Page 17 of The Iron Hex

“And you weren’t?” she said, standing up and brushing her skirt off.

“It was a calculated decision. I knew he wouldn’t actually do anything,” Hugo said.

“What makes you think my words weren’t calculated?” sheanswered before lifting her mug and draining the rest of her mead.

“I—” Hugo started to say before taking a deep breath and clenching his teeth to stop himself from snapping. “I am not going to argue with you. I’m trying to keep us alive, which is difficult with you.”

She tilted her head. “Difficult... with me?”

“Yes.You’re getting a lot of attention, if you somehow hadn’t noticed,” he answered, trying desperately to seem nonchalant. She didn’t need to know he found her exceptionally beautiful. She didn’t need to know he’d dreamed only of her in his valerian-induced sleep.

“All of these men have seen the same dozen women around their age their whole lives,” he continued. “You’re new, special, and...”

“You think I’m beautiful,” she smirked, some of the anger washing away from her tone.

“Theythink you’re beautiful,” he answered, too quickly.

“No,” she said, wagging her finger at him. “You do too.”

“Eira,” he said, voice lowering.

She sidled up to him, pressing her soft body against him and getting close. He shivered, willing his body to not react physically to her—and failing.

“Don’t try to protect me,” she whispered in his ear. “I’m going to go and talk to some of those men over there, and then you’re going to leave this town, and once you’re gone I’m going to have the Iron Retinue take me home.”

“Eira,” he growled, fighting the urge to snake his arm around her waist.

“You took me from my home,” she said. “And now you’re pretending it wasn’t because you feel the same way all of these other men do.”

“The Iron Retinue wants you too,” he snarled, angry now. This game had gone too far. He needed her to stoppretending.

“No. The Iron Retinue wantsyou, and if you’re not nice enough to me I’ll sidle over to the handsome guard I ran into earlier today and tell him that you forced me to come here. I’d like to see how long it takes them to get you then.”

Hugo’s heart skipped a beat.

“The guard you spoke to earlier today?” he said, grabbing her arm—probably harder than he should have.

“Unhand me,” she said, tugging at her arm, as if that would do anything.

“Eira, you need to tell me when you spoke to a guard.” His eyes desperately searched hers for a sign she was joking, that she didn’t mean what she was saying.

“This morning, while I ate a delicious pastry in town—a perfectly normal adventure that I had on my own that was completely safe, despite you telling me not to leave,” she answered dismissively, still not understanding justhowbad this could get.

“What did you tell him?” he said in a low voice, still holding her. The bar grew quieter as they stood, and Hugo abruptly realized what this must look like to everyone else here. Him holding her, and her trying to leave—not just a lover’s quarrel. This looked bad, really bad.

“Unhand me,” she said again, a dangerous rumble in her voice. “He’s in this room, and you need to stop bringing attention to us.”

Of course the city guard who had been working in the morning was off shift and came to the local bar to drink with friends. Hugo was an idiot; they shouldn’t have stopped here.

“We need to go,” Hugo said, starting to move.

“No,” she said, digging her heels into the ground. “I will not be going with you.”

Deep breaths, Hugo.

“This game you’re playing, where you pretend like you don’t know who I am, is getting out of hand,” he said, pulling hertoward the back door of the tavern with as much strength as he could muster without actually harming her.

They could at least have a relatively private conversation out here, and hopefully he could just get the answers he was looking for and leave if that’s what Eira actually wanted. But... could he leave her? Was it even safe for her to be out here in Astra alone, at the mercy of the Iron Empire to find her whenever they wanted?