“Yes.”
“When Trina said your loyalties shifted, what does that mean?”
“You know what it means.”
She shook her head. “You think there’s some connection between us, and that this connection gives you the right to keep me here. But there’s nothing between us, Simon. Accident or not, I’d never forget—”
“That was no accident, Kestra.” My temper felt brittle and I was out of patience. “You either jumped from that window or were pushed from it because you are now enemy number one to the Dominion. And you haven’t just forgotten certain details from your life. They were taken from you by Lord Endrick and that evil man you call Father! He isn’t—”
She cut me off with a slap to my face. “Never speak about my father that way! He loves me, he’d never let such a thing—”
“He doesn’t love you. If he’s pretended to care for you, then it’s only because those are his orders from Lord Endrick.”
She shook her head again, so furious that she spat out each word. “Lord Endrick saved my life! And I won’t hear this treasonous talk from you any longer! I demand you release me at once!”
“I can’t do that.”
“If you’re my protector, then you’re my servant. You must obey me.”
“Right now, I’m protecting you from yourself.”
She faced forward again, but not before tossing back a glare that made me nervous. She wasn’t simply angry anymore. She was calculating.
Kestra was beginning to plan. If any of the old Kestra was still active inside her, I knew I should be worried.
I spent most of the remaining afternoon trying to sort out all that Simon had said to me. There had been a cruelty to his words, but was that because he was cruel enough to lie to me? Or because the truth itself was cruel?
He had remained quiet too, and I wondered what he was thinking. Creating more lies, no doubt. He must be lying, because Endrick had no reason to deceive me. Nothing else made sense.
Simon finally pointed ahead. “A trail leads to the bottom of that slot. If we take it, we could reach Rutherhouse late tonight.”
“Rutherhouse?”
“It’s a little inn run by a woman I know and trust.”
I pointed at the skies, with clouds notably darker than they’d been earlier. “What if it rains?”
He looked up, obviously disappointed. “You’re right. We’ll camp here tonight.”
I dreaded the idea of sleeping outside in this treacherous area during what would likely be a major storm. Even more, I dreaded traveling through it.
Just off the trail was a mound barely large enough to qualify as a hill. Facing the slots was a narrow cave with a small rock overhang. I pointed it out to Simon, but he only shook his head, saying, “It’s too visible.”
“The cave will shelter us if it rains, and the hill will keep out any night winds.” I glanced up at the darkening skies. “No one will be out looking for us once the storm begins.”
Simon clicked his tongue as if he disagreed, but turned us off the trail anyway. While I cleared out loose debris inside the cave, Simon began unpacking the blankets from the saddle, tossing in one for each of us.
“I packed a fire starter,” I pointed out.
“We won’t have a fire.” He pulled out a water skin and took a sip, then returned it to the satchels. “I haven’t brought you all this way just to send a signal of our whereabouts up into the sky. Are you cold?”
“If I am, protector of mine, can you protect me from it?”
Simon smirked back at me. “I can, though I doubt you want me that close.”
I didn’t. While Simon saw to the horse, I sat on a blanket, curling my legs beneath me and reminding myself to breathe. It was going to be a long night.
Near my foot was a flowering plant that I recognized from the caves where I had slept with the Coracks on the night they took me from Woodcourt. Gabe had called it terrador and warned that it was poisonous.