Rivals (Book 2 of The Warden series) Page 6

“I was mostly sure.”

  “How did you know in the first place?” he asked.

  “The Demnok wizard said not to smell the flower, or else I would sleep a long time.” She stood over the wizard. “Now what? Do we leave?”

  “No, I think we can drag him into the woods, far enough away that he’ll be a little lost. He will have to assume another wizard did it to him.”

  Ethan picked up the wizard’s torso, while Cori helped with his feet. They took him several hundred yards north, away from their camp. Ethan would have preferred to take him farther, but he didn’t know how long he would be unconscious.

  They dropped him and Cori headed back right away. Ethan hung back. He looked at the gold medallion necklace and decided that if a wizard had attacked, they would likely have taken the jewelry.

  He ripped the necklace off him and shoved it in his pocket. It kind of felt as if he was pilfering, but it’s not like Danato would let him keep it anyway.

  13

  Back at the cave, Cori tried to find the last vestiges of coals in the fire. Ethan kept an eye out at the entrance. After a half hour with no excitement, he brought his attention to her.

  Cori noticed him watching her. At first she ignored it, but when his contemplative stare looked more and more like introspective torture, she joined him at the entrance on the opposite side.

  “Was there something you wanted to say to me?” she said, putting her hands behind her back.

  He averted his gaze, suddenly finding interest in his feet. “I owe you an apology.” She arched a brow in response to the admission. “Before you left… with Vince. I knew what a relationship with him meant. I knew he would die young. I knew you were falling in love with a man with a death sentence.”

  He’s dead.

  She shifted against her rock wall, not nearly as uncomfortable with the subject matter as the incessant brain hijacking. “Why tell me this now?”

  “I went to see Mezula after you left. She told me that if you knew he was going to die, that you wouldn’t have let yourself love him fully.”

  She nodded, remembering a conversation with Vince that had led her to that same conclusion. “What else did she say?”

  “She said that when you returned, the only thing that would stand in the way of you loving another would be your grief.”

  Cori nodded but didn’t say anything.

  “Still.” He finally looked at her. “I’m sorry I didn’t warn you when I had the chance.”

  “That’s been eating at you, hasn’t it?” she asked.

  He nodded. “A little.”

  “You know, nobody told me. Danato didn’t tell me. Vince certainly didn’t tell me. I could have looked it up, but I didn’t. I think Mezula had it right. Without that relationship, I might have been bitter forever. I needed it. I needed him.” She glanced at Ethan to see if the topic was making him uncomfortable. To her surprise, he was listening and waiting for more. “I—”

  A rumble disrupted her monologue. The ground outside the cave cracked.

  She looked between Ethan and the broken ground. He stared out of the crack with the blank face of boredom. “Crap,” he said flatly.

  The ground exploded as a huge… worm catapulted to the surface. Its segmented body was ten inches thick and twelve feet long. It wriggled along the surface like an alligator with no left feet.

  “Is that the worm?” Cori’s mouth salivated staring at her potential steak dinner.

  “Yes.”

  She looked back and forth between Ethan and the worm. Her eagerness waned as she remembered how resolute he was about not wanting to hunt one. “I guess it is a bit big,” she said with a grimace. “I understand if you don’t want to mess with it.”

  Ethan growled under his breath. “I said I would.”

  “I can help.” Her voice was cheery.

  Ethan shook his head. “It really won’t do any good,” he said solemnly, preparing for his abuse.

  “I’m pretty adaptive. I’ve proven that,” she said defensively.

  He shook his head again. “There is no strategy. There is no great challenge of wits, it’s just me and him… and a rock.”

  Ethan’s head sunk and he sulked, descending from the cave. He acted as if he had just chosen the short straw to go shoot a beloved pet. He picked through several rocks until he found one he liked. He approached the worm without stealth or cunning. He straddled the creature at the head—the end that didn’t poop—and started bashing the rock into it.

  Cori watched as the creature thrashed and bucked. Ethan hung on to the worm like a cowboy to a wild horse. He hit the worm repeatedly with the rock. The worm seemed unaffected by the assault.

  She deliberated whether to join him in the battle, but aside from the thrashing and bucking, the creature posed no threat to him. Its only defense was a hard head. If Ethan could stay on, it was only a matter of time and energy.

  Forty-five minutes later, Cori had sat down at the entrance to the cave, tossing rocks out over the edge. The worm had finally stopped moving. Ethan stumbled up the incline to the cave panting and sweaty. He collapsed next to Cori and rolled onto his back. “The only decent meat is the organ meat.” He gulped for breath. “You can break the skin with a sharpened stick and tear it open. The heart is best, the liver is eatable, but I wouldn’t say it’s good.”

  “Are you okay? You look like you’re having a heart attack.”

  “Oh, yeah, I’m great. That took me way longer last time. I’m on top of the world. I’m going to get some firewood.” She thought he was being sarcastic, but he stood up and jogged off.

  Cori proceeded to search for dissection tools.

  Ethan collected wood with new pride. He was pleased to see that his strength had increased, as well as his stamina. He aspired to kill a worm with three strikes, just as Danato had claimed to. Although he wondered if that had been an exaggeration.

  Drowning in self-satisfaction, he didn’t notice the wizard watching him from the trees until it was too late.

  A branch snapped ahead of him. He looked up and saw a gaunt old wizard sneering at him from within the tree line. He was frail, but he knew that only meant he was strong enough to survive to an advanced geriatric age. Panic set in and he contemplated his options: confront the old man with attitude, bow abjectly and beg for his life, or simply walk away and hope he had no interest in following him.

  Before he could make his decision, Cori emerged from the brush to his left, covered in blood from her face to her waist. She carried the fresh bloody worm’s heart. The horrific choking sound she made was so real he almost thought for a second something had actually happened to her. She stumbled into the clearing mimicking a zombie and collapsed to her knees.

  He glanced at the wizard in the trees and saw his eyes widen with shock.

  He crossed his arms and put on his best maniacal smile.

  Cori held out the heart for a sacrificial offering before she collapsed face first before him. He placed his foot gently on her back, and laughed loudly like a supervillain or mad scientist.

  The wizard scurried away deep into the trees. Ethan reduced his laugh to a legitimate chuckle and removed his foot from her back. She rolled over and raised the heart. “All I have to offer you,” she said in a southern drawl, “is my heart.”

  Ethan smiled at her not because of her jest, but because she had just averted another attack and she didn’t even know it. “That was quick,” he said. “Did you get the liver too?”

  “I can’t tell what’s what in there. Besides, I was a little put off when the heart exploded on me.”

  “Oh, I didn’t mention that?” He tucked his firewood under one arm and helped her up. “Thought I had.” He smiled smugly.

  “You knew that would happen?” she said, dusting herself off with one hand, which only resulted in smearing more blood on her shirt.

  “I killed it, you can process it,” he argued. “I had to do it all myself last time. Considering it took twice as long, you can imagi
ne how much fun I had.”

  “As long as I get to eat it, I don’t care what explodes on me.” She grimaced. “Well, that’s not really true.” She shivered.

  Ethan laughed, but he didn’t ask what she was thinking about to cause that reaction. He brought his attention back to the forest. He surveyed the perimeter to make sure no one else was around. His sudden austerity put Cori on guard. To his surprise, she sidled up next to him as if waiting for him to give the order to duck or run.

  “What is it?” she said, scanning the tree line with him.

  “Nothing, just checking. Thanks to your amazing skill and dumb luck we are once again safe from all threats.” He headed back toward the cave.

  “What is that supposed to mean?” she asked, running up and blocking his way.

  He stopped and cocked his head. “I’m sorry, that was a positive negative, wasn’t it? I guess I should just stop at ‘you are amazing.’” He winked and tried to move by her, but she stood firmly in his way and glared at him. He drew back, genuinely shocked by her annoyance. “Cori, I’m not trying to tease. I meant that as a compliment.”

  Her face went somber and her eyes searched for the meaning of the word, “compliment.”

  “What is going on in that little brain of yours? What did I say to piss you off?”

  She sighed. “It is just luck. Danato said that too. I’m one big walking accident.”

  “That’s not what I meant.”

  “I know.” She rolled her head back to crack her neck. She looked down at the heart. “I must be starving, because this thing looks like roast beef.”

  She walked on, leaving Ethan to question what it was he’d said that caused such a downshift in her jubilation.

  14

  When he got back to the cave Cori was already wrapping the meat in fronds to get it ready to place on the fire. He dropped his kindling and put together a chimney-style stack in the fire pit before using flint to spark it to life. All the while, he watched Cori. He couldn’t place her emotions. She wasn’t happy, but she wasn’t sad. She just seemed weary.

  Once the fire had developed some good coals, she placed the wrapped meat in the center, pushing it into the ash. She looked like she was about to say something to him, but stopped when she saw his eyes were already on her. Confusion and shame flickered across her face before she looked away.

  Normally he wouldn’t have pursued the meaning of those emotions, but he wasn’t satisfied with the way their previous conversation had been interrupted, and he knew she had something on her mind.

  He stood up and waited for her to look at him again. When she did, he nodded to the entrance. “Come on, that thing will take forever to cook.” He stepped outside and leaned against the cliff wall. The sun was starting to set, leaving the sky with all manner of colors to enjoy. He breathed in the watercolor serenity.

  Cori propped herself on the opposite side of the entrance. She kicked her foot back to rest on a grassy outcrop. She pushed a stray hair out of her face, but discovered it was actually a piece of grass from the outcrop above her. She broke the grass off so it wouldn’t interfere with her peaceful observation.

  He watched her settle in to enjoy the view, but soon her eyes drifted down until she was staring at the ground rather than the sunset.

  He wanted to broach the subject of her mood, but he wasn’t sure how to say, “What the hell is wrong with you?” nicely. Again he went back over the conversation earlier to see what he had said or done to offend her. He couldn’t find anything.

  She looked over at him, and saw him watching her. He didn’t look away. She locked eyes on him until her melancholy dragged her gaze back down to the ground again.

  A riotous debate took place in his mind as he argued his options: say something, say nothing, go to her, don’t go to her, or fall on your knees and profess your unwavering love and desire to her. The last one wasn’t so much on the table as an option, but for some reason his brain kept throwing it out there just in case it became viable.

  “I owe you an apology, too,” she said. Ethan silently rejoiced to hear her break the silence. “Maybe a few.”

  “For what?” he asked.

  She took in a deep breath as if she was about to sink under water. “Firstly, for being me.”

  He wrinkled his brow and gave her a half-cocked smile. “How’s that?”

  “I’ve been selfish. I think its second nature to me. My world was in upheaval and then it was completely out my control, and even after I was no longer in danger I just kept fighting. As if getting out from under Danato was going to magically bring back my mother and put my life on track again. I’m sure you were going through the same thing, but I didn’t even acknowledge it.” She frowned at him. “I shouldn’t have left you there alone.”

  He looked away, taking the apology as well as a gut punch. He hadn’t expected any apology for that, let alone such a strict one. He started to shake his head to dismiss her gesture, but she continued.

  “I should have placed more importance on our friendship. We came into this mess together, the least I could have done is give you a proper goodbye.”

  He looked back at her, still seeing the resolute determination in her confession. He couldn’t keep her gaze. Her honesty was melting a deep cold bitterness he had never managed to let go.

  “I need you to know something though. I loved Vince.”

  He cleared his throat of any emotional lumps that might crack his voice. “Why would you think I needed that clarified?”

  “Because you had me pegged right. The day I left, you said I was using my body as a weapon.”

  He groaned and threw his head back against the wall behind him. That was a memory he wished he could lobotomize from his brain. “I was so bitter; I can’t tell you how much I’ve regretted those words.”

  “I know. I understand. My point is, you were right. I was basically whoring myself out to escape.”

  “You are not a whore!” He spat the word out, rejecting the assessment with his fervor alone.

  “No, but...” Cori’s voice softened, soothing his anger. “I needed something from Vince. Something I knew I could get if I persuaded him. Vince saw right through my plan. He denied himself to me for weeks.” She smiled and stared at the sunset, dazed by the fondness of the memory. She jolted and shook her head. “Shut up,” she whispered to no one in particular.

  “Sorrow demon?” he asked when she came back to reality.

  She nodded. “He doesn’t like my good memories.”

  “The good memories will always win. I promise.”

  She gave him a subdued smile before continuing to tell her story. “I stayed because I loved him and because I was terrified of the world. Somewhere between being kidnapped and…” She left the sentence incomplete. “Vince became my rock. He made the world safe again. With him I wasn’t going to be attacked, and if I was, let’s face it, there’s no competition when your boyfriend is a werewolf.

  “When I got back, I was overcome with grief.” She scoffed and tapped her shoulders. “Obviously. I didn’t know what to do. I settled in again.” She tipped her brow. “I pretended that the last nine months hadn’t happened, much to the dismay of my co-workers.” She smiled at him. “That’s my second apology. I shouldn’t have assumed that those months on your own weren’t difficult.”

  Ethan felt another kick in the stomach. This time the ache subsided quicker, but, as he had expected, the more his resentment melted, the harder it was to keep the option of professing his love to her off the table.

  “Danato came to me a few weeks after I was back and offered me my freedom. It was why I left nine months earlier, but I didn’t want it. I told him I wanted to stay, that I had no one on the outside. That isn’t untrue, but it was really my fear that was keeping me here. I didn’t have anyone to protect me out there. At least here I have Danato and you.” His eyes found his way to hers again and she smiled broadly.

  “You.” She gave his full body a not-so-cursory glance. �
��You just had to turn into a superhero overnight. You’re a born leader, commanding, but respectful. You were my next rock, just waiting to be leaned on.” Her smile widened, reaching her eyes. He found himself smiling back at her, even though he loathed hearing how this confession was going to end. “As soon as I could reconcile my grief and my guilt, I would have had you to depend on.”

  She shook her head and lost her smile. “I saw what I was doing and I didn’t like it. I was about to use you as a crutch, just like Vince. I wanted to stand on my own. I wanted to be my own rock. That spawned my ridiculous assumption that I might have a chance at becoming warden. Which brings me to my third apology: I’m sorry I tried to take your job from you. Instead of leaning on you, I ended up trying to push you out of my way. I hadn’t really planned on you pushing back.”

  He smirked, remembering the conversation that had started the bulk of their competition.

  “I also hadn’t planned on it being a wholly unbearable endeavor.” She paused a moment before stepping away from the wall and turning to him. “When we get back, I’ll inform Danato that I no longer want to compete for the position.” Cori went into the cave, not offering any further discussion on the announcement.

  Ethan had pondered her apologies. He was relieved to hear her acknowledge his pain, but he wasn’t happy to hear she wanted to quit. He followed her in and watched her turn the heart with sticks to start it browning on the other side. “Why?” he asked.

  “I just told you.”

  “You told me why you want the job. To prove to yourself you can take care of yourself.”

  “Yeah.” She put down her sticks and stood upright, wiping her hands on her jeans. “And I’m failing at it. You’re stronger than I am; you’re faster than I am; you’re smarter than I am. I can’t understand anything in those damn books. I’ll never pass the final challenge. I’ll be lucky to score high enough on the written to get a guard job.”

  “You are clever as hell!” he scolded her with his accolade. “I told Danato you wouldn’t last five minutes in here, and three times now you’ve saved my butt. Don’t sell yourself short just because you can’t bench press as much as me.”