Page 28 of The Iron Hex

Rhona grabbed Lady Heathecote’s arm and started running through the house, toward the direction she had come. The fire had spread, but it wasn’t dangerous enough that they couldn’t get out. Rhona thought about how long it had taken Lady Heathecote to put on her robe. She knew every moment of this night and how it would play out. Seering was dangerous. It was forbidden.

But Rhona had seen the writing on the wall: the strange events throughout Astra, the fires tonight, the way that some of her fellow knights had been disappearing, the letter from her parents about their farm being decimated by a new plague. Rhona hated to admit it, but there could be advantages to knowing the next steps of the people around her.Which is exactly what caused people to overuse dangerous magic like this in the past, she thought.

They made it out of the house just as the fire wardens arrived.

“Sir,” one shouted in the distance as he saluted to Rhona. “Is that everyone?”

“It is,” Rhona called back as Lady Maeve’s father ran toward the approaching fire wardens. Before she went toward Lady Heathecote’s family, she turned to face the distractingly beautiful, dangerous witch backlit by the burning manor. “I will report you if you step out of line. Everything we do or discuss must only be for the benefit of the Iron Empire.”

“Duly noted,” Lady Heathecote answered, curtsying before turning to her family and whispering over her shoulder. “We’ll talk more tomorrow.”

What would have seemed like a simple comment before now meant something different to Rhona. Her skin crawled as she thought about how Lady Heathecote very likely knew precisely when they would talk next. She took a deep breath, steeling herself.

For the Iron Empire, Rhona would do what needed to be done.

17

Eira

Eira woke up the next morning with a stiff neck and cold toes. She hated when her toes were cold.

The air outside of the meager pile of blankets she’d slept in was frigid, the ground dewy and almost frosted. Pennyroyal was snuggled up against her back and Eira looked over to the embers of the fire as Hugo leaned against a nearby tree, gently snoring, his cloak draped over him in a makeshift blanket.

Eira had to grudgingly give it to him; he hadn’t even asked to share the blankets with her. That was chivalry she wasn’t used to. She’d kissed her fair share of frogs in Cilirien, and all of them had asked to share her bed at least once.

Eira barely shifted to sit up, but it was enough for Hugo’s eyes to snap open.

“I’m glad you got some sleep,” Eira said, smirking. His hair was slightly mussed, and his disheveled look made Eira involuntarily muse about other ways hair could get disheveled.

“I wasn’t asleep,” Hugo answered, standing quickly and tossing his thick woolen cloak over his back.

“Mmm,” Eira said, outright smiling and then groaning as shestood, her muscles stiff from a night spent on the cold ground. “Can we avoid sleeping on the ground for the rest of this journey?”

“No guarantees, my lady,” he said, starting to fold up the blankets as Eira tried to stretch out her sore muscles.

“You have to stop with the ‘my lady’ stuff, okay?” Eira answered.

“I’ll call you ‘my lady’ when you’re acting like a pompous member of the elite Astran nobility,” Hugo answered, not looking up from folding and then rolling the blankets.

Eira found herself entranced by the methodical way Hugo wrapped the bedroll and stuffed it back into its pack. It was clear to her that he’d been doing this for a while and had had to pack up more than once under pressure.

“I am not acting like a pompous member of nobility,” Eira said, crossing her arms and jutting her hip out.

Hugo looked up, then trailed his eyes down her body before looking back to her eyes.

Eira flushed, suddenly feeling naked and warm despite being fully dressed with still-cold toes.

“I’ve only known nobility to complain about sleeping in the forest,” he finally said, the pause extended just a little bit too long.

“Then you don’t know many people,” Eira shot back, snappier than she needed to as she tried to recover from how ravenous Hugo had looked as he’d raked his eyes up and down her body.

They silently packed up the rest of the makeshift campsite, knowing that they needed to get moving to the next town so they could get something to eat and hopefully find somewhere safe to stay for a day or two.

“I’ll get on Arthur and help you up,” Eira said as Hugo strapped the bedroll to Arthur’s saddle.

“I’m good,” Hugo said, hopping onto the horse like it was nothing—as if he hadn’t been extremely injured just last night.

“Your shoulder! Be careful,” Eira said before realizing thatHugo had been using his arm without her noticing the whole time they’d been packing up the campsite.