by T. A. White
“Oh boy,” Caden said softly.
Shea wasn’t encouraged when he jerked his head at the other two who turned and walked away, leaving Shea facing Fallon with Caden at her back.
“Yes. You upset me when you bodily moved me from where I intended to sleep.” Remembering the events sent a thread of that same anger through her body. She might have decided she didn’t want him dead, but that didn’t mean she’d forgotten all the insults he’d piled on over the past few days.
“I see.”
He did?
Without warning, he grabbed the front of her shirt and jerked her up to his face, leaving her balancing on tiptoes as he snarled down at her.
“Do you have any idea what I would do to you if you were any other person?” He shook her. “Any other man in my army would be up on charges for abandoning a post.” Another shake. “The penalty for that is death. Death, you daft woman. You drive me mad. I could have you beaten bloody and then quartered.”
“Yes, yes. I get it,” Shea said sarcastically. She even rolled her eyes for emphasis. All of her good intentions flew the coop in the face of his fury. “You’re the big, scary warlord, and I’ve embarrassed you in front of all your men. Shame on me. Should I apologize My Lord High and Mighty?”
All of a sudden the anger drained from his face, leaving behind a man oozing lethality with every move he made, as he gently drew one finger down the column of her throat. “Is that all you think you’ve done, my fire? Embarrass me?” he chuckled, his voice sinfully low. “If you had been my Tolroi, maybe. As my aide, you’ve disobeyed me, flaunted our laws and abandoned your duty. That contains entirely different repercussions. Now what am I going to do with you?”
Shea swallowed hard, feeling his hand encircle the base of her throat, his thumb moving up and down the side of her neck in a caress that sent shivers rushing down her back.
“If I were you, I would be thanking me for coming back, especially when you hear what I have to say. I could have left. Headed for home, but I came back. To you. That should grant me some mercy.”
His eyes sharpened with interest, though he didn’t move his hand, just kept up that maddening caress.
Receiving a slight nod to continue, Shea said, “There’s an ambush coming. I’m not sure where or how many men lie in wait, but I know there are men posed to strike.”
Fallon’s caress stopped and Caden moved around front, watching her carefully.
“Continue,” Fallon said.
“I overheard two men talking out there about looking for someone. I think they were looking for you, and I don’t think they planned to be very friendly when they finally caught up to you. They were planning an ambush.”
“Did you know them or see what they were wearing?” Caden asked.
Shea shook her head. “No, I heard them coming and hid since they were coming from the opposite direction of camp.”
The two men shared a look, but neither seemed surprised. As if they were expecting an attack.
Shea thought back to Darius’s concern over Fallon leaving with only a hundred men, seeing it in a different light. Had he known even then?
If so, why? As bait, maybe? A way to draw out the traitors hiding in Fallon’s ranks?
This whole excursion could be one giant trap. A counter ambush that took care of Fallon’s opposition in one fell swoop.
Shea looked around the clearing with new eyes, seeing things she had missed before. There was none of the ease the men would typically have at the end of a day. Instead of playing cards or bones, men polished swords and fixed what little armor they wore. There was an alertness about them that said they were prepared for an attack at any moment.
Shea had thought nothing of it earlier, attributing it to behavior befitting an elite group of warriors. The best in the army if camp fire gossip was to be believed. Now, she saw it as something else entirely.
“You knew about the attack,” Shea said, a little dazed at the astounding risk he was taking.
“We hoped our enemies would take advantage of our situation,” Fallon told her.
“We never thought it would come this soon,” Caden groused. “We’re barely a day out from the main encampment. Considering slow poke’s pace today, we didn’t make it nearly as far as we would have normally.”
“Hey!” Shea exclaimed. “You gave me a pony that was half as tall as your mounts.”
Caden scoffed and turned back to Fallon. “We can send scouts to pinpoint their position. It might give us an idea of where and when they are planning to attack. Might even tell us who is behind everything.”
“Their leader is a woman from the sound of it,” Shea chimed in, tired of being on the periphery of the conversation.
“What do you mean? I thought you didn’t see them. You couldn’t have seen if they were wearing clan covers if you didn’t lay eyes on them.” Caden sounded suspicious.
“I didn’t say I saw them. However, they kept talking about a lady. Said Fallon was an oath breaker who led her on and broke her heart.”
“Indra,” Fallon spat out.
“I told you that woman wouldn’t take your refusal of her bed lightly.” Caden groused.
“I never made her promises or indicated she would rule beside me as Telroi.”
“Aye. I know it, and we know she’s not in this alone. There has to be at least one other feeding her information and helping her plan,” Caden said.
When they both looked at Shea, she shrugged. “Don’t look at me. That’s pretty much the extent of what I heard out there. Anything else and you’ll have to figure it out on your own.”
“You’ve been very helpful,” Fallon observed.
Caden cleared his throat hiding what sounded suspiciously like a chuckle. “I’ll see to the men while you tame your mouse.”
With Caden’s departure, Fallon focused solely on Shea, pinning her under an intense gaze that saw through her every defense straight to the person hiding inside.
It was a heady feeling, imagining he knew her every secret, her every desire. For someone whom loneliness was practically a state of being, it made her feel wanted, cherished even.
“You have a choice to make,” Fallon said, stepping close and bending his head towards her. “You either become my Tolroi or you leave, tonight. Where you go, I don’t care as long as you’re gone from here.”
Shea’s breath stuttered and she blinked. Then blinked again. She’d expected him to yell. Castigate her for taking off alone. Maybe, if she was lucky, thank her for the intelligence she had happened across. Offering to let her go back to the Highlands was not even on the list. It was nowhere near the list and in fact would be the very last thing she ever thought to hear from his mouth.
“You’d do that. You’d let me go back to the Highlands?”
“Yes,” he confirmed.
No thoughts showed on his face, no hint as to his feelings. He was every inch the untouchable warlord in that moment.
He reached behind her and undid the rope binding her hands.
Shea couldn’t help the feeling of uncertainty. As recently as that afternoon, she would have taken the second option without a moment’s doubt. Her inner struggle on the ridge had thrown all of that off center. She had decided to come back, to give this life a chance, to see if it held what she’d been searching for since the moment she could walk.
Now he was telling her she had a choice.
It was easy to stay when there was no choice. It was even easy when a person’s life hung in the balance.
But this choice would be different. She would have to choose it willingly. Eyes opened and accepting of any consequences that might come.
She had warned Fallon. He and his men wouldn’t be surprised by any ambush. Eamon and the others’ lives were no longer in the balance. She could walk away free and clear and never suffer a crises of conscience.
“What if I stayed as a scout?”
“No. You’d have to be my Tolroi.”
Shea wanted to stomp h
er foot like a three year old. She settled for a grimace. “You’re being absurd. Let me stay as a scout, and I’ll consider becoming your Tolroi.”
“You already know my answer to that.”
“Why? Why is this so important to you?”
He moved then, grabbing the front of her shirt and pulling her up to his face before wrapping one arm around her back to support her. “Because you have already made your choice whether you’re willing to admit it or not. Because when you were gone I knew fear such as I have not known since I was a boy watching my father die, and my mother take her own life rather than face dishonor, not because I thought you had run to my enemies but because you were out there somewhere on your own, perhaps hurt or scared or in pain, and I wasn’t there to help you. But mostly, because you are mine, and I crave the same commitment from you.”
He snarled such sweet words in such an angry voice, as if he wasn’t thrilled with these reasons but accepted them none the less.
The most profound words Shea had ever heard, the kind that etched themselves deep into the soul. She knew if she lived a hundred years she would remember them.
Slowly, inch by slow inch, she slid out of his arms until she was fully supporting her own weight. He straightened and stared impassively down at her. An outsider looking in would never have suspected the depth of emotion he’d just given her seconds ago.
Arching one eyebrow, he told her, “You should also know, should you choose to return to your Highlands, that once I have dealt with the traitors in my midst, I will march my army into the heart of those lands and not stop until I have you again.”
After a stunned moment, Shea threw her head back and laughed. “You are a warlord.”
The laughter faded and her gaze was soft as it landed on him. A small smile played on her lips.
Her choice was an easy one. It had been made a long time ago. Perhaps as long ago as that day she had looked up at the platform and seen a pair of whiskey colored eyes staring back at her.
It wasn’t in her nature to give everything so easily, however.
“I’m staying,” she informed him before turning her back and making her way over to her blankets.
“As my Tolroi,” he bellowed after her.
“We’ll see,” she called back.
A grin overtook her face as she headed for their sleeping area. Cocky bastard.
That was the last moment of levity that night. After that, the men were busy with preparations. Everyone knew an attack was imminent, but not where it would come from or what odds they faced. Caden dispatched scouts following a conversation with Fallon. Shea tried to volunteer to show them where she had encountered the enemy, but Fallon said no and once the warlord decided something nobody was willing to argue.
After that, there was nothing to do but wait.
Fallon joined Shea where she had bedded down for the night, scooping her up and pulling her with him under his blankets.
“My Tolroi sleeps with me,” he informed her.
He arranged her so her front was pressed to his side and her head on his chest. He cushioned his head on one arm and looked up at the starry night sky peeking through the trees.
“Is this going to become a thing? Where you make a statement of what your Tolroi does and expect me to follow it?” Shea asked, drawing her fingers in a light caress on his chest.
“It is not a statement. It’s fact.”
Shea smiled. In their past interactions, she hadn’t noticed how funny he was. He’d always struck her as serious.
This thing between them felt so new and yet old at the same time. She pressed a kiss against his skin. She hoped they lived long enough to explore it further.
Chapter Twenty Three
Shea stirred when her pillow shifted under her. A rumble under her ear and a voice speaking quietly over her head brought her fully to consciousness.
“What’s going on?” she asked sleepily as Fallon carefully slid out from under her, lowering her to the ground.
“The scouts have returned.”
Shea sat up.
“Go back to sleep,” he told her.
“Listen, you. If this thing between us is to work, you’re going to have to treat me as a partner or I walk. Not in everything.” She held up a hand to forestall the automatic refusal she saw coming. “You’re the warlord. I get it and I have no interest in being involved with every little thing you do, but when it concerns me and my wellbeing or a skill I excel at, you will involve me and treat me as an equal.”
“I do not respond well to ultimatums,” he informed her.
“I don’t respond well to being pushed to the side or patted on the head.”
The man who had woken them left as they had a mini stare down. In this, Shea was not budging. She knew that in many things she would have to compromise, but this was one thing she knew to be essential to her happiness and continued well-being. He either learned to live with it, or she would take him up on the other choice he’d offered her last night.
“Fair enough,” he said grudgingly.
Shea held back the relief she felt, knowing that at the first sign of smugness he might recant.
“It won’t always go your way this easily,” he told her.
“I’m counting on it. What’s life without a little challenge?”
A flash of teeth in the darkness should have warned her. He grasped her behind the neck and hauled her to him, pressing his lips against hers, consuming her in a passionate kiss that left her panting afterwards.
He buried his face against the side of her neck as they both struggled to catch their breath. She felt his lips curve in a smile as he pulled away. “Well, let’s go, my fire.”
Caden, Trenton and another man waited for them near the fire. Shea looked around, picking out the outlines of the rest of Fallon’s men in the dark. Though it was the middle of the night, very early morning to be precise, all were awake. Either sitting, standing or in the process of packing their gear.
A map was spread out close to the flames and pinned to the ground with small rocks. Colored pebbles were placed where Shea estimated their current position to be. Different pebbles were placed a fair distance further down the map as a representation of their enemy.
“We’ve managed to locate their force and believe they plan to attack once we reach this point.” Caden indicated the spot on the map.
“Why there?” Fallon asked.
“They’ll be able to place archers on the cliff here.” Another pointed finger. “Since our way narrows up ahead with a thick forest of trees and brush on one side and the hills closing in on us behind it. There’s no way we’d be able to veer left. If they cut off both our way forward and to the rear, they could potentially deal heavy damage even with a small force.”
The area Caden had shown on the map was several miles further north and west of where Shea had traveled the previous evening so she didn’t have firsthand experience with the territory. It seemed a fairly accurate assessment from the information laid out before them.
“How did they even get in front of us? We were riding slowly, but not that slow,” Trenton said.
“We only told this route to one person. The rest of our suspects were given an alternate route.” Caden said with his eyes firmly fixed on the map. “We have a traitor, someone high up in the ranks.”
Fallon sighed heavily. “You mean my half-brother.”
Shea’s head lifted in surprise. She’d met him. The half-brother had been Fallon’s polar opposite. Convinced of his own superiority but without Fallon’s charisma and force of presence to back it up.
“You know he’s been jealous of you for years,” Caden said softly.
“Jealousy is a long leap to assassination,” Fallon said. “No, until we have concrete proof I will not accuse him. The information could have leaked another way.”
“Fallon-”
“Enough. No more on this subject,” Fallon snapped. “We’ll learn one way or another in a short time.”
&nbs
p; “Unless the mastermind slips back to the main camp,” Shea said. When all three pairs of eyes came to rest on her, she shifted. Perhaps she should have kept her observation to herself. She shrugged, “It just seems he or she has been good at covering their tracks up until now. It would be an unnecessary risk to stick around to make sure the deed is done when you’ve slipped from their trap so many times before.”
“That’s exactly why I think the involved party will be here,” Fallon told her. “They’re growing frustrated. They’ll want to make sure nothing goes wrong this time and to gloat at finally having my neck under their sword. You attribute a level of intelligence to them they simply do not possess.”
Shea didn’t know about that. Their plans seemed pretty clever to her. It was pure dumb luck she interfered on two separate occasions.
“We’ll need to turn their trap against them,” Fallon said. “With the difficult and unfamiliar terrain, it would be foolish to try to attack before first light.”
He was right. If he tried to have his men attack now, they were just as likely to fall off a cliff in the dark, or get thrown from a horse and break their neck, as carry out the attack successfully. Not knowing the land greatly hindered them. Lucky for them, their opponent wasn’t any more familiar with this territory.
Fallon studied the map for a long moment before finally saying, “We’ll need to spring the trap. I’ll lead my men into it. Caden will take a group and attack the archers waiting above on the cliff. If we take care of them, it will be easier to fight our way through the men in the valley.”
Easier, but not guaranteed. Fallon’s men would be fighting on two fronts. Nobody had mentioned the numbers they faced so Shea figured they didn’t have a good estimate. That number could be significantly greater than the small force Fallon had brought.
Trenton sighed. “Looks like the boys are in for a time of it.”
Fallon clapped him on the back. “Wouldn’t be the first time, nor I suspect, the last. We’ll leave before dawn. If we can get there before they’re expecting us, we can throw off their timing.”