Page 52 of The Iron Hex

“Ask me anyway.”

“Are you going to kill me? Now that you know I’m not only a witch, but a witch who can do a lot more than just alchemical magic?” she asked, her gaze bold and unflinching as she stared up into his eyes.

Hugo stepped forward, looming over her for a moment, and then wrapped his arms around her, her soft curves melting into him as he embraced her tightly. She smelled like earth and herbs and something else he couldn’t name but had smelled on witches before, and he wanted nothing more than to have protected her enough that she’d never have wondered if he’d hurt her. She rested her face against his shoulder, still sensitive with the fresh scar under his clothing as her lips pressed into it. It wasn’t a kiss, but Hugo wanted it to be.

“Eira,” Hugo whispered. “I will never harm you.”

“Don’t say that if you don’t mean it,” she whispered back, voice thick with emotion.

Hugo released her and placed his hands on Eira’s face. “I do not ever want to see you hurt, and I will never participate in harming you. I will do everything in my power to protect you, I swear it.”

Eira looked at him for a moment, eyes glancing between his before she reached around him and hugged him herself.

He rewrapped his arms around her, placing his chin on the top of her head before taking a long, languid breath in through his nose.

“Hugo,” she said, her voice muffled as she buried her chin in his shirt. “I need my memory back. There are too many gaps and I feel like I’m at a disadvantage, whatever we do.”

“We’ll get your memory back, Eira. I’m going to make sure of it,” he answered, chin still resting on her head. Hugo wondered if he had died and gone to the afterlife he didn’t expect, or if he was dreaming—the most beautiful woman he’d ever known had chosen to embrace him, to trust him. All he coulddo was desperately hope he didn’t let her down like he’d let everyone else in his life down.

Even with everything he hadn’t told her yet, that he didn’t know if he should.

“Even if it means we go off track, I know you have a plan,” she said.

“My plan doesn’t matter if we aren’t able to do our best. Weneedyour memories, Eira. They’re just as important as Evangeline,” Hugo said, knowing he was right. He wanted to go and find their solution to the problem of the Iron Empire, but they wouldn’t be able to solve it with Eira two steps behind in her own life. They needed her as she was before, not as she was now.

27

Eira

The next morning felt uncomfortable to Eira. The routine she and Hugo had been building over the past week had been completely interrupted by the presence of what felt like a hostile wraith in the form of an exceptionally beautiful woman.

Princess Evangeline wasn’t at all what Eira had expected. Every conversation the princess had with Hugo was stilted and sharp, but the moment Eira spoke to her in any way, she would soften and act like she was in a fine mood. Eira couldn’t quite figure out if it was because Evangeline hated Hugo or felt so bad for Eira’s ruined memory spell that she was being overly nice. Finally, as they had nearly finished packing up the campsite, Eira snapped.

“Evangeline,” she said a little bit too loudly.

Evangeline whipped her head in Eira’s direction, Hugo followed suit as he strapped bags to Arthur.

“Is this just how you are? Mean and argumentative?”

Evangeline laughed. “When I’m around the brute? Yes,” she said, jabbing her thumb toward Hugo.

“Admittedly,” Hugo said, “you never really talked to me before the Iron Empire took over.”

“That’s actually a fair point,Commander,” Evangeline sniped back, and Eira watched Hugo cringe at the title. He truly seemed to hate it, and Eira hoped that was a sign that she wasn’t being lied to. Eira hadn’t forgiven him for hiding that he was one of the Iron Empire’s chosen few, but there had to be some truth to the fact that he’d defected; why else would the knights keep coming for them? She just wondered why the Iron Retinue was so insistent on killing him. What did he have that they needed... or needed to hide? There was more to his story than he was keeping from her, and Eira hadeveryintention of figuring out what it was, and soon.

“I wasn’t ‘nice’ to him before because I found his presence overbearing and, quite frankly, I didn’t trust his qualifications for guarding your family. Besides, after everything he’s done, I think we can agree that I was right to be skeptical of him.”

“His qualifications?” Eira asked.

“Legitimately not relevant now that he betrayed my family,” Evangeline said, shoving a bag into Hugo’s waiting arms. “Once you get your memory back, you’ll remember how much you love my attitude,” Evangeline continued, a smile on her full lips.

“Wait,” Eira said, turning to Hugo. “How are we going to travel? Arthur can’t hold three people.”

“I—” Hugo started.

“I’ll just turn back into the rabbit,” Evangeline interrupted.

“You don’t need to do that,” Eira said, shaking her head fiercely.