by K. L. Thorne
“Is there anything I can do?”
“Actually, yes. I'm going to need your help to bind it up. That's the only chance I stand of being able to get anywhere fast today. It's definitely more painful than it was yesterday, that's for sure.”
“Sure, what do I need to do?” Lori tucked her wild hair behind her ears.
“Well, first I need to pee. I don't need your help for that.” He grinned and Lori pulled a face playfully. “But once I return, I'm going to need you to get some supplies out of my pack. I'll tell you which ones you'll need.”
“Aye, Captain.” Lori mock saluted him, shooting him a wide smile.
Lephas just shook his head and turned to traipse a little way into the undergrowth to relieve himself. The faerie turned and crawled back into the log for his belongings.
When he returned, the demon found her sat on an old, rotten tree stump that she had scraped the snow off. Lori had his pack open in front of her between her knees and the bottle of whisky in her hands, eyeing it curiously.
“Trust you to find that first.” Lephas laughed, wincing as pain shot through his side once more.
“Why have you got booze in here? Were you expecting a party?” She tugged the stopper free and leant in to sniff the contents.
Lephas carefully began unbuckling his leather chest armour. “I found it back at the farmhouse. I thought it might be useful as a bit of a pick-me-up when we got too cold.”
“It's strong, whatever it is. Whisky?”
“Do you know much about whisky?” Lephas cocked a brow.
“I've tried a dram or two in my time. This one smells good, it's old.”
Lephas shrugged out of his armour and threw the heavy material down onto the snow. The crisp morning air was refreshing after being in the same clothes for three days. He rolled the hem of his thin undershirt up and looked down at the source of pain in his side.
A dark, angry looking bruise had formed with significant swelling beneath the skin. He cursed under his breath. Definitely at least one broken rib, though thankfully it was probably only a hairline fracture. He supposed he should be grateful there were no bones poking out through his skin or anything more serious.
“Maybe when we rest up this evening we can give this a try.” Lori continued, still appraising the whisky bottle. “We haven't got any glasses, but I–”
The girl cut herself off abruptly. Lephas raised his head questioningly, alarmed when he found Lori eyeing him with great interest.
“...What?!” he exclaimed, dropping the hem of his shirt and turning to face her.
“Don't let me disturb you. I'm just... Enjoying the view.” Lori pressed her lips together.
“Shut up!” Lephas grimaced with embarrassment.
“What? This is the first time I've seen you without all that extra padding on.” She looked him up and down heatedly.
“Just... Find me the long, wide bandage in there will you?” The commander gestured to his travel bag, turning his back on the faerie to hide his undoubtedly pink cheeks. He ran a hand through his hair.
“Alright, alright – you need to learn to take a compliment” Lori chuckled softly, turning her attention to the bag.
Lephas grabbed the hem of his shirt again but hesitated. It would make the task easier if he took the shirt off completely but he felt uncomfortable and bashful now the princess had referred to 'enjoying the view'. He didn't have much time to consider it. Lori appeared by his side with a large, folded bandage.
“This one?” she asked.
“Yeah, that's it.” Lephas nodded, taking it from her and unfurling it. “If you hold it still, I'll pull it tight and wrap it around my chest. The tighter the better. I need to try to stabilise the fracture.”
Lori's blue eyes were already pinned to his torso, sparkling with curiosity. Lephas felt a fresh blush rising in his cheeks. Biting the bullet, Lephas lifted his shirt once again and attempted to awkwardly pull it up over his head without disturbing his rib.
“Wow, that's nice.” Lori sighed longingly.
“Will you bloody quit it?” Lephas dropped the shirt back down, fixing the princess with an incredulous look.
Lori reached out and lifted the material up to expose his abs. “Sorry, I just– I honestly didn't realise men could actually look like that in real life.”
“What are you talking about?” Lephas snapped, wondering just how much more embarrassed he could get before the snow would start to thaw around him from the heat in his face.
“My sisters and I found an old, dog-eared romance book in the library back at home once. We weren't sure how it had got there, but we read the damn thing over and over. We spent a silly amount of time looking at the shirtless hero on the front cover, heartbroken that real-life men didn't look like he did...”
Lori smiled seductively and her eyes dropped to his chest again.
“And yet, here you are. My sisters would be so jealous,” she sighed.
She wasn't joking, Lephas realised with a start. The girl's high cheekbones were flushed. She genuinely liked what she was seeing. His gut tightened with desire. Before that moment, he had never given much thought to his physique past the practical uses for being as strong and as fit as possible in combat.
The demon took the hem of his shirt from Lori’s grasp and pulled it off over his head decisively. His rib protested with a sharp stab but he ignored it.
There was a long, heated silence whilst the faerie appraised him. Lephas stood still, determined to not shy away from her as he desperately wanted to. He held the bandage out to her and she took it but didn’t take her eyes off him.
“Hold it here,” he instructed, swallowing thickly and gesturing to the middle of his chest.
Lori eagerly complied and pressed one end of the bandage against him. “Now hold on to it. I need to pull against you to make sure it's wrapped tight enough.”
Lephas turned his attention to the long, trailing end of the material. He pulled hard against it... The bandage flew from the faerie’s grip, jerking him backwards slightly with the recoil.
“Hold on to it, I said.” He winced as he jostled his ribs.
“Sorry, sorry – I was distracted!” Lori smirked. She held the end of the bandage in place once more.
“Got it this time?”
“Yes.” She frowned determinedly.
Lephas stretched the bandage and wrapped it around his chest, taking care not to knock his injury too much. He pulled the material back around to his front and overlapped the piece Lori was still holding.
“Okay, now, let go of that bit. Just hold it in place for me, in case it slips.”
Lori nodded simply and pulled her hands free from the material. Once the first loop was done, Lephas made quick work of tightly strapping the rest. He had just enough bandage to make three loops of his chest before tucking the loose end back under to secure it. His bruised ribs protested underneath the tight constraint but it already felt more secure.
Lephas crouched to grab his shirt, put his arms in and quickly tugged it over his head before Lori had the chance to make any further comments about his physique.
“You could have left it off for just a little bit longer,” she huffed.
“It's bloody freezing out here!” Lephas protested, hurriedly gathering his armour and shrugging it back on.
“Hm, fair point.” Lori conceded with a heavy sigh and turned to walk back to the log.
“We should eat. What have we got left?” Lephas swiftly changed the subject. He gained confidence with every buckle he re-fastened.
“Not a lot.” Lori dug through the bag and pulled out a rather meagre-looking linen food parcel.
Lephas strode over to join her and took the parcel from her hands. Inside were two blood berries, a biscuit and half a strip of jerky. Slim pickings indeed.
“Alright, here...” He picked out the jerky and handed the parcel back to the faerie. “You eat what's left in there. That'll keep us going for now.”
He took a bit
e of the jerky and glanced around the forest. “Maybe I'll be able to find us something else a bit later.”
“I'll be glad if I never see another one of these ever again.” Lori picked up a blood berry and eyed it with suspicion.
“I'll cut it up for you this time.” Lephas grinned and fished a small, foldable knife from a pouch on his belt.
“Please, if you would. I think I've had enough actual blood on my face in the past few days, without adding more.” Her tone grew solemn suddenly and Lephas looked up from the berry he was peeling. The faerie sat back down onto the stump. She pulled one knee up, tucking it to her chest and turned to stare off into the woods.
“How are you feeling this morning?” he asked gently.
“Like I've been turned inside out. He sent them after me, to kill me, didn’t he?”
“It appears that way, but you can't be absolutely sure of that. It could have been a splinter group who had rebelled and were acting on their own.”
Lori shook her head. “No. The one that grabbed me, who nearly…I recognised him from Awrelwood. He's one of my father's most trusted commanders. He sent him, I know it.”
What could he say to that? There were no words that could make something like that hurt less.
“...I'm sorry,” Lephas murmured.
“So am I. Because of me, your men–”” Lori swallowed and fixed him with glassy eyes.
“It's what we do. We all knew the risks when we set out.”
“No, it's my fault.” Lori shook her head, looking away. Lephas knew from her voice that she was growing emotional again. “If I hadn't be so stupid... I ran away from home like a petulant child and now I'm paying the price for it. My father has clearly cut me out of his life, to the point that he now considers me one of his 'loose ends' that need tying up. He'll never stop looking for me. Those men are going to keep coming after me, until—"
“Over my dead body.”
“Quite literally, I fear.” Lori laughed bitterly.
“Hey, I've never lost a prisoner yet. I'm not about to start now.” Lephas joked.
“What about men? Have you lost any of your men before?” Lori pinned him with a hollow stare.
“Unfortunately, yes. Princess, you think this is the first time I've seen friends of mine killed? Captured? You have no idea who your father really is.”
“I'm starting to understand.”
“I've seen your father's men burn entire villages to the ground, ripping children from their mothers, raping women... Losing men? That's part of war I’m far too familiar with, Lori. It's the rest of it that makes me sick.” He looked at her, his face grim.
The faerie looked like she was going to throw up. She shivered.
“Where will they take Haros?” the commander asked. Worry for his friend weighed heavily on his conscience.
“To my father's dungeon. They won't kill him, at least not right away. I'm sure they'll want to question him first. They'll... Torture him to get what they want.” Lori replied quietly, keeping her eyes downcast.
“Shit. I hope he's alright.” Lephas frowned, shaking his head.
“Me too.”
“So, why were you running away in the first place?” he asked.
“My father and I haven't seen eye to eye for some time. He kept my sisters and I locked in the castle grounds, like prisoners. He pretends like it's for our safety, but his paranoia... It's frightening.” She sniffed, wiping a tear from her cheek. So, the rumours of Lazuli's madness were true. Zelrus would be keen to know about this.
“He decided Sivelle – my eldest sister - and I were to be married off. He didn't ask either of us. The first we knew was when we were summoned to the throne room like servants.”
“I take it you weren't keen on that idea?” Lephas asked with a small smile. He handed her a bite-sized cube of blood berry.
“You can say that again. I told him I'd had enough. I refused to marry some stranger I'd never met, especially as he hadn't even had the decency to talk to us about it first. He tried to have me chained up until the wedding day, but my sister persuaded him against it.”
Lephas nodded, listening intently.
“He settled on having me locked in my bedroom. I was in there for about a week before I managed to escape. He was so hell-bent on getting an heir, he was marrying us off like cattle. I wouldn't have put it past him to stand at the foot of the bed to make sure we consummated–” She shook herself.
Lephas had often heard rumours that there was unrest in the faerie capital, now he was certain of it. If Lazuli was locking his own daughters up, the daughters he fought so hard to protect, what else was he doing?
“So, you ran. That's understandable.” He passed another cube of fruit to her.
“Is it? I feel like a fool now. I ran away because Daddy wanted to marry me off. Isn't that just part and parcel of being a royal?”
“Not for demons it isn't.” Lephas shook his head.
“No?” The commander was pleased to see some of the sorrow had left her face, replaced by curiosity.
“No one really knows how royal blooded demons came to be. It's generally thought that because they tend to be bigger and stronger than most of us that they were natural leaders and it just sort of developed over time.”
“So, Zelrus is bigger than you?” Lori gaped.
“He is – both in height and physique. He's quite the domineering figure.” The demon nodded, passing over more fruit.
“I bet.”
“But he's kind and very well respected. You will eventually see for yourself, if we ever get out of this hellhole.” Lephas gestured to the woods around them.
“Demon royals aren't forced to marry then?”
“No, but there is a myth that some of them were 'mated'.”
“Mated? What does that mean?” she asked.
“Essentially, they aren't completely free to choose who they partner with. Some drive, like a mysterious force of nature, compels them to pick a mate that is well suited for carrying on the royal lineage. But I don't know how true that is.” Lephas laughed.
“That's spooky.” Lori chewed thoughtfully.
“Whilst I respect the king, I am not envious of him. I don't think I'd be able to live my life happily if I thought there was some pre-destined mystery woman out there, waiting for me. What if she died before I got a chance to meet her? Or our paths never crossed? No, I prefer to just take every day as it comes.” The commander shook his head.
“So, there's no Mrs Lephas back in Banesteppe then?” Lori giggled.
“Alas, there is not.”
“I wouldn't have thought you were the type to be kissing strange faerie women in the woods if you had a wife waiting for you at home anyway.”
“Hey, you kissed me. I didn't start any of it,” Lephas spluttered.
“I didn't see you fighting me any great deal over it.” Lori said tartly.
“Well, no.” He paused. “I'm not an idiot. I'll take a good thing where I can get one.”
“So, you thought it was good?” Lori teased.
“I think you know as well as I do that it was.”
“Yeah...You want to give it another go?” Lori grinned and hopped to her feet.
“That's not what I–! We've got to get going!” Lephas stuttered.
“Spoil sport.” The faerie pouted playfully.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Though the weather conditions were undeniably easier, Lephas and Lori travelled at a much slower pace.
Lori watched the large demon in front of her. He was holding his side again. That broken rib was really slowing him down, but she wasn't complaining. For once the commander was walking at a comfortable speed for her significantly shorter legs to maintain.
They had been trekking onwards all morning but it felt like they had gotten nowhere fast, though Lori supposed that may have been down to her general incompetence at navigation.
Everything looked the same to her. She marvelled that Lephas somehow seemed to be able to n
avigate his way around despite not really knowing where he was. Before they'd set off, he had scouted around to get his bearings and figured out which way was the most logical for them to head off towards.
Lori had sat with her legs crossed, studying her nails lamenting how many she had snapped and the dark dirt underneath them.
She was extremely grateful that she had been picked up by the demon, more so than she would ever let on. Lori doubted she would have survived the night without him.
It was a strange feeling, to be indebted to the man who held her captive. He was currently leading her towards the uncertain life of a prisoner of war and yet she didn't feel frightened in the least. Instead, she was frightened at the prospect of going home to Awrelwood.
Lori shook her head. Her eyes stung and she blinked away tears. No, today she wasn't going to think about it. She just had to get her head around the realisation that she no longer had a father; though Lori supposed she never really had anyway.
Her sisters, and even her mother, made excuses for him constantly – he loved them so much that he wanted to keep them safe, it was risky to show their faces in public too often, you couldn't sleep with the window open; what if a demon sneaked in to kidnap them?
Lori was quickly realising how delusional they had all been. For years they had been feeding their father's paranoia, leaving it unchecked. She feared for her sisters.
Maybe once they returned to Banesteppe – or wherever Lephas was taking her – he would allow her to send a message to them. She just needed to let them know she was alive and safe.
That would blow their minds. Safe, in Banesteppe, with the demons!
Lori eyed the commander in front of her. She did feel safe with Lephas; perhaps almost too safe. It was unnerving how quickly she had come to accept her new fate. Even more so, how quickly she had developed an attachment to him.
He was the hottest man she had ever met, though that was not nearly as impressive as it sounded, considering the very limited experiences she’d had back in Awrelwood. She shivered, but not from the cold, remembering bandaging him up that morning.
Lori couldn't wait to tell her sisters. They had spent so many long nights, huddled together under a blanket with that romance novel, Faye lighting the pages with her luminous skin. They had sighed, lovingly stroking the cover and fighting over who the hero would pick were he to spring to life from the pages.