Fear of Fire and Shadow (The Fade #1) - Samantha Young Page 0,51

on haven were they grinning about?

Then it dawned on me.

I flushed in mortification. “You’re not really going to sell him, are you?”

Kir huffed in indignation. “Of course not. I’m going to let them think I am. They’re sending a messenger to Pharya to have someone come and collect Wolfe. That someone should be here in a few days. For now, I want you to rest up for the night, have some food. And then tomorrow when I come to get you, we’re going to pretend Wolfe blasted me with his powers and you escaped, when really I’ll be letting you out the back door where I’ll have a couple of horses waiting.”

I impulsively threw my arms around him, drawing him in for a hug. Kir laughed and held me tight against him. “Thank you,” I whispered.

“Worth it just for the hug.”

Later, after I’d bathed and both Wolfe and I were fed, Kir apologized before leaving and locking us in the bedroom. Wolfe had claimed the armchair, so I lay down on the bed, thinking about Kir, about Wolfe, and about the horseshoe brand marring Wolfe’s body.

“I was surprised at your vehement refusal to let Kir sell me to the markiz,” Wolfe remarked. “I thought you wanted me dead.”

“I thought you wanted me dead,” I replied honestly, turning to look at him. His handsome face was a mask of complete shock.

Shock that soon gave way to fury.

“What do you mean, you thought I wanted you dead?”

Was he really so surprised I’d think that?

I’d had his father killed.

I was so weary of a sudden. I didn’t want to be locked in a room with a man I realized I didn’t know at all. I wanted wildflowers and summers by the stream. I wanted tobacco in the air and lemonade on the tongue.

Why would Kir protect Wolfe? Why would Wolfe protect me?

Fighting tears, I turned my back to him. “Never mind,” I finally answered. “I’m just starting to realize I don’t know you at all.”

“Yes, you do,” came his hoarse response. “You just hate that I’m not what you need me to be.”

Trying desperately to ignore that enigmatic comment, I slammed my eyes shut … and dreamed of my little brother’s laughter.

Chapter 16

The mattress on Kir’s bed was lumpy and uncomfortable so I tried to blame my lack of sleep on it and not on my hyperawareness of Wolfe.

I kept seeing that brand on his stomach, the pain in his eyes when he caught me looking at it, the secrets and friendship I knew he shared with Kir. There was something I was missing.

I’d assumed that because I’d wanted revenge on the man who destroyed my family that Wolfe would want it too. But maybe Wolfe wasn’t built like me. Maybe I was wrong and Haydyn had been right all along.

My guilt was compounded by Wolfe’s tossing and turning. The need to offer him comfort came over me, and I curled my hands into fists to stop myself reaching for him. When at last his breathing evened out, the tension drained from my weary body and I relaxed into the mattress beneath me. With his fall into slumber, I finally found my own.

Too quickly, I was awoken by someone shaking my shoulder. Forgetting where I was, I assumed in my semiconscious state that Haydyn had come into my bedroom with some delicious secret. Last time she’d awoken me this early, it was to tell me she’d lost her virginity to Matai.

“What now?” I mumbled. “You with child?”

“What? Rogan, wake up,” an irritated voice snapped.

Wolfe.

I shot up on the bed and cracked my head off his. “Ow.” I winced. Wolfe’s face hovered inches before mine, his pale-blue eyes narrowed in pain. He rubbed his forehead, already swollen in the upper corner from the blow he’d taken yesterday.

“It’s like waking the dead,” he grouched as he retreated across the room.

I rubbed my cheek sleepily and then cried out at the pain that shot up my face. “Wow, that hurts,” I whimpered and watched warily as Wolfe’s face turned black as a thundercloud.

“If I see him again, I’m going to kill him.”

No need to ask who he was talking about. “Does it look awful?”

Wolfe walked over to me and lowered to his haunches so we were at eye level. The air whooshed out of my body as he reached up to touch my bruised cheek, his features etched with concern and some other emotion I couldn’t quite decipher. I had the urge to buss into his