CHAPTER TWELVE

W e left in a hurry. I glanced back for only a moment to see Horus standing where we left him, the distance between us quickly growing. His good eye was locked on Elias in a glare.

I was simultaneously shocked and thankful that Horus let us leave, although I wondered if two days would be ample time to get far enough ahead. I had the feeling if Horus caught us again, he would not let us go if he could help it. But then again, Elias bested him in battle, or at least would have if not for Horus’s devious final blow with the sword that struck me instead.

Elias and I walked for over an hour without speaking, our hiking pace brisker than it had ever been.

Always . The word replayed in my mind again and again. I thought back to the events of the last few days. The river, saving Nadia, journeying to Chatus, then Horus finding me. What did Elias mean by always ? That he’d always protect me? Or had I misheard him entirely?

As my mind raced, I paid little attention to my surroundings. I slightly nudged a tree with my wounded arm, and a sharp pain pulsated through my injury. I winced and pressed my other hand over the wrapped wound.

Elias whirled around so quickly, it took me by surprise. Had I made that loud of a noise from the pain?

“Are you okay?” he asked.

I eyed him curiously. “Yes, I just bumped it. I wasn’t paying attention.”

“Do you want me to look at it again?”

My brow rose. “Are you a healer?”

“No,” he answered shortly.

“Then why do you care so much?” It wasn’t even a rhetorical question, but a genuine one.

Elias met my fiery stare, and held it for a moment. “Because I don’t want you slowing us down,” he scowled.

I suddenly felt a little hurt, but not because of my injury. A tinge of grief hit me that I could not explain. Maybe I did mishear the “always” after all. But his response was so callous and out of nowhere, I began to wonder if I had done something wrong. Maybe he was mad about how I dragged him into Chatus only for him to be right about it being a terrible idea.

A sudden anger filtered through me at the unwarranted harshness of his words. “The only one slowing us down right now is you,” I huffed as I pushed past him with my uninjured arm.

We continued walking, neither of us saying another word. I felt like the tension could have been cut with a butter knife, but Elias seemed unfazed. I ignored it, and we continued on until dusk began to settle. As we started to make our camp, a roar of thunder was heard in the distance. Elias and I looked up at the same time, our view of the sky blocked by the trees.

“Damn,” Elias said, the first word spoken in hours. “I guess our luck with the weather was bound to run out sooner or later.”

I didn’t want to respond, as I was still upset and hurt. But I couldn’t ignore him forever. “Will the trees block the rain?” I asked.

“Maybe a little,” he answered, still looking at the canopy above us. “But not enough to keep us dry throughout the night.”

“The storm could just be passing through,” I suggested. “Maybe it won’t last long.”

Elias shook his head. “We shouldn’t risk it. We’ll have to find shelter, or make our own.”

I thought for a moment. “If we make shelter, we’ll be easier to track. And seeing as my father’s guards may be heading in this direction in only a few days, I’d like to avoid that.”

Elias turned to me and nodded in agreement. “There is a cliff range a few miles east of here. We may find something there.”

“A few miles?” I retorted. I looked back up at the canopy of trees, the sunlight that barely filtered through was dimming quickly, likely due to storm clouds rolling in. “Won’t it be dark soon?”

“Yes,” said Elias. “Which is why we should hurry.”

We picked up our things and I followed Elias through the heavy forest, the light growing dimmer with each minute that passed. Before I knew it, we were walking in near total darkness, the thunder growing louder as the storm rolled closer.

Brief flickers of lightning were the only thing illuminating our path. I don’t know how Elias could see where he was going between flashes. But I stayed so close behind him that he could probably feel my breath on his back. When the rain finally hit us, we had been hiking for half an hour. Just as Elias predicted, the treetops barely stopped the flood of rain that poured from overhead .

We kept going, the soil beneath us getting muddier as the downpour continued. Eventually we hit rocky terrain, and Elias led me uphill. Soaking wet and unable to see, I found myself constantly slipping on the slick rocks beneath my boots. More than once, Elias had to catch me before I fell. “We’re almost there,” he spoke loudly over the roaring rain.

He was right. Within a few minutes, the slippery upward hike switched to downhill, and Elias quickly found a spot underneath a large protruding rock. I was relieved to feel dry ground once more. The rain poured so viciously that a small waterfall cascaded from the edge of the large rock, but the area underneath was far enough back that we had room to stay hidden and dry.

I plopped down onto the dry dirt – tired, hungry, and drenched from head to toe. In my exhaustion, I couldn’t help from laughing. I felt Elias stir next to me. “What’s so funny?” he asked. It was a little easier to hear him now that the heavy rain wasn’t pounding against my ears.

“I will never take sunny weather for granted again,” I answered. I pulled my hair to the side and began squeezing the rainwater from its strands, ignoring the pain in my arm.

I swore I heard a chuckle come from Elias, but it was too dark to see his expression. “I’ll start a fire so we can get warm,” he said. I doubted he was even cold, as I could feel the heat radiating from him without even touching him.

It took him a moment, as there were no dry twigs or leaves anywhere near us. Luckily, he had a small amount of kindling in his pack that somehow managed to stay dry. I peeked into my own pack to make sure the book wasn’t damaged from the rain-soaked bag. It appeared to be fine.

As the first flames began to flicker, I looked around at our little enclosure. It was quite small, hardly big enough to accommodate the two of us lying down, as well as the fire. But it would have to do.

We sat next to each other, and I welcomed the heat from the flames with delight. I held my hands up towards the fire, and let out a deep sigh as the warmth tickled my palms. Elias watched in slight amusement.

I looked up at him, the fire’s flames dancing in his golden eyes. “What?” I asked. “I’m never taking a warm fire for granted again either.”

Elias let out a laugh and I couldn’t help but smile. He watched the corners of my mouth turn up, then he raised a brow.

“I like hearing you laugh,” I admitted. “It seems so rare. And it gives me a sense of…normalcy.”

Elias frowned. “What do you mean?” he asked.

I let out a breath through my nose. “It’s just…” I paused, trying to form the right words. “This journey has already proven quite difficult. It’s nice to have little moments where we can just laugh. Instead of, you know, fearing for our lives.”

Elias gave a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. I was about to ask what he was thinking when a loud crack of thunder boomed overhead. I jumped at the unexpected sound, and unintentionally grabbed Elias’s hand as a reflex. The unexplainable energy that ignited between our touch was a thousand times more pleasurable than the heat from the fire.

Elias looked down at our hands, then back up at me. I forced myself to pull my hand away, my cheeks filling with color. I only hoped the darkness prevented my complexion from being noticeable.

I cleared my throat. “I’m tired,” I said, stifling my embarrassment. “But I can take first watch if you want.”

“No one will be coming for us in this storm,” Elias noted. “We can both catch up on sleep tonight.”

I thought about that, then nodded. I turned back and reobserved the little space we had under the overhanging rock. I laid down on my side, with my back turned to Elias. I tucked my knees towards my chest to make myself smaller so Elias’s huge frame could be accommodated in the little space we had. “Goodnight,” I told him.

“Goodnight, Princess,” he replied, and I felt him lie down next to me. A few inches of space separated us, yet I could still feel his presence against my back.

I fell asleep fairly quickly, but the pleasure of rest did not last long. I woke five or six times within the first hour. Each moment I opened my eyes, the fire grew smaller. My wet clothes still clung to my skin, and I found myself shivering. Then suddenly, a warmth radiated through me as a strong arm reached around my waist, and my back pressed into a firm body.

The warmth immediately soothed my trembling body, and I finally fell into a deep, restful sleep. Dreams began dancing behind my closed eyes.

I dreamt of Magda and Gabriel embracing one another. They looked into each other’s eyes in silent conversation, the two of them moving in slow motion while the world spun around them at high speed. They then kissed long and passionately. Then the dream repeated, only this time the pair was replaced with myself and Elias.

My eyes shot open, but I didn’t dare move. It was a dream. Kissing Elias wasn’t real. But instead of waking up feeling relieved that it was only a dream, I felt…disappointed.

The heat coming from behind me was heavenly. It took me a moment in my sleepy state to realize its source. I felt the slow, even breaths of Elias as his chest moved against my upper back. He was definitely asleep. At what point in the night did he start holding me like this? Was it intentional, or did he do it in his sleep, forced by the small proximity to each other?

I managed to slowly angle my body towards him, careful not to wake him. A lock of his dark hair stuck to his forehead, still damp from the rain. I slowly reached up to brush it out of the way, unsure why I wanted to get a clear look at his face.

Then I watched him. I watched his chest move with his breaths. I watched the corner of his mouth slightly twitch as he slept. I noted the strong jawline under his stubble. Noted the small dimple that formed on his cheek when his jaw clenched. Noted the way his dark hair had more of a wave to it when it was wet. Noted that he smelled like pine and sandalwood and rain in all the best ways.

I observed him for a long moment before realizing what was even happening…

I was falling for him.