Chapter 45

ChapterForty-Five

The little spirit inside her was working hard. Though there wasn’t as much for her to heal, it continued whispering in her mind, “We need to run! Disappear into the darkness. They’re going to find us, and that’s not the adventure either of us wants.”

No, it most certainly wasn’t. But she also had no intent on running because she knew that if she stayed put, Greed would find her faster.

Besides, there were so many other people who needed their help here, too. The other prisoners needed her help, so the moment she was free, she had to focus on them.

No matter what the Horde planned to do, that would all change once they realized she’d killed their leader. And the timing of that realization would happen more quickly than she wanted.

He’d had guards outside his tent, making sure no one interrupted them, and probably looking out for Greed. Unfortunately, that also meant she was privy to all the conversations happening right outside the tent walls.

At first, the words were all pretty easy going. After the lashing she’d given the dead body beside her, they’d snickered about his tastes in bed, and how so many of their own women had tried to go head to head with him and very soon realized they would only fail.

It made her sick to her stomach, wondering what that meant. Was he known for harming women in bed? Was that supposed to be normal for the people here?

And then their conversation had gotten quiet. They were clearly whispering, so they didn’t disturb their leader, where he must have fallen asleep on top of his new toy. But then... then they started to wonder.

“Should we check on him?” one of them muttered, the words sending lightning up her spine.

“He’ll be mad if we walk in there and wake him. And then he’ll probably start the whole process over again. You know how his mind works.”

“Yeah, but what if something happened?”

“That little slip of a woman? She didn’t kill him, that’s for sure. And if she had tried to escape, don’t you think one of us would have seen her? We don’t even have our backs to the tent.” The sound of a smack echoed after that. “Keep your greedy eyes to yourself. He’ll have your head sooner than allow you to see him bare assed.”

So, she had a little more time before they got suspicious again, but not for a very long time. Soon enough, that meddling prat who thought he knew everything would say again that they should check in on the couple who were making no noise.

Should she speak again? She could throw out some “no, please, no” and maybe that would put their mind at ease. But the Horde leader hadn’t been a quiet man. Everything about him was loud, from his footsteps to his voice. And if she was guessing right, he was probably just as loud when he was...

Ugh. Her stomach lurched in her body and bile threatened to spew from her mouth at the very thought. Whatever it was they called it when he brought a woman into his tent, that was a good enough explanation for her rioting mind.

Just a little while longer. She could wait a bit more.

“Why wait?” came the little voice inside her head. “We’re capable of escaping ourselves.”

She didn’t want to point out that the guards admitted to staring directly at the tent. No matter where or what she did, they’d see her move. And if the tent was even so much as lifted on any of the walls, they’d know that something was wrong.

Varya knew she had to just sit here. And wait for something to happen.

Whether that was Greed arriving and tearing everyone apart, or them discovering that she’d killed their leader long before he got here. Those were the only options she had.

The shakes started a few hours later. Varya shivered so hard her teeth clacked together. She tried to fold in on herself so she wouldn’t make more noise, but she wasn’t exactly quiet. They would know that at least someone in the tent was awake. They’d come in and...

Rustling came from outside the tent. Not the sound of someone approaching, but of the guards turning.

“Did you hear that?” someone asked on the opposite side of her tent.

“I heard something.”

“I thought the sentries were already at their posts?” The sound of a sword being drawn followed the question. “They were supposed to send out the signal if they saw anyone.”

A third person answered from her right. “Then there must be nothing out there. We’re skittish. It’s not unusual when we all know who’s hunting us. Keep your ears and eyes open.”

“Someone should tell the captain.”

Damn it. One of them was going to walk into the tent and realize that their leader had been dead for a very long time. And unfortunately, that meant she had only a few minutes to scramble beside the tent flap and clutch the knife close to her chest. Varya would murder them if she had to. She could do it. She’d killed before and would likely have to do it again, even if it made her want to scratch out her own eyes.

The tent flap lifted. A guard stuck his head into the space and before he could so much as open their eyes wider at the scene laid out before them, she palmed the back of his neck and threw him onto the sand.

He shouted in anger, and that’s when the entire world seemed to explode around her. The guards swarmed, all of them slicing through the tent with their blades, and there was nowhere for her to go.

So instead of running, she grabbed onto the unfortunate guard who had volunteered to look, and used him as a human shield. He spluttered in terror, his shouts slowly degrading into nothing as the swords and knives sliced through him.

He fell onto the sand, right on top of her. Varya grunted, but that worked in her favor as well. Though the knives and swords were no longer right around her, she might need to use his body as a shield for a little while longer. She wrapped an arm around his waist and held him in place, ignoring the wince of pain from across her forearm.

Had she gotten cut? Maybe. And then the knives descended lower.

Unfortunately, they also cut into their Horde leader a few times. But maybe since he wasn’t shouting, they thought he had left? She had no idea what was going through their head.

Until the knives stopped and she heard the growl that rumbled across the desert like thunder. And then she realized why they had been cutting so quickly and frantically.

They were afraid.

They were terrified because what stood on the other side of the tent was likely more threatening than their Horde leader or any other evil creature they had faced. Because Greed would show them no mercy. And if they killed her, that was their last bid at defiance before he hurt them very, very much.

She heard the screams first. The cries that were garbled and messy. The sound of flesh being parted and the horrible stench of fear. Maybe that was the man who’d fallen on top of her, though. He was still alive, but only barely.

The sounds outside died down. Getting quieter and quieter until there was just... nothing. Not a single thing.

The sound of the desert was the only thing she could hear. The faint hum of wind as it brushed through the sand grains, and the whisper of a breeze through the holes in the tent. Just complete and utter silence.

Was that a good thing?

It had to be Greed outside the tent, right? She couldn’t imagine it was anyone else fighting the Horde. Unless another town had gotten it in their head that they were going to help. But she had heard the growl. She knew that sound anywhere, so surely...

Another growl rippled through the night air, and then she heard his voice. “Keep them all back.”

Gluttony responded with a snort. “Won’t be too hard.”

“Don’t make too much of a scene. We don’t need any of this getting back to Wrath about how I unleashed you on an entire encampment of my people.”

There was a strange sound, like fabric rustling, and she wondered if Gluttony had just saluted Greed. “You know I’m more careful than that. I’ll drain them, and they won’t scream. Besides, no one is going to make it out of here alive tonight.”

“Get the others, then. Make sure they’re all together when they attack the Horde. Everyone’s waking up now.”

“Understood.”

Quiet from outside the tent made her muscles tense up. What if he continued on? She didn’t want to yell and draw more people to the tent. They were clearly at least trying to be as quiet as possible.

But she wanted him to find her. She wanted him to know she was here, and that she had waited. She was doing her best for him, and she was so close to breaking down.

Then his voice broke through the silence. “If you’re alive in that tent, anyone other than my queen, then you will die. I’m giving you this chance to run, but know that I will hunt you. I will chase you. And I will devour you the moment I find you. Do not stand between me and my woman, or I will cut you down and gut you.”

Oh, if that wasn’t the most romantic thing he’d ever said.

With a broad slash of twin blades, his daggers cleared a new entrance to the tent from where he stood. He stepped over the carnage of a body on the other side, and she felt the man laying on top of her take a deep breath.

Was he going to scream? That wouldn’t do.

Varya wiggled her arm out from between them and drew her own blade up as she went. It cut through both his flesh and hers, but she didn’t care. He needed to be quiet. So Greed could rescue her.

So she could rescue the others.

She was so afraid he would leave the rest of the townsfolk here. It was just like him to barrel toward her without a single thought to his own safety, but also for the safety of others. And already she was trying to figure out her argument so that he would stay and help. There was more to do. They were both exhausted, but surely —

He leaned over the shoulder of the dying man and wrenched the man’s head back by his hair. Varya only had a brief moment to gasp before he snapped the man’s neck and tossed his body off her.

“Varya,” he said, and his voice shook with some emotion she couldn’t name. It didn’t matter. Greed was here. He was right in front of her and she was covered in blood and... and...

He gathered her up in his arms, yanking her against his chest even though she winced in pain. He held her tightly, his arms banded around her while radiating heat and power. Greed wouldn’t let her go. Varya could break down for the few moments this would take and then she could piece herself back together so no one knew she’d been crying.

An ugly sob wrenched out of her. She bent into his arms, pressing her face against his shoulder as he buried his head in her neck and sank down into the sands with her. Away from the bodies. Away from everyone.

He cradled her in his lap as though she was made of glass and in that moment, she felt like she was.

“You’re okay,” he whispered into her hair, brushing his shaking hands over her back and hips. “You’re okay, treasure. I’m here. You don’t have to be afraid anymore.”

A part of her wanted to scold him and say that she wasn’t afraid at all. She hadn’t been the entire time. But this newfound softness in her chest whispered he was right. She didn’t have to be afraid anymore and she could lean on his strong shoulders for a few more minutes.

Varya knew she couldn’t sob for too long, though. There were people here who wanted to kill her. Men who wanted to hunt her down. Others that they needed to save. And she couldn’t let them linger for too long while she had her breakdown.

Sucking in a shuddering, deep breath, she leaned away from him to scrape her palms over her cheeks. “I’m all right. I wasn’t even gone very long this time. I wasn’t.”

“I know you weren’t.” He looked at her so soft, so kind, and it made something deep inside her flutter. Greed smoothed his thumbs across her cheeks, chasing the tears that she’d missed. “I’m a fool, Varya. A fool who let you slip through my fingers without ever telling you the truth.”

“The truth?”

His brows wrinkled, and she had a momentary spike of fear before he whispered, “I love you, treasure. More than any of the objects I’ve collected, more than the sun in the sky and the sands on the desert. I love you more than anything I have ever stolen in my life, so much so that I didn’t recognize the emotion until it was almost too late. With you, I am a better man. Without you, I am not a man at all.”

Oh.

Oh, those were the words she’d been waiting for. She’d wanted to hear them for such a long time and now that he’d said them...

More tears raced down her cheeks and her knee jerk reaction was to say, “You had to say this when I am covered in blood?”

He tilted his head back and chuckled, the muscles of his throat working so beautifully until he looked at her again. “Yes, my love, my treasure, my life. I had to say it now, because you beat me to the blood bath. You’ve never looked more beautiful.”

She wrinkled her nose and looked down at all the blood and sand, but then she shrugged. “Well, if you don’t mind it, then I suppose I can say I love you, too. I have for a long time, you know.”

“I know.”

“You do?”

He leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her bloody nose. “I always have, treasure. From the first moment you yanked me into a cave and wiggled your butt against my spine. You are mine, and I am yours. Forever more.”

Oh, and what poetry that was to hear. She might have said more if someone didn’t step between the moon’s light and them.

Hissing, she lifted a blade only to lower it immediately when she realized it was Gluttony peering down at them, amusement on his features.

“What?” she asked, maybe a little too aggressively.

“You look positively lickable,” Gluttony replied. He laughed when Greed growled, then held out his hand for both of them. “Come on, there’s still some fight left. You know there’s other prisoners, Varya?”

She didn’t take his hand. Instead, she let Greed pick her up and stand for the both of them. Curled against his chest, hidden in his arms, she felt like this was the only place where she could find a little peace.

“Ready?” he murmured in her ear, gently nudging her hair to the side.

“Always.”