Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 83933 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83933 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
“I’m headed to Lux, anyway,” he piped up. “I’d have taken you for free.”
CHAPTER 6
THE JOURNEY CONTINUES
The most tantalizing aroma lured me from a hazy cloud of peace, warmth, and safety. I blinked open my eyes, frowning as different facts crystalized on after the other. Bright morning sunlight meant, well, morning arrived. I lay on a blanket, on my side. Last thing I remembered, Jasher was snoozing, and I was making an inner vow to remain on guard.
Clearly, I’d fallen asleep. At some point, he’d woken up and covered me with a small blanket. A kind gesture from a not so kind guy. Despite his movements, and the threat he presented, I’d remained deep in slumber. Vulnerable. The thin but soft material currently draped my curled-up form.
More surprising, the compass still hung from my neck. He hadn’t stolen it. Guess he didn’t have a stable.
Now, the heartless executioner sat before a fire pit, roasting last night’s catch: the skinned boar-thing. A far uglier beast than I’d realized. A flight of those three-eyed rainbow birds circled overhead, as if they waited to pounce on the meal. Green flower petals floated and twirled in a gentle breeze. Rushing water provided a lovely soundtrack and an even better backdrop, only a short jog away. Every so often, a horned fish breeched the surface.
Shirtless, Jasher remained deep in thought. Discarded armor had been piled near his feet. I didn’t mean to notice his beast-killing muscles, but they were right there. Well-defined, packed under dusky skin, and covered in ornate tattoos. Goodness gracious, were they covered in ornate tattoos. Images spanned his entire chest, both arms, and dipped below the waist of his leather pants.
From here, I could make out a handful of faces among the inked canvas. They appeared raised, like scars, and a part of me really, really wanted to study each one up close and personal. To help my cause, not for any other reason. The more I knew about him, the less likely I was to irritate him into ditching me. The pulse fluttering in my throat and wrists meant nothing.
Fine! It meant something. My fingers itched to draw him, okay. To capture his essence while he tended the fire. Beads of sweat dampened his rough and tumble features, causing locks of black hair to coil at the ends and stick to his temples. Those incredibly long lashes cast shadows over the sharp rise of his cheeks. A necklace with small black stones hung from his neck, and two ax handles extended over his broad shoulders.
I’d only ever desired to draw the monsters. Or rather, the monstra. Why deviate now, with him?
“Hungry?” he asked without glancing up.
Startled, I scrambled upright and noticed two unconscious people gagged and bound with thin silver bands hidden in the shadows behind him. A man and a woman. Are you kidding me? I had slept through their capture, too?
“While I whiled the night away, you apprehended the bounty hunters, dug a firepit, and prepared breakfast.” Dang. Anyone could’ve snuck up on me at any time and done anything, and I would’ve been defenseless. Do better. “The only thing you didn’t do is set off before first light, as promised.”
“You refused to stir,” he informed me. “I attempted to wake you up, but you repeatedly patted my face and muttered the word snooze.”
“No, I did not.” My brow wrinkled. “Did I?” And he’d let me?
“You did.” He skewered pieces of meat onto a thin stick.
“I apologize.” In more ways than one! “I wasn’t aware.”
“That, I know.” He stood and strode over to offer me the stick and a newly filled canteen. His blank expression never wavered. “I decided to take care of the problem.”
“This is for me? Thank you.” I accepted both treasures, asking, “What are you going to do with the hunters? You can’t harm them without breaking a law.” Maybe. What did I know? “Fair warning, I refuse to serve as your substitute.”
“If I do the harming in Lawless Forest, where there are no laws, there is no transgression. Hence, no death required.”
Lawless Forest. The same woodland I must enter to reach the City of Lux? “Are you saying no one has to die for breaking a rule in the forest?” Best to clarify. “We won’t risk a crimen or a storm?”
“Correct.”
Well. The downside must be, well, lawlessness.
“Fair warning,” he said in a mimic of me. “Everyone who enters the forest is cursed to die a violent death. Eventually.”
Ding, ding, ding. We were damned if we did and damned if we didn’t. “What I’m hearing is that you can steal the compass as soon as we enter and face zero consequences.”
“Except I’m not a thief. I value my word.”
A rare, admirable quality. But did he value honesty too? He must. We weren’t in the forest yet.