Page 61 of The Blade in the Ashes
I snorted a laugh. Rankor did not seem suited to the fisherman’s life.
He’d wrinkled his nose the second the acidic smell of the ocean hit us, and he hadn’t relaxed since.
“It’s home.”
He made a small huff under his breath. That word meant different things to each of us. The concept of a home away from the castle wasforeign to him. I’d never been to visit the small village he’d been born in, but I didn’t think it was too different from this.
Rankor’s father had taken him to the castle before he could even walk, though. I, however, spent my childhood here, surrounded by family, friends, andlove. Gods, I’d had so much to love in this small town. I’d loved the father who died before he got to see me as a man. I’d loved the mother and sisters who still wrote me letters every chance they could.
I’d even loved a girl once. She’d chosen a simpler life than the one I could offer her but I couldn’t return to this village without thinking of our days spent together and smiling.
The castle had become something special to me, too, just like it had for Rankor. He and Clay had become the brothers I’d never had.
But this was home.
“Does it always smell like this?” Rankor shifted his weight uncomfortably.
I threw him a crooked smile. “Do you always smell like that?”
“Rude!” He held a hand to his chest in mock offense before subtly dipping his head to sniff at himself. “I guess I probably could use a bath.”
We’d only been on the road for a few days, but a few days spent on horseback and nights spent sleeping in makeshift tents were long enough for a thin layer of grime to coat our skin.
“You and me both.”
“A bath. A pint of ale. A beautiful woman.” Rankor’s voice turned wistful as he stared ahead at where the town square was coming into view. “I don’t suppose this village has all three?”
The village consisted mainly of small cottages with thatched roofs spread around a single square. We had a small temple that doubled as a meeting place when necessary and enough merchants to cover the necessities—food, fishing gear like nets and lines, clothing—but otherwise lacked any of the extravagancies he was used to. There weren’t even enough storesto consider describing it as a market. We certainly didn’t have the rowdy taverns he was hoping for.
“Do you ever think of anything other than getting drunk and between a woman’s thighs?”
My words were a half-hearted tease because, truthfully, the idea of being between a woman’s thighs actually sounded pretty damn good right now.
“I’m sure we can find a lovely lady for you, too. What do you say?”
“We’re going to be staying in a house with my mother and teenage sisters,” I reminded him with a raised brow.
Rankor rolled his eyes dramatically. “You’ve gotten far too serious in your elder years.”
“Elder years?”
He was a year older than me.
“When was the last time you and I went traveling together? Visiting the local pubs? Losing ourselves in some merriment?” Rankor gazed across the sky. “Spending nights with the attitude that tomorrow isn’t guaranteed is the only good part about war.”
My gut clenched unhappily. The three of us, Clay included, had certainly done plenty of that during the Great War. There had been more times than I’d like to recall that we had all woken up with raging headaches next to women whose names we couldn’t remember. That had been years ago, though. That had been a war amongst Descendants, not a war against a God.
“Things are different now.”
“How so?”
“Clay has Thea now, for one.”
During those nights, Clay had been the most successful of us all. Not a woman in the kingdom had turned him down. He hadn’t even needed to tell them he was a prince. He’d just throw out that charming smile and lethis eyes flash golden for a moment, and they fell all over him, sometimes two or three at a time.
He had reveled in it too. The attention. The freedom to do and say whatever he wished, away from his father. Clay had been absolutely relentless in his wildness.
Now he just had eyes for one woman.
