The Wind's Call (The Broken Lands #4) - T.A. White Page 0,165

every couple of years.”

“And how will they get home, my love?” Fallon asked in an amused tone. “I doubt many will be able to traverse these lands to reach their destination.”

Shea waved a negligent hand. “That’s for someone else to figure out. You know as well as I do that Eva and Caden are right. This can’t continue. Eventually their attitudes will become a rot that infects others.”

Fallon’s lips quirked, the only sign of amusement in an otherwise austere expression.

His attention locked on Eva. “Very well, your reservations are noted, herd mistress.”

Eva sucked in a breath, feeling like she’d tangled with a swarm of red backs and barely come out alive.

“I’m told this throwaway Kent’s actions contributed to saving you and ensuring the capture and death of the other traitors,” Fallon said, not giving her time to feel relief at coming out of this conversation with all her limbs attached. “I will reward him with a place in the Western Wind Division. Be warned, we will be watching him carefully. If I suspect he intends to betray us again, I will not be so kind a second time.”

Eva nodded. A chance was all Kent needed. If he could prove himself, she had a feeling he would be an asset to the Trateri.

Fallon gestured to the door with his chin. “Now, I'd like some time with my family.”

It was a dismissal and Eva slipped out of the room with a last searching look at Caden. She would have liked to explain her decision before she announced it. Perhaps it was better this way. A clean break and all that.

Too bad her heart didn’t agree.

*

“Fox? Where are you, fox?” Eva made a tsking sound, futilely trying to call the fire fox to her. The creature still didn’t have a name. Mostly because she didn’t want to get in the habit of calling him one thing only to have him tell her his real name later.

Unfortunately, that meant she was stuck calling him fox until he decided to speak to her.

She’d spent the last half hour since her meeting with the quartermaster about the necessary supplies for her trip to the herd lands looking for the mythological.

Eva didn’t want to leave him here even if he was used to wandering off. This wasn’t the wilds. These weren’t the Trateri he was used to. The people inhabiting the Keep might mistake him for a threat. She didn’t want something to happen to them or him because of a simple misunderstanding.

Eva rounded the corner, glimpsing the open door that led to one of the Keeps’ balustrades, stone walkways the pathfinders used as a position from which to shoot their enemies from above, in the event of an attack.

She ground to a halt when she caught sight of Caden’s familiar back.

She fidgeted, finally sticking her hands in her pockets as she hesitated, the urge to call out to him strong. She stayed silent, not knowing what to say. They’d shared so much over the journey, but in reality, they’d known each other such a short time.

Despite that, it felt like she knew him more intimately, both physically and emotionally, than she did any other. This chasm between them hurt. It felt unbridgeable.

Not knowing how to approach him, Eva took a step toward the hall, careful to move quietly.

“I hadn’t taken you for someone who ran,” Caden said from where he slouched against the wall.

Eva stopped and let out a heavy sigh, her shoulders straightened. They were going to do this after all. “I’m not running.”

“Is that why you’re trying to sneak off without speaking to me?”

He didn’t sound upset as he tilted his head back to take in the sun. She caught the barest glimpse of a half-smile there.

Maybe he wasn’t as torn up about her decision to leave for an as yet undetermined length of time, as she thought.

There was a rustle and then a red-gold head popped into view. The fox hopped onto the stone railing next to Caden, plopping down beside the commander as his tails wrapped around his feet.

Noticing where her attention had gone, Caden said, “He found me a little while ago.”

The fox panted happily, his mouth opening in a playful smile. Why did Eva get the feeling he’d orchestrated this entire meeting?

“I looked into your past,” Caden said.

Eva halted, her head tilting as she blinked at him. “I had assumed as much.”

He took Fallon’s safety very seriously. As soon as Eva had become someone of interest, Caden would have turned