Chosen (The Warrior Chronicles #1)(72)

“Shanti, right?”

She forced down a white-hot surge of violence at that last thought. It wouldn’t help right now. She turned to regard the speaker, currently taking a seat by her fire. Marc and Leilius had both already wandered away to go to sleep, and no one else dared go near the strange foreign woman with glowing eyes who cleaved through the Mugdock as though wading through shallow water.

Jerrol was lowering himself to the ground next to her. She couldn’t make out the brown of his eyes in the fire, but she could see the lines of his handsome, nearly pretty face. It was exactly what she needed, a distraction. Hopefully that was the reason he stopped by.

“Yes. Jerrol. Hello. I haven’t seen you since you turned me down.” She smiled and attempted a sultry pose. Being without practice she looked pitiful, so settled instead for sticking her chest out. This land greatly loved br**sts. It was as good of enticement as any, even though she could’ve done with a bit more in that department.

A slow smile crept up his face. “I don’t think you are remembering that right. I didn’t turn you down; I clammed up and made a fool of myself. I came over to repair the damage.”

She had no idea what “clammed up” meant, but repairing damage she understood well enough. It matched the lust pouring off him. Then she matched the lust pouring off him.

“No damage to repair. I thought you had a woman, though?”

He crinkled his brow and lightly shook his head. Then his face cleared. “The ball, right?”

She nodded, leaning closer. They should probably get out of sight for what came next. She searched through the nearby bushes and trees to find a place not inhabited by a sleeping man.

“She is a…friend. We are not attached.”

They matched smiles, their mutual desire offered, and accepted. Jerrol’s gaze flicked to the side. “Well, do you—“

“Did you have a question, Jerrol?”

Shanti groaned at the familiar voice.

Jerrol’s eyes went wide and he stood immediately. “No, sir. I was just talking with Shanti, sir.”

“It’s time you caught some sleep, don’t you think?”

“Yes, sir.”

Shanti didn’t even get a chance to interject before Jerrol took off running like teeth were chomping at his backside.

“Was that necessary?” Shanti asked in a pout as she turned back to the fire. Even if she followed, Jerrol wouldn’t defy his Captain’s unspoken command to keep his dick in his pants.

Cayan sat down beside her, gaze glued to the flame. “He’s not your type.”

“Actually, he is very much my type. He is a man, he is warm, and he has nice eyes.”

Cayan’s gaze found her face. “Is that all you require? A warm body?”

Shanti swung her shoulders so she was facing him, matching his blank face and acute stare. The glow of the fire flickered against his cheek. The other half of him was lost to shadow, much like the other half of her soul. “I have lost all I hold dear, Cayan. I have been alone for over a year. I have no one to talk to that knows anything about me, no one I trust to lean on when things get tough, and no one that cares about me outside of what I can do with my Gift or my body. I have no family, no friends, and no idea how my future will unravel from one day to the next. And now I barely have control over my present or my choices. So yes, a warm body that wants me, however superficial, is all that I require. I’m no longer a prime candidate for a mate, I can assure you. All that awaits my home fire is death.”

His gaze held hers for a moment longer, his face softening but hiding his feelings. She didn’t dare touch his mind; she didn’t want to feel the pity she knew was there. She was designated the Chosen, and she had a job to do. She was alive and her people were dead. She would do her part so she could earn a place among her ancestors. Other than that she didn’t care what people thought of her existence, least of all this mood spoiling, control assuming, stoic horse’s ass.

“You should get some sleep,” he said curtly.

She turned away, showing him her back, powerless to do anything else. She would follow his command in front of his people until Sanders was safe and his prisoners had paid, but after that the illustrious Captain could shove his dictatorship up his ass.

She heard him leave quietly and continued to stare at the fire, grateful when Lucius quietly sat down next to her a moment later. His quiet support helped.

Soon after she lay down where she was and went to sleep.

Chapter 37

As the sun crested the tree tops, the battle party was under way, everyone trying to hide anxiousness with stern faces. The upper tier of command looked at the maps often, delimitating, figuring out the land as it changed. Archers rode or walked around the outside of the ranks, ready to shoot anything they didn’t trust. Sterling took the front, arrow already nocked. She had perceived correctly, he was an expert shot. At least, that’s what she’d eavesdropped from the gossip around the campfire.

Shanti’s mind was open, and stretched out over a league, but so far there wasn’t much in the way of habitation. A fact she’d told those around her, trying to loosen the hands clutching their swords, or slow their darting eyes, but they didn’t trust the strange foreign woman who spoke with a harsh tongue to their Captain. They probably figured that at any moment she would cut herself with her sword.