Rae of Hope

by W.J. May

  I’m sorry, now that what’s settled? And what terms? The fairies didn’t say anything about terms.

  Katerina shifted nervously, suddenly afraid to meet his eyes. “Okay…”

  For his part, Dylan had no trouble looking at her. And he had a way of forcing people to look back at him, whether they wanted to or not. “You want protection, is that right? A safe haven until the danger hanging over your head has passed?”

  “Yes, that’s right,” Katerina answered, feeling more and more anxious all the while.

  Dylan paused for a moment, thinking, before suddenly making up his mind. “I’ll do it for a price.”

  A price?! I don’t have two shillings to rub together!

  Katerina shook her head slowly, trapped in the hypnotic gaze of those eyes. “I have nothing to give you. If I did…it would be different. But I don’t have a thing.”

  He stared at her for a moment before touching the front of her dress. “What about that?”

  She froze for a second, then jerked back like she’d been burned, gasping in disbelief. “EXCUSE ME??”

  His eyes twinkled but he didn’t back down. Instead, he reached out a long finger to catch the chain around her neck, slowly pulling out her mother’s pendant.

  “That’s beautiful,” he murmured, his eyes dancing with the magical glow. “And expensive.”

  “It was my mother’s.” Katerina’s eyes watered involuntarily as she took a step back. “I can’t give it away. You can have anything else…but not that.”

  Dylan’s eyes cooled as he slowly lowered his hand. He looked at her appraisingly for a moment before turning on his heel and walking away. “Fine.”

  He left without a backwards glance. Without even telling her which direction they were headed. Her hand clutched the pendant as silent tears streamed down her face, but just before he disappeared around the bend in the road he glanced back. “Your mother…she’d want you to live, wouldn’t she?”

  * * *

  Nine hours later, Katerina and Dylan were sitting around a roaring campfire in the middle of the woods. The chain was around his neck. Not hers.

  Opportunistic bastard…

  She eyed it sullenly, itching to steal it back. Not only had she been forced to give up the one thing left in the world she could call her own, a precious memento of her deceased mother, but it looked as though the necklace was almost happy to be rid of her. Instead of cooling and dulling the way it had when she left the castle, it seemed to glow even brighter the second it touched his skin.

  Traitorous pendant…

  “You’re going to have to get that face of yours under control if you want to make any new friends out here in the woods.”

  Unlike the princess, Dylan was obnoxiously cheerful. He poked happily at the fire, sending up a spray of sparks, before passing her a stick with a bit of roasted squirrel.

  She stared down in complete revulsion, turning up her nose.

  “You’ll also have to learn to eat when we’re lucky enough to find food,” he said softly.

  She shot him a hostile glare as he propped the stick back up atop the flames. There was probably a point to what he was saying, but at this point she was too irritable to hear it. And furthermore, she’d like nothing better than to wipe that infuriating smile right off his face. “I thought you were going to have to fight those dwarves,” she said suddenly, imagining each one of them taking a piece out of him in turn. The thought made her smile.

  He flashed her a peculiar look, returning his attention to the fire. “Good thing I didn’t. Dwarves are tough fighters. Don’t be fooled by their size.”

  “I won’t.” The mask of anger fell away as she lifted a hand to the side of her face, wincing as she touched the tender skin where Castor had struck her.

  Dylan dropped what he was doing immediately and knelt by her side, frowning sympathetically as he removed her hand and examined it for himself. “You should put some meat on that.”

  She pulled away in surprise, staring at him like it might be some kind of joke. “Meat?”

  A flicker of what looked almost like embarrassment flashed across his face before he pulled back with a scowl, returning to his seat on the opposite side of the fire. “If you don’t have ice, raw meat is the best thing. You’ll learn that soon enough. Use some of the squirrel.”

  Katerina matched his scowl with one of her own. “I’m not putting that dead squirrel on my face. And if you don’t see anything strange about that statement, you’ve been living in the woods too long.”

  “Maybe I have.” He gave her a cool smile. “But I’m not the one who’s going to wake up with a massive migraine because she was too proud to indulge in a natural remedy.”

  Before the argument could continue he pushed to his feet, leaving her to either take his advice or not, however she saw fit. She watched as he disappeared into the tent. Waited until he was completely out of sight. Then she grabbed the stick of meat off the fire and tore into it with her teeth, too ravenous to care much where it had come from.

  He watched quietly from inside the tent. Never to say a word.

  * * *

  The plan was to get lost in the woods. Too deep into the wilderness for anyone who could be tracking. Too far off the grid for Katerina’s family to ever find her. Of course, she alone knew the truth. She knew they weren’t dealing with a trio of vengeful uncles. She knew that her family happened to employ different people to fight their battles.

  Assassins, spies, mercenaries, hounds.

  With the weight of the entire kingdom behind him, there was very little that her brother couldn’t do in terms of finding her and bringing her back to the castle in chains. Or worse.

  But as frightening as that possibility was, Katerina had to admit that even Kailas was going to have a hard time finding her with Dylan by her side. It wasn’t just that the man set a brutal pace and forced her to follow it twelve hours a day. It wasn’t just that he insisted they traipse through every river, trek up every mountain quarry in the hopes of losing her scent.

  The man was meticulous.

  He was awake by the time Katerina opened her eyes each morning, and was still patrolling the campsite by the time she went to sleep. No detail was too small to escape his attention. No element was too trivial to ignore. Upon seeing a cluster of inexplicably broken branches, he’d once insisted they make a three-day detour, rappelling down the side of some nearby cliffs. When Katerina woke up in the middle of the night, convinced she’d heard a noise, he went on the warpath, combing through every inch of the woods before he came back with a slain raccoon that the two of them proceeded to eat for dinner.

  Every move was carefully planned. Every plan was meticulously executed.

  But not even the greatest ranger in the world could account for every problem. No matter how hard one tried to ward against it, there were bound to be some mistakes. Like the mistake Katerina walked straight into one balmy afternoon.

  It all started when she decided she wanted a bath…

  They had been travelling together for two weeks, but despite spending every waking moment together they’d made very little progress in terms of communication. They hardly ever said a word unless they were setting up the campsite. She could count on one hand the number of times she’d heard him laugh. Most of which were at her expense. And yet, a strange sort of familiarity had sprung up between them. A kind of shorthand they were barely aware of themselves.

  Yes, the road they shared was incredibly quiet. But it was an attentive kind of quiet. A quiet full of secret looks and hidden glances. A quiet that was slowly driving Katerina insane.

  She knew he watched her—same as she watched him. It was part of his job, but even if it wasn’t she didn’t think the man could resist. Not after he’d pledged to protect her. Even on the rare moments he was out hunting for their food, she still got the feeling he was keeping tabs on her. That he was never very far away.

  Of course, that was the very rule she was about to break.
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br />   “I’m going for a swim,” she declared out of the blue. “There’s a river nearby. I’ll go now.”

  Dylan looked up from where he’d been assembling the fire. He knew there was a river nearby, it was where he’d caught the fish he was preparing to cook. But close as it was, he had absolutely no intention of letting her out of his sight.

  “The water’s freezing,” he said dismissively, returning to his work. “You’ll hate it.”

  Nice try. But you can’t stop me.

  “I’m sure I won’t.” She pushed to her feet, flashing him a sweet smile. “At any rate, it’s not just a swim. I need a bath. And need to wash this dress. It’s been days since the last rain.”

  His hands paused over the kindling as his eyes flickered up to the sky, silently hoping the sun would cloud over and it would start to rain right then and there. When that didn’t happen, he pushed to his feet with a sigh. “Look, Kat, I know it’s been a long time and we’ve been moving at a fast pace, but it’s just not a good idea for you to go off on your own. I could come with you—”

  “Not a chance!” Katerina exclaimed. “I’m going to be naked, Dylan. As in, not wearing any clothes. No, you most certainly cannot come with me!”

  “Well, you’re certainly not going alone,” he fired back, folding his arms across his chest.

  Okay…maybe he can stop me.

  She took a step towards the water, weighing her chances of beating him there on foot. But when he raised a single eyebrow, her shoulders wilted with a sigh. “Dylan, it’s been weeks,” she said quietly, lowering her eyes to the ground. “I know things are dangerous, and I appreciate what you’re doing—I really do—but I need a break.”

  Her defeated tone softened him, as she’d hoped it would, and he glanced back at the river, a worried line creasing down the center of his forehead.

  “It’s just a dip,” she added quickly. “I’ll be in and out. I swear.”

  He hesitated a second more, considering, before his eyes locked onto hers. “Will you talk to me?”

  She blinked, trying to understand. “What?”

  “Will you talk to me?” he asked again. “I’ll stay far enough away so I can’t see anything, but you have to talk to me—the whole time. Let me know you’re all right.”

  Overprotective much?

  …not that I should be complaining about that.

  “Agreed.” Katerina beamed victoriously, thrilled with her success. Not only was she allowed to go on a little excursion, but he’d be forced to break this wretched silence barrier as well. “Now?”

  He actually chuckled, glancing down at the half-made fire. The next second he pushed gracefully to his feet, kicking a wave of dirt over the top of it. “Why not.”

  The princess was so pleased with her impromptu swim in the river that she was unintentionally forgetting a few important things. A towel—for one. Leeches, for another. Not to mention the fact that she was going to be having a conversation with Dylan while completely naked.

  It might not have seemed like a lot to other people. And judging by what she’d seen at the bar, the man was most certainly used to it. But the castle had certain rules. The royal family had certain rules. And her father, the late king, was nothing short of terrifying in enforcing them. She had never been alone with a man until a few days ago, discounting Alwyn and Kailas. Let alone allowed to go on a two-week-long camping trip, unsupervised in a tiny tent. And while Dylan had been nothing but a perfect gentleman, to be honest he seemed borderline disinterested, she had the sneaking suspicion that this naked jump into the river might change that.

  By the time they’d reached the shore, she’d worked herself into a full-on fright.

  “You know what?” she began nervously, staring down at the crystalline water. “You were right. This is a bad idea. Let’s just head back to camp. I’ll help with the fire.”

  Dylan’s eyes danced with amusement as he cocked his head innocently to the side. “Too cold?”

  She nodded quickly, grateful for the escape. “Yeah—way too cold.”

  There was an incriminating pause.

  “But you haven’t even felt it yet.”

  An even longer pause. Followed by a guilty, sideways glance.

  “I feel like maybe I didn’t think this through…”

  He laughed shortly before turning abruptly on his heel, heading off into the thick grove of trees. “Relax, princess. You’re not my type.”

  Ridiculous. I’ve everybody’s type.

  She glared after him for a moment, kicking off her shoes and turning back to the river. It was a steep climb down, but there were a lot of reeds growing along the side to help her. In only a moment or so she was standing in the frothy surf, which turned out to be pleasantly warm.

  “Freezing water, huh,” she muttered under her breath. “Yeah, I’m sure I’ll hate it.”

  “What was that?” Dylan called from the trees. “I can’t hear you.”

  A warning to speak up. And to keep talking.

  Katerina sighed, then pulled her new dress up over her head, draping it carefully across the rocks so it couldn’t get wet. She’d clean it later. For now, she wanted to swim. With a giant smile she pushed out into the open waves, tilting onto her back and staring up at the cloudless sky. “I said I wish the fairies had just given me a guard dog. It would’ve been a lot easier.”

  He laughed quietly as he walked through the trees, humming a tuneless melody under his breath. “For you and me both, sweetheart.”

  She grinned in spite of herself, stretching up an arm to trace nonsense figures into the air. “So you never told me…why did you agree to help me?”

  Of course, she’d already seen the note. She already knew that Marigold had created a massive guilt trip out of something in his past. But he didn’t know she knew that. He probably didn’t realize he’d even lost the note. As far as he was concerned, she was completely in the dark.

  “Oh, you know…” He kicked absentmindedly at the pebbles and stones in his path. “An overdeveloped sense of masochism.”

  She snorted out loud then quickly covered her mouth, glancing nervously at the shoreline. “I’m serious,” she insisted, unwilling to let him off the hook. “Why did you come back? You certainly didn’t have to—you made that perfectly clear back at the village.”

  A rather awkward moment of silence followed the statement and Katerina bit her lip nervously, glancing again at the shore. She hadn’t meant to make him feel guilty. She simply wanted to know his side. And maybe get him to tell her a little more about himself in the process.

  Something he was clearly unwilling to do.

  “You ask a lot of questions for a girl on the run,” he deflected. “Don’t you, Kat.”

  She froze mid-paddle, staring unblinkingly through the trees. “What the heck’s that supposed to mean? You’re out of dead rodents to torment me, so you’re making fun of my name now?”

  “Not in the slightest,” he replied. “It’s a perfectly lovely name. Is there a last name that goes with it? Or did it burn up with your family farm?”

  If I didn’t need him so much, I’d kill him myself.

  She ducked under the water with a silent scream, then resurfaced in perfect calm. “I’m not even dignifying that with an answer.”

  He chuckled again. She had the terrible feeling that he could somehow hear the scream. “As long as you answer me something, princess. You need to keep talking.”

  “Oh yeah?” she shot back. “And what about you? You took my mother’s pendant—the most precious thing in the world to me. I’ve officially bought the privilege of traipsing around in the mud with you, except—”

  “Except what?”

  “—except I don’t know a thing about you!” She threw her hands up in exasperation, sending a shower of water droplets shimmering into the sky. “You could be an oversized leprechaun for all I know. A cannibal who’s waiting until the next full moon to eat me alive.”

  “Right on both counts.”
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  “I’m serious.” She grinned again in spite of herself, simultaneously hating the way he was always able to make her do that. “Tell me something about you. I think I deserve that.”

  “You paid for protection, princess. Not information. You don’t deserve a bloody thing.”

  She hesitated, glancing at the shoreline with a coy smile. “All right…I want to know.”

  There was a lengthy pause. Followed by a quiet sigh.

  “What do you want to know?”

  “Everything,” she said immediately, paddling closer so she could better hear. “Start at the beginning. Where are you from? What’s your family like? When did you decide to trade in all your mother’s good manners and become a thief?”

  He laughed again, clear and loud. A contagious, sparkling sound that seemed to echo through the trees. It brightened everything around it, bringing a glowing smile to Katerina’s face.

  “What makes you think my mother wasn’t a thief?” he asked, and she could hear the grin in his voice. “Maybe I was born in a den of thieves. Or to a group of carnival clowns, travelling from village to village. I was in charge of tending to the elephants. This isn’t even my true height.”

  “You really can’t do it, can you?” she laughed. “You really can’t tell the truth.”

  “Of course I can.”

  “Tell me something true.”

  “One of my limbs is actually artificial.”

  She burst out laughing again, dunking her head under the water and running her fingers through her silky red hair. By the time she resurfaced he was already in his third or fourth stanza, detailing the nonsensical fallacies of his life. Each as fantastical as the last.

  “—at which point I dedicated my time to the study of croquet—”

  A sudden noise in the bushes made her jump. Another noise was soon to follow. Dylan was still chattering on obliviously, but whatever it was had been close. And big. And it was far too deliberate not to have been intentional.

  Call for Dylan. Call for Dylan!

  It was the obvious thing to do. Given the fact that she couldn’t fight, it was the only logical option. But in the blind adrenaline that followed, it never even crossed her mind.