27. Ash

CHAPTER 27

Ash

Lunch was the same as breakfast. Sawyer’s red hair made my heart leap and my thoughts jerk back to Red and it took everything I had just to stay focused on my fucking job.

The boy kept his head up while in line, the men around him gave him dark looks, and he grabbed some food from the kitchen then promptly left, not bothering to stay and eat in the great hall, while Mikel solidified his plan for getting Sawyer into the stream to ensure he finished the run last.

Of course, Mikel’s plan hinged on Sawyer and everyone else not telling Rider what happened, but I was pretty sure Mikel had already figured out no one, including Sawyer, would say anything. The boy would take whatever the other men dished out without complaint just like he was taking everything else, and Mikel was smart enough to realize that.

Then the fourth bell rang, and my schedule finally gave me something that might burn away my aching need for Red.

I practically leaped from the table to put my dirty dishes in the bin at the back of the great hall, and Mikel flashed me a wicked grin, mistaking my eagerness to run for an eagerness to put Sawyer in his place.

“You ready?” Mikel asked us as we jogged out of the castle to the practice grounds, his voice pitched so that only the four of us could hear him.

Bramwell grunted and Durand gave a tight nod.

All in all, the plan was simple. It wasn’t a tactical masterpiece, but it would work. Simple meant there were less things to go wrong. Bramwell was to run behind Sawyer, while Durand and I were to get in the boy’s way just before the log bridge so Bramwell could bump him in. Mikel and Hamelin were to wait on the other side of the stream just in case Sawyer managed to get past us.

With luck, the boy would be in the water before he fully realized what had happened, and Mikel and his friends would feel satisfied that they were teaching him a lesson.

Without a doubt there would be other lessons, but if they all stayed at this level, no one’s life would be in danger and the men would eventually be satisfied that Sawyer had paid for his mistake.

We reached the large stones marking the beginning of the running trail where the other novices, including Sawyer, waited. Once again, just catching a glimpse of his hair made my pulse leap and the memory of Red gasping with pleasure flooded me.

Fuck. I gritted my teeth. Concentrate on the job. Stop thinking of her. Just Goddess damn stop thinking of her!

Rider stood just to the side of the stones with the two bags of rocks at his feet. With a grunt, he crossed his arms and swept his gaze over us. His stance, not to mention his dark glare, made him look even more imposing and commanding, and while I was sure the others thought he was still pissed off from yesterday’s disrespect by Mikel and Durand, I could tell that the night of hunting had actually eased some of the tension from his body. Not all, but at least he wasn’t on the verge of shifting and ripping out someone’s throat.

Then Talon and Quill came out the pasture gate, drawing Rider’s attention and Sawyer’s. The boy jerked his gaze to his feet then up to the stone as if he remembered he didn’t want to look down, then shifted from one foot to the other clearly uncomfortable.

As Talon got closer, Sawyer grew tenser, his gaze locked on the mouth of the running trail, but I couldn’t tell if his reaction was because Talon’s allure was still affecting him or if he didn’t know how to react to Talon in the face of what had happened.

And while it should have been the latter because his shadow had fed deeply from Sawyer, his allure had still affected Red last night despite them not making eye contact.

Of course, Red’s marks were brimming with power and that could have attracted the shadow’s attention. We’d learned a few years ago with Ember that even if the shadow’s hunger was satiated a strong sexual desire could reignite a glimmer of its hunger.

Perhaps Ember, with her need to find the rest of her mates, along with Red’s overwhelming desire, had been enough to partially reawaken it.

My cock stirred at the thought.

Shit.

Shit shit shit. Focus, damn it.

It didn’t matter what had happened last night. That shouldn’t have affected the shadow’s allure this afternoon. Given how much Quill said Talon had consumed from the boy, he shouldn’t have been radiating any allure for the rest of the rotation.

Unless, of course, like Talon suspected, there was something unusual about Sawyer Herstind.

“Once around the trail,” Rider barked, not waiting for Talon and Quill to reach us, his wolf deepening his voice as he watched Sawyer get more and more uncomfortable. “Last one runs again at the end of training with the bag of rocks.”

Tyon, the chef’s assistant who’d been the slowest last time, sighed, knowing Mikel and Durand weren’t going to be dumb enough to talk back to Rider and save him from the extra round this time.

Boy, was he going to be pleasantly surprised to find out he wasn’t last and Sawyer really was behind him this time.

The group took off down the trail with most of the fae novices leading the pack, their naturally-faster-than-human speed and their longer legs making it easy for them to run past most of the humans.

Sawyer, having learned from the previous few times where we’d bumped and tripped him at the beginning of the trail, let all but the slowest novices run ahead of him, forcing Bramwell to stop out of sight of Rider and pretend to retie his boots so the boy would pass him.

It was a risk putting Bramwell behind him, since Sawyer was normally faster than him and he might fall too far behind, but Sawyer would suspect something was up if it was anyone else. Mikel guessed that Sawyer would pace himself to keep his distance ahead of Bramwell, not letting him catch up, but not put on any extra speed to catch up to us, and he was right.

The boy was still out of sight behind us when Durand and I ran around the sharp turn in the path and into the clearing. Ahead lay the log spanning the waist-deep stream with tall, sheer banks on either side.

This part of the trail tested balance or teamwork depending on if you could make it across the log or not. For the fae and those of us who were almost as tall as the fae, a good jump from the river and we could grab the ledge and haul ourselves up, but for everyone else — unless they were expert climbers and could find foot and handholds in the almost sheer rockface — they’d need help climbing up.

Mikel and Hamelin had already crossed the log — and given that they were dry, they’d managed to keep their balance or straddled the log to make their way across. Behind us, the last two fae novices rounded the bend and gave us strange looks as we let them cross.

They had to know something was up and would likely figure out what when Sawyer ran into the practice area last, dripping wet, but I doubted they’d say anything to Rider. Getting wet and running the course again was nothing compared to the punishment most of the Guardsmen thought Sawyer deserved.

Then Sawyer strode into sight as if he’d already figured out he was walking into a trap. The thought sent a flicker of pride swelling through me. He was smart and observant and if novice training didn’t break him, he was a possible candidate for my Shadow Guard.

Of course, that all depended on if he could handle spying on and assassinating the enemies of the Realms. Not everyone had the stomach for the kind of duties I required of my men, no matter how noble the cause, and most of the Guardsmen didn’t have the wit, perception, or forethought to survive.

“So this is the plan,” he said, his gaze darting over us, his expression wary.

Mikel pointed to the stream. “You get in or we throw you in.”

Sawyer’s gaze flickered to the steep bank at Mikel’s feet then to the log. He knew the bank was too tall and he also knew that the odds were slim that anyone behind us would offer him a hand out. He also knew even if he made it across the log, he would be in for one hell of a fight against Mikel and Hamelin. So what would he choose?

A part of me wanted to see him fight, just to see how far he could get. He was out-numbered and far too small to take even two of us in a fight, but he was quick. If he got past Mikel and Hamelin, he might make it to the end of the trail before we caught him.

But before he could make his decision, Bramwell raced around the corner behind him. He saw Sawyer standing half between him and the edge of the stream and he put on a burst of speed and rushed at the boy.

Sawyer side-stepped out of the way at the last second, the movement fluid, almost fae-like, and gave the bigger man a shove that wouldn’t have done much of anything if Bramwell had been standing still.

But the push, along with his momentum, sent Bramwell staggering forward and he tumbled over the edge before he could stop himself.

“Big mistake, runt,” Durand snapped and he lunged for Sawyer.

Sawyer darted out of the way and dashed toward the log bridge. Durand was almost as fast as he was but bigger and stronger and if Durand caught him the fight would be over.

I really wanted to let him go, see if he could actually make it across the log without falling, but that would piss off Mikel and I couldn’t afford to be ousted from the group, so I jumped in Sawyer’s way, cutting him off from the bridge.

With a yell, Duran dove for him and he tried to doge Durand’s grasp but wasn’t fast enough. Durand seized the back of his jerkin, yanked him off his feet, and slammed him onto the ground.

Sawyer hit hard, his breath exploded from his body and his face tightened in pain, but he fought through it instead of drawing in on himself like he had during the sparring session with Rider and attempted to twist and punch his way out of Durand’s grip.

His knuckles skimmed Durand’s chin, drawing a snarl and a retaliatory punch that landed solidly on the boy’s cheek, and his head jerked to the side.

Durand followed with another powerful punch into the boy’s chest. Sawyer gasped, fighting to catch his breath as Durand hauled him to the bank and jumped in, taking the boy with him.

“Learn your lesson,” he snarled, shoving Sawyer’s head under the water.

Sawyer flailed and heaved against Durand’s grip but couldn’t break free. Durand yanked him up, letting him gasp in a partial breath then shoved his head back under.

“Learn your fucking lesson.”

Another wrench up, another gasping breath, and the boy’s head was back under water.

Fuck. It didn’t look like Durand was going to stop, and from the looks of everyone else, no one was going to speak up and stop him.

“Durand, enough,” I yelled.

“You’re not better than me,” Durand sneered at Sawyer even though he couldn’t hear him. “You’re not better than any of us.”

“Durand.” I jumped into the stream, the cold water instantly soaking my pants all the way up to my hips. I yanked Sawyer out of Durand’s grip and shoved Durand back. He lost his balance and fell, slipping under the water and coming up sputtering, his eyes filled with deadly rage.

“Kill him and the Lord Commander will kill you,” I snapped at him as Sawyer gasped and trembled in my grip, reminding me of another redhead’s trembling and gasping. Fuck. Focus. “You saw his claws yesterday. He’s a fucking animal.”

“He’s right,” Mikel said, crouching on the bank and offering Durand a hand up. “Don’t waste your life on the runt.”

“I’m dead anyway if I have to depend on him to watch my back,” Durand snarled.

Mikel glanced at Sawyer, who wrenched out of my grip and staggered back. He still gasped for breath, and hurt and fear filled his eyes.

For a moment I was overwhelmed with the sense to protect him, just like I’d been overwhelmed to protect Red when Wells and Crane had stepped into the courtyard. She’d been terrified of them — still was — and now Sawyer was terrified of us. The look twisted in my chest. I needed to protect her— him, damn it. Him .

Fuck. I wanted to protect both of them.

Neither of them deserved to be afraid, and while I could tell Rider what happened to Sawyer, I really couldn’t afford to lose Mikel’s trust. Now more than ever I needed to stay close to him so I could at the very least control the damage from the next attack, since Durand seemed intent on killing him and Mikel intent on letting it happen.

This was one of the parts of my job that I hated. I was going to stand back and watch while these men beat up a boy and not do anything about it unless it looked like they were actually going to kill him or he was going to give up and kill himself.

Then the fear in Sawyer’s eyes hardened into determination edged with anger and he turned away and sloshed upstream through the waist-high water — that was almost chest-high on the boy — in search of a way out.

My fear for him shifted into a strange mix of relief and pride. I didn’t think the boy would try to pay Mikel back for what just happened, but he wasn’t going to lie down and take whatever was thrown at him next. He was going to make the bastards work for it.

“Do you think he’s going to tell the Lord Commander?” Bramwell asked as he grabbed the top of the bank and hauled himself out. The big man almost looked sorry for what had happened, while Hamelin, standing beside him, looked downright concerned.

“He won’t,” Mikel said with a satisfied smirk as he watched Sawyer half walk half swim around a bend in the stream and disappear from sight. “He knows it’ll be worse if he goes crying to Rider and then it won’t just be us reminding him of his place. It’ll be everyone.”

I nodded my agreement and forced a smirk, but I hated that Mikel was right.

Sawyer was smart enough to know going to Rider for help right now would only make his situation worse with the other men. Reporting on one attack that ended up with him wet and running the course again would make him look weak and spoiled, and Sawyer was smart enough to realize looking weak or spoiled wouldn’t help him here.

That, and the boy was too stubborn for his own good. From what Quill had told me about how he’d tried to run the trail even after Talon’s shadow had attacked him, I doubted Sawyer would ask for help even if Durand had beaten him unconscious.

Which meant I couldn’t afford to be distracted. One slip up and the boy could be seriously hurt or killed. I had to stop thinking about Red. Sawyer’s life depended on it.