allowing her to see his blazing eyes.
“Ah, Loch.” Finn grinned as he turned to the other man. “Meet our newest Gelsi escapee, Breanne of Tarth.”
Lochlan’s dark eyes met hers. “If this is Breanne of Tarth, then I’m Jon Snow.”
Brea’s jaw fell open. “How… what… I mean, what?”
Lochlan’s jaw twitched, but he didn’t explain how he knew about a human TV series. Instead, he turned to Finn. “This is her.” He turned on his heel and marched away.
Brea scrambled from the bed, but Finn blocked her path, his face red with embarrassment. “You fooled me, Brea Robinson, but it is a pleasure to meet the woman who can vex the unshakeable Lochlan O’Shea.”
“Yeah, yeah.” She shoved him out of the way. “You can thank me for my service later. I need to talk to him.”
Darting out into the rain, she caught sight of Lochlan’s retreating back and ran toward him. “You can’t just walk away from me.”
He whirled to face her. “I can do whatever I please. I am the ranking officer here. These men follow my orders. I would appreciate if you no longer ran from them.”
“I make no promises.”
He approached her with the eyes of a predator, dark and dangerous. Griff hadn’t had a lot of the traits of the fae from stories she’d seen. He was beautiful, sure, but also smiley and seemingly kind. Lochlan on the other hand fit everything from human fiction novels. Cunning. Cruel.
Achingly attractive.
“How do you know about Game of Thrones?” she asked.
Lochlan shook his head in exasperation and gripped her arm, pulling her into a nearby tent. “It’s a deluge out there.”
“I noticed.” She crossed her arms over her soaking shirt. “Are you going to answer my question?”
“No.” He stepped around her and stripped the blanket from his bed. Holding it out to her, he met her gaze. “Wrap this around your body so you don’t catch a chill.”
“I’m fine.”
Lochlan’s scowl deepened. “Do you know how much risk you took tonight? We are in the middle of the Vatlands. Traveling at night is nearly impossible because of the mud pits that only get deeper and deeper. They’ve claimed many lives. You could have died.”
“But I didn’t.”
“Because of my men.”
He was right. She’d made a rash decision trying to escape and almost paid for it with her life. “I’m sorry.”
His expression softened for a beat before hardening into another scowl. “You are not to do it again. Since you so gratefully destroyed the tent we gave you, you will sleep in here tonight where I can keep an eye on you.”
“How will you keep an eye on me if you need to sleep? I could slit your throat with my knife.” She wouldn’t, but she could.
“What knife?”
She pulled the blade free and held it up.
Lochlan reached her in a flash, knocking the blade from her hand and retrieving it off the ground. “Not anymore.”
“Hey,” she protested. “That’s mine.”
“Let me be clear, Lady Robinson. I do not trust you. I have instructed my men not to trust you. We will deliver you to the palace unharmed, but should you try to injure any of them again, you will arrive tied to the back of my saddle. Do you understand?”
Her eyes narrowed. “The palace? Which palace?” He was a prince of Iskalt but a delegate of Eldur. She wasn’t sure which realm she feared more.
“Eldur.”
“With the dragons?”
He turned to the door. “Don’t worry, Lady Robinson. The dragons don’t eat things that smell like you.”
She would have sworn there was laughter in his voice as he sauntered from the tent.
She sniffed the shirt she wore and grimaced. Neeve’s smelly stuff had mostly worn off, leaving behind a faint rancid scent mixed with the smell of travel.
She just hoped Lochlan was right about the dragons.
“How long was I out?” Brea asked Finn as he sat in front of her, taking the first watch. He’d brought with him a canteen of water, stale bread, and dried meat. It wasn’t the gourmet meals she’d grown used to in Gelsi, but as hungry as she was, it tasted like five-star cuisine.
Finn sipped water from a tin cup, studying her over the rim. Finally, he lowered it and wiped his mouth. “Two days.”
Her eyes widened. So, they definitely knew she was missing from Gelsi by now. Had Griff returned and found her gone? Were Neeve and Moira okay?
“You should get some sleep.” Finn used his knife to slice through the bread and popped a piece in his mouth.
“Apparently, I’ve been sleeping for