Den of Blades and Briars: A dark fairy tale romance (The Broken Kingdoms Book 7)

She returned before dawn. A pause was all she granted me, checking if I slept, no doubt, before Saga hurried to the back of our damp cave.

I cracked one eye, watching, studying, seething.

She was bleeding naked. Dark enough I couldn’t make out the lovely details, but the gleam of flesh and curves was enough to tighten in the pit of my stomach.

Like the Borough, when she’d stripped the ridiculous gown, and wrapped up in a gaudy fur coat. She held her mud-soaked tunic close to her face as if inspecting the threads.

Tonight’s dream was a vivid recollection of my second sister’s death, and had stirred me from sleep only to find Saga missing. Her clothes were draped near a boulder, her footsteps led into the trees. When I searched and came up with nothing, I returned to wait her out. There were no other footprints but hers, so I was confident she hadn’t been snatched from me. Besides, if some slave trader had stepped into our camp, I would not still be breathing.

She’d slipped me on purpose. So, on purpose, I made certain the storm soaked her clothes a little more.

“Dammit.” She cursed and tossed the garment to the side, covering her face with her hands.

She spun around, glancing my direction again. I froze, praying my eyes were hooded enough she wouldn’t realize I was watching her every move through a narrow slit. Saga scratched her head with one hand, the other tapped the side of her thigh. Her next move was diving into my travel satchel and removing my spare tunic.

It was one used for winter with coarse fur lined on the inside, but our height difference was enough the top would meet her mid-thigh.

Pity.

“Ari,” she whispered.

I didn’t move.

She let out a long sigh, waiting, then whispered my name again. I was intrigued, and frankly, furious.

She’d stepped outside more than four clock tolls ago. I’d heard her walking away. When I’d gone to follow, she’d disappeared.

Now, to return naked, wet, and clearly on edge, the only thing I could figure is she’d been conversing with someone in the trees. Or bedding them.

No mistake, one way or the other, Saga had gone to fetch Rune or Bo. I’d been played for a fool, and there was little more I hated than giving my pathetic heart the freedom to lead my actions.

I couldn’t lie to myself about Saga. Since she was bound to my household, by the hells, even worse since we’d been on the run, my heart had grown an unnerving desire for the woman.

I knew it was better to keep my heart out of every choice, every interaction.

Few had forced their way inside. Two kings, two queens, a few thieves. I’d never denied I loved them, but it was not in the way my heart wanted to take this . . . creature. Why did she captivate me to such disgusting lengths?

She fought me. Mocked me. She held little respect for my position, my name, my history. But somewhere buried beneath scabrous, scorched pieces of my heart, an ember burned in some misguided attraction for my unwilling serf.

I was the fool, but I would not be any longer.

I had few doubts Saga had betrayed me tonight. She’d pay. It would take some thought on how, but she would. Soon.

“I never thought I’d say it,” Saga said through a sigh. “But you’re oddly quiet, and I’m unnerved by it. The quiet feels rather empty.”

I grunted, a hundred words dancing over my tongue, and cut back a dead branch from an old, haunted-looking oak jutting out of the side of the earthy wall. Saga tilted her head, waiting for more, then gave up on me and slid down a large boulder on the bottom of the ravine.

We’d chosen to take the lowland routes to avoid being seen. Ravine paths were rocky, uneven, and unpleasant to travel. It would be a surprise to see another breathing soul until we reached the border of the Bridge Isles.

If we made it that far. I still hadn’t decided how I’d torture Saga, but if my silence aggravated her, for now, that would do.

“Look,” she said, exasperated, and picked up her step to catch up with my stride. “I told you, the moment we reach the inlet, I’ll find a place to wash my clothes and you may take yours back.”

I grunted again, but managed to steal a glance at my clothes on her body. I didn’t want to like it, but it was too enjoyable the way my top hung two sizes too big on her frame, or the way she’d rolled up the hem of the trousers and poked two new holes in the leather belt around the waist.

Saga had made certain to lace the tunic at the neck as high as possible. She traipsed naked in the trees but couldn’t bother to show her throat.

“Do you want to fish yet?” she asked.

“Not particularly.”

“I’m hungry.”

“How wonderous for you.”

“You’re not?”

“Not particularly.” I took a wide step to outpace her. My longer legs were built for this sort of land, and a grin carved over my mouth when Saga cursed the gods again as she stumbled.

“You have moods that snap the neck,” she muttered. “What is it you need, Ambassador? Something sweet to brighten your spirits? Wine to numb the brain? Should I remove your clothes since you’re so offended I’ve donned them and walk with all my parts showing?”

“The last bit, I could offer up my full support,” I said, turning around to walk backward.

Saga glared at me. I couldn’t figure if she was angry at my comment or that I was still managing to walk better backward than she was facing forward.

“What has your tongue?” she asked plainly.

“You.” I stopped walking. We were close enough Saga came to a stop a hairsbreadth from my chest. I narrowed my eyes. “When we reach the bridge, I will use illusions as a mask.”

She nodded. “I assumed you would.”

“I will use illusions for me.” There it was. The way her eyes widened with a bit of fear, I could gladly push until she broke. True, I was a fool, but she was a traitor. Maybe Saga was right, I did want to be liked. How pathetic. No longer. I forced a cruel smirk and gripped her jaw. “From here on out, you’re on your own, sweet menace.”

“What are you talking about?”

The tremble beneath her rough voice did nothing. It didn’t matter. I refused to let it.

I released her face and started walking away.

“Ari.” Saga quickened her pace. “Ari, what are you talking about? I cannot be away from you.”

“That is your problem, I suppose. For I can be away from you.”

“No—”

“Watch me!” I shouted over my shoulder. “There is no part of me that will not enjoy cutting you out of my existence.”

Saga’s eyes filled with a bit of fear, and she recoiled, almost like I might strike her.

“Why would you do this?” she muttered, daring to look as though I caused her pain.

After the way she lied, doubtless daily to my face, it was rather bold of her to look like the victim here.

“I have come to the conclusion there is no use for you,” I said. “You eat my food, steal my clothes, betray me. Why would I waste energy shielding you? We are at an end. I would rather endure an annoying scratch from a fae bond spell, than spend another day with you.”

“Betray you? How?” Her mouth set in a firm line. She took an assertive step against me. “Tell me what crime I’ve committed against you.”

“You must think I’m a damn fool,” I grumbled. “You may think I’m brainless, you may think because I talk a great deal that I have nothing of substance. But may I remind you, I have survived numerous wars, led rebellions, and I did not do any of it without finding who I could not trust along the way.”

I lowered my lips against her ear, taking a bit of power from the way her body stiffened. “You betrayed me last night. There is no need to sneak out to wash, as you put it. Then to say you forgot your clothes. A ridiculous lie.”

“Perhaps there are things about being female I do not need a male to see.” She shoved me back.

“I’m accustomed to females, having grown up with three sisters,” I said before I could stop myself. By the hells, why did I speak of them? As if I blamed Saga for the slip, I schooled my expression into something vile, something hard. “It is not your time.”

“Oh? Have you checked? Certainly, a man would know better than me.”

I pulled her against me, fingers in her hair, wrenching her head back. I leaned my face against the crook of her neck and inhaled. I closed my eyes as if I were drinking her in. “I smell nothing. Perhaps a few lies.”

“Get off me. You can’t smell it.” She pushed against my chest, but I held tighter. “I didn’t betray you, Ari.”

“You’re hiding something.”

“The way you are?” Her eyes were a storm of ash when she looked at me. Furious and frightening. “Tell me what you dream about every bleeding night, Ambassador.”

For a moment, words died on my tongue.

Saga chuckled. “I have secrets, true. Secrets I do not trust anyone to know. But until you tell me what secrets you keep, I’ll keep mine. It does not mean I betrayed you.”

I was in no mood to be reasonable. But when there was nothing I could offer up as unbreakable proof, I clenched my jaw shut, released her, and stormed away again. She’d left for more than secrets. I kept looking over my bleeding shoulder waiting for the Borough guards to arrive.

“Ari, you are being a petulant child.” Funny how she called me a child yet released her own shriek of frustration at my stubbornness. “I understand why you are hesitant to trust me, but we’ve walked half the morning, and no one has come for us. I did not, ahh—”

Saga cried out, and it was unfortunate that I had a sliver of care left to turn around. Seated on a patch of stones, she inspected a tear in the knee of my trousers and a bright splotch of new blood on her skin.

“I am truly beginning to think no one taught you to walk.” I said the words but had already made the move to go to her side. I crouched next to her, inspecting the wound. With a sigh, I held out one hand to heave her back to her feet. “Unfortunately, you’ll live.”

“Do try to hide your enthusiasm,” she snapped. “You’re embarrassing yourself.”

Against all my good judgment, a laugh crawled from the depths of my throat. “Well spoken, sweet menace. You did not even need to think before the barbed words flew.”

The corner of Saga’s mouth curled into something more or less like a grin until she met my gaze. For a moment we simply stared at each other, challenging, perhaps trying to trust.

It would not last.

A twig snapped above us on the ledge of the ravine, followed by the scrape of heavy boots. Saga might think me a fool and a feckless man who spoke too much, but I was a warrior in blood. No time was wasted before my seax was in one hand, a knife in the other, and my eyes trained on the ledge above us.

From the trees, half a dozen hooded men emerged.

Saga jolted to her feet, and ripped a stolen tavern knife from her boot. I hadn’t even known she’d taken one.

“Northern Ambassador,” one man said roughly and slightly muffled beneath the mask on his face. With a slow tug, he pulled the slip of fabric down. Teeth dug into his bottom lip like short fangs, and his eyes were a deep sunset yellow.

A blood fae watcher.

“Come to drink our souls, blood fae?”

He grinned. “Ah, yes. I’ve heard you have prejudice against sluagh folk.”

“Stay back,” I warned.

“No.”

“Ari.” Saga tapped my arm and pointed behind us.

A curse slipped under my breath. Another half dozen blood fae stood on the edge of the ravine.

“As I said, sweet menace,” I whispered. “I’m afraid we’ve met the end.”

“We were on our way to meet your blood lord. As friends,” Saga shouted at the blood fae.

“We are aware.”

“Then why have you come with weapons drawn?” Saga asked. “What is it you want?”

“Seems a pointless question,” I muttered. “I find it quite obvious as to what they want.”

“Blood fae warriors appreciate directness.” She smacked my chest with the back of her hand and took the lead position. “Stay your flowery words, Ambassador, and speak plainly so we might live.”

“This is as plain as I can get: I am going to distract them with fury. It will give us time enough to disappear.”

Saga nodded in agreement, neither of us pausing to notice I’d included her in my escape plan after spending so much breath threatening to leave her behind.

I lifted my hands, but the blood fae simply laughed. “I would not do that, Ambassador. You’re coming with us.”

“Not the way you want us. We were coming under good faith, and—”

Before I finished, a bright spark of pain bit into my leg. Buried deep into my thigh was a barb with bone beads hanging from leather strips on one end.

I stumbled to my knees.

Saga cried out, a barb in her shoulder. She started to fall forward, aimed at the jagged stone that had cut her leg. I managed to block her fall with my arm, but in the next heartbeat, my head fell back, my eyes fluttered closed, and everything fell into black.