Page 16 of Cold Hearted
I couldn’t help but grin. It was adorable.
The boys hovered over Zander, looking at each other and no doubt wondering when he would get up, then he burst from the ground screaming, causing them to erupt into laughter as he pulled them in for a hug.
Well, what do you know… the guy was a decent uncle, I would give him that. But that didn’t make him a good person overall. I wasn’t forgetting these cuffs or his little trick with the bath.
“Are we good enough to be in your army yet?” one of the boys asked.
“Almost.” Zander stood and ruffled his hair.
A woman with long, white-blonde hair waved and walked out to greet us, and I found my thoughts going dark.
Did the boys bleed black too? They were related to Zander, and male, which meant they were of the royal line. Could this woman’s husband be the Ethereum lord I sought? Was he inside? Would I kill him in front of his children?
A wave of nervousness overwhelmed me, causing my stomach to turn sour. I jumped down from the horse, unable to sit any longer.The worst part about the Ethereum lords was that you never knew what age they would be, or what they looked like when you were coming in. Four lords held the magic I needed in their hearts at any given time. If one died at the end of a blade, or in a battle, or from something minor like falling off a horse, his magic transferred to the next eldest in his lineage. That meant I could be looking for a ninety-year-old or a ten-year-old, I had no idea. I shook my head to get my thinking in order. Lord Roan would probably be sitting on his throne in Noreum, not in a farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. And his family would be with him. These people were likely distant descendants.
I sighed in relief at the realization that these boys, or their father, were likely not my target. But it reminded me of one of the previous champions who had portaled right before a small ten-year-old boy. He was one of the Ethereum lords at the time. She was so horrified that she ran off, spent precious days tracking down an older lord, and took his heart instead. It occurred to me that if I wanted to save face going home, I could say that the mirror had led me to a small child and so I’d searched until I found an older lord. It was better than admitting I’d lost my train of thought and portaled to a pig.
With effort, I brushed all of these possibilities aside.
While my thoughts churned in darkness, Zander had pulled the young blonde woman—probably in her late twenties—off to the side, and so I stood there awkwardly as the boys ran up to me.
“Are you my uncle’s betrothed?” one of them asked me, and I nearly choked on my spit.
“You shouldn’t be sharing a horse if you’re not married,” the other said.
I nodded my agreement. “Yes, that is the proper way.” My cheeks heated in embarrassment.
“She’s my prisoner,” Zander said as he approached, and both boys took a giant step backward, their gazes falling to the cuffs circling my wrists.
“Thanks for that,” I growled at him. Now the children were scared of me.
Should they be?
This was so far beyond what I was trained for. What would Master Duncan counsel?
“She’s a prisoner who saved his life earlier this morning.” The beautiful blonde stepped up to the gate and I met her friendly, brown-eyed gaze.
Zander rolled his eyes. “I saidbarelysaved my life.”
I grinned at the woman. “That’s right.”
“Are you hungry, Dawn?” she asked me kindly.
He told her my name, and what had happened to us? I guess since she had children to protect she would want to know everything about me.
“Starved,” I said.
She nodded and swung the gate open. “Well, I’ve roasted a lemon chicken and you’re welcome for dinner and to stay the night. I’m Brienne, by the way,” she added.
“She will stay in the guest room over the barn with me,” Zander said, putting me in my place.
We would not be staying in the main home. To think that he didn’t trust me enough to not murder two eight-year-olds and their mother hurt my feelings, but I supposed you couldn’t be too careful.
After pulling his horse into the barn, Zander showed me the room above the stalls. It was quite clean and homely. Pale yellow walls to match the house, a large four-poster bed and an attached bathroom with…
“You have running water!” I gasped when I saw the spigot.
He nodded. “Windmill.”
