not to betray my feelings in my voice. He looked at my change in mood with confusion and started walking towards me.
He lifted my chin and saw the tears that I wasn’t able to hide from him. Brushing them away with his thumb, I felt a small jolt of electricity at his touch.
“I don’t like to be tied down.” He then copied the same movement that Joss did weeks ago and ran his roughened thumb over my lips. The spark was undeniable, even if it was obviously only one sided. His eyes narrowed and were void of emotion.
“Please…leave,” my voice had become husky with warring emotions.
“And go where? You’ve imprisoned me,” he whispered.
I turned my face away and he dropped his hand as if I had stung him. Kael walked to door and let himself out. The door closed with a soft click.
My legs felt like rubber and I slowly collapsed to the floor in front of the fire. I realized that his stealth abilities would let him sneak by anyone downstairs without being caught. In fact, he probably liked the challenge. Lying with my cheek pressed against the soft rug, my fingers grasped hold of it. I stared at the flickering fire and let the tears flow.
I cried silently for the pain that I had seen in Kael’s eyes at his inability to be free of me, I cried the tears that I knew Kael himself would never shed.
Chapter 13
The scream of a horse woke me a few hours after Kael left. This night was bound and determined to never end. I rolled over on the rug by the fire and noticed that it had died down to a mere burning ember. So if my fire had burned out, why was my room still alit with a glow? Then, the scent of burning hay reached my nose and the sound of another horse screaming made me jump up in panic. Something was on fire.
Quickly donning my clothes, I looked outside and could see flames in the distance through the trees, dancing on the rooftop of Aldo's house and barn. My first concern was my horse.
Faraway?
I'm okay, I'm in the field, he responded. I wanted to be near our new friend.
Breathing a sigh of relief that he was safe, I rushed into the hall and half slid, half fell down the steps and caught myself at the last moment, but not before spraining my ankle.
“Father!” I yelled through the house.
“He's not here,” a soft feminine voice echoed from downstairs. “He's already outside helping the