Episode 5: A Deal Between Enemies
1454 Words
“Absolutely not,” Comes from my mouth
“I'm the one that should be saying that!” She retorts, “What the hell are you doing here?!”
“You two know each other?” Mara asks startled
“Yes.”
“No.”
“Right…” Mara trails off, “Is this going to be a problem?”
“Of course it’s not a problem.” I answer to Mara, “Because she is not coming,”
“I’m here to guide Galie, it’s her first time leaving the compound as an untrained pup,” She continues stepping towards me, “unless that’s something a hunter like yourself can do?”
“I’m here on a quest granted by the grand huntsman himself to make sure Mara gets to the castle,”
“I can make sure of that,” She says easily
“And I should just trust your word?” I question with incredulity
“I’ll send you a souvenir from Solar territory to confirm it along with a postcard picture,” She says with a fake sweet smile.
I itch to grab my sword and wipe it off her. She sees me eyeing my cleaver and looks towards her own dagger.
I could swipe my cleaver to her throat. I could end this.
A small crowd starts to form.
I could kill her here, but Mara and the little girl who is clearly attached to her would never go on a mission with me willingly. Plus if someone sees a hunter kill a wolf, i’d create a new war between the wolves and hunter, something my father specifically told me not to do.
“The path to Solar is dangerous, it has a lot of bandits and Ice people mercenaries looking for fights.” I say in a calmer voice
“I can protect them,” She says, “I’ve always been a better fighter than you,”
I snort with derision, ”Please, you could barely fight with me back than and now that you obviously have a cold or something you don’t stand a chance,”
She looks at me with surprise and something complicated passes in her eye.
“Fine, I might be a little sick, but you have a hurt shoulder, so we’re on fair grounds.”
This time I look at her in surprise. There is a fire burning in my chest from knowing she is watching me as closely as I’m watching her. Just like we’ve always been.
“Scared?” She smirks at me
“Never, “ I answer back
“Prove it,” she sneers, grabbing her dagger in a few seconds.
At the same moment my cleaver is out and pointed at her.
She moves first. She has always been faster. But this wasn’t just fast, it was reckless.
Her hips shifted before her feet did with the smallest twitch. Than she vanished to my left. Exactly where I expected.
Five years hadn't changed her habits.
My cleaver was already there just planted to the ground deflecting her dagger easily before it jumped back into her hand.
She twisted in midair, planting one hand against the ground instead of her foot. Dirt sprayed beneath her palm as she spun around the blade in a blur of black hair and claws her feet swinging near my face.
Too close.
I didn’t let her get back up before I swung.
She didn't dodge, just deflected the cleaver with her claws.
It struck the flat of the cleaver with a SCREEEECH making me take a small step back.
Only she would make deflecting a 30lb weapon look easy.
She used the impact instead of resisting it, letting it throw her backward while her dagger flashed toward my ribs.
I knocked her wrist with my forearm and the blade skimmed my coat.
A heartbeat slower… and I'd be bleeding.
"You've gotten slower." I say to her.
"You've gotten predictable." She smirks back.
"That's rich coming from someone who still attacks my left." I snorted.
Her smile faltered, only for a second but I saw it.
She lunged again, this time she came high.
A feint. I ignored it.
The real strike came low.
Always.
I caught her ankle before her kick landed, my fingers locking around it. Instead of struggling, she smiled.
I let go and flinch a second too late as I feel a sharp burn rip across the back of my hand.
The dagger.
I hadn't even seen it leave her fingers.
It hovered beside my wrist before shooting back into her waiting hand.
She rolled free and landed lightly.
Blood dripped between my fingers.
“Most people would consider magic cheating,” I say to her wiping my hand
“You’re cleaver is goblin made too and deflects magic,”
“I don’t need it to beat you,”
She smiles at me again and drops the dagger, “Neither do I,”
My weapon hit the ground with a heavy thud. She attacked before the cleaver finished falling.
A straight punch to my shoulder. Yesterday, I wouldn’t have been able to swing my arm to grab her, but now I feel a power pulsing in me that I hadn’t felt in a long time.
I caught her wrist and her momentum carried her into me, making it easy to grab the other one.
And the world...
Stopped.
The shouting faded.
The crowd disappeared.
Every ache I'd lived with for five years—
Gone.
Not less.
Gone.
The relief hit so suddenly my knees nearly buckled and my grip loosened. She should have used that moment to step back to attack, but instead she stayed.
She felt it too.
Heat flooded through my chest. Not the sharp pain I'd grown used to.
Something deeper.
Something that pulled instead of burned.
At first I thought it was just a warm shock, but with each pulse I realize it wasn’t just a dark search in my soul, it was pure longing.
It wanted—
No.
I shoved the thought away so violently it almost hurt.
Her breathing caught.
Mine matched it.
Neither of us spoke.
Neither of us moved.
My hands were still around her wrists.
Her heartbeat pounded beneath my palms.
Fast.
Too fast.
Mine answered it.
A pulse.
Then another.
Like they were trying to become one rhythm.
Disgust curled in my stomach.
I released her so hard she stumbled backward.
“Are you guys done?” Gallie’s annoyed small voice rings out, “I want to go!”
She steps out of the carriage with a big leap.
“We are just deciding something, pup,” Raiya voice softens as she turns back to the child.
The child looks small for her age, black hair in a bob with big eyes and an excited grin. She doesn’t have the haunted look any of the children who grew up in the war have. She looks free and happy.
“Hi!” I crouch down to her height, “You must be Gallie,”
“Yep!” She smiles a big toothy grin to me before she grabs my hand. Her hand is so small that it only wraps around two of my fingers “You should drive, Raiya is terrible,”
“Gallie! You can’t be serious about him coming along?” Raiya asks surprised .
“If he can fight you and not die, he’s definitely good!” Gallie’s voice rings out, “Please come!”
“But is he right?” Mara asks Raiya “Is this trip dangerous?”
“Yes,” I answer, “You need all the help you can get,”
Raiya looks at me in disbelief that I'm going along with this.
“You want to come knowing I am going?”
“I want to complete my mission,” I say back to her, “You protect the pup and I'll focus on Mara,”
Raiya gets in between me and Gallie making sure to lower her voice, but her anger carries.
“Have you forgotten what happened last time we went on a trip?” She yells whispers at me.
“I haven’t forgotten a single thing you’ve done,” I look straight at her as I say this.
I watch her shift uncomfortably, an inch of guilt passing her eyes.
Good. I need it if I'm going to convince her to go on this trip with me.
It will be easier to kill her and make it look like an accident on the road.
She nods at me before she gets in the carriage, “You’re steering the horses,”
That’s the only reason i’m going. To kill her. That’s it.
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