“And you healed yourself overnight. I’m not sure why you didn’t do it earlier, but to each their own, I guess.” He pushed past me to resume walking.
He was the last person I saw before I collapsed from the pain the night before last. “Youhealed me,” I insisted.
Pausing, he reached into a small satchel on his hip, pulled out a honey apple, and scoffed. Pulling the mask away from his face just enough to wedge the fruit in his mouth, he took a massive bite, the sound of the crunch fraying my nerves. Stupidfuckingmask. I fought the urge to learn forward and rip the Saints damned thing off myself, to see the identity of the man who had somehow healed me of my gruesome injuries. “No, actually. That was you.”
“Me?” No. I was dizzy with confusion, with questions. “How–”
“Shit if I know.You’rethe one who’s — how do they say?— touched by divinity.” I shook my head. He kept walking but turned back to see me standing in place, mouth ajar, eyes wide. “Born on the Night of the Holy Stone of Blood Saints, yes?” I looked at him blankly. What the fuck was happening? Is this what Wrena had been talking about? “Thought so. Though I was expecting someone…different.”
I didn’t have the mental capacity at the moment to process the presumed insult.Me?The Daughter of Katia? Ludovicus’ declaration passed through my mind, that they had been waiting for me, that he would gladly hand over his brothers in exchange for me, that they’d found me while I wasstill human. “I’m not the Daughter of Katia. I was born in the poorest part of Eserene, to my parents. My veryhumanparents.”
“You said the woman in the forest with you was your mother?” I nodded, looking anywhere but at him. “I’d be surprised if you were even distant relatives. You look nothing alike.”
“I–”
“Listen, all I know is we’ve been told to look for you, and that we’d know when we found you. And I think I know.”
“You’re not looking for me. This is some kind of misunderstanding. Now please, take me to my mother.” My brain was doing somersaults, chills running up and down my spine.
He looked me up and down from behind the mask, took in the ridiculously gaudy gown hardened with blood and torn in places. “You really didn’t know?”
I clenched my jaw. I felt inferior under his gaze, a feeling I most certainly didn’t like. “There is nothing to know. My step-father is Lord Castemont. Reunite me with my mothernowor I will call upon him.” His name on my lips was like a razor blade, but I’d use it to cut this bastard down.
Miles raised an eyebrow and let out a breathy laugh. “Castemont, huh? An Eserenian Lord holds no power in Taitha, sweetheart.” My stomach dropped. “I will be delivering you to Kauvras, and I will get my answers when you wed.”
I almost vomited right then and there. “I will dono such thing.”
“You won’t have a choice,sweetheart,” he sneered.
I charged him again, but before I could make any headway, he flicked his wrist and threw his dagger straight for me. Without a thought I moved to dodge it, but it stopped and fell to the grass as if it had hit an invisible wall. What the actualfuck?
“Just as I thought. Youareher daughter.”
???
There was no firewood on the plains. We laid a few feet apart on the grass, the moon making its way across the early evening sky. My chest was aching, my mouth inflamed with questions I hadn’t been able to ask. Every time I tried to speak, the tears would well.
Not that Miles seemed to mind the silence.
He had passed me a small hunk of cheese, telling me to eat. I was somehow starving yet my appetite was nonexistent. Miles all but pushed it down my throat. “How the hell am I supposed to get my reward if you die of hunger? No bitterferns out here, sweetheart.” The cheese was tasteless and tough, but I made myself swallow it.
I needed my dagger. I had no idea where we were, and I knew if I killed Miles I’d also die out here. But I wantedmydagger back. Even if I didn’t know how to use it, I could figure out which end to stab the bastard with. “What’s with the masks?” I finally pushed out. Maybe if I could throw off his defense enough, I could steal back my blade while he slept tonight.
“Separates us from you lot.” He said the words with such disgust that I had to fight back the urge to scream at him. “And keeps the smoke out.”
“What do they mean?”
“The animals? Nothing, really. They’re supposed to intimidate the Vacants.”
I raised a brow in question. “Those addicted,” he clarified. “We call them Vacants.”
“Well, theVacantsdon’t seem to be aware of what’s going on around them. Why would they be scared of a mask?”
“Wasn’t my idea.”
“I’m guessing Kauvras wears some sort of elaborate mask,” I mused.
“I’ve been told Kauvras doesn’t wear a mask.”