A Girl Named Calamity (Alyria 1)

He ignored me and somehow we got back on the right track. I no longer felt like a voluntary prisoner. And he was back to being the self-absorbed assassin he had always been.

CHAPTER TWENTY

MAGICAL PASSION

Silence.

The ostracism of speech and the love of thoughts. The one thing I didn’t need with someone who didn’t understand the word: privacy.

At least, I was pretty sure that my mind was a maze of musings, which I only knew how to venture. But with Weston quickly learning how to make sense of my jumble, generally called thoughts, I learned how to think quietly.

We traveled all day, getting farther away from Undaley, with only my quiet thoughts between us. It could be said, I was about to detonate, and I would take Weston with me.

When we reached a city, right before the sun went down, there were two things I wanted: a bath and a bed.

And freedom. But I’d cross that bridge when I was feeling particularly suicidal.

I was sitting on my bed trying to get the energy to take a bath when Weston barged in.

I grimaced. “You could knock.”

“You could leave your door open, so I wouldn’t need to inconvenience myself with having to open it.”

I scoffed. “Get over yourself.”

“Don’t leave your room tonight.”

“No. You can get out now,” I replied, ready to show him my claws. Tonight was not the night for his power plays. “Shut the door behind you.”

His eyes narrowed. “Stay in your room. I mean it.”

I was a dam about to burst, and he was pulling the screws out one by one.

“And I mean it when I say get out!”

He took a step towards me. “Do I have to tie you to your damn bed? You aren’t leaving this room.”

I wondered why he wouldn’t just compel me if he wanted me to stay in my room so bad, but I wasn’t going to bring that up. And I had no doubt that he would tie me to the bed, but there was no doubt that I was going to take a bath. So, I bit my tongue and waved the white flag. “Fine.”

“Why do I feel like your damn wet nurse?”

“Maybe because you think taking care of children means tying them up,” I said snidely.

He watched me for a moment with those eyes that could see through my skin and to the girl underneath. Good thing I didn’t even know who she was.

“Leave this room, and it will really piss me off.”

I rolled my eyes. “How would that be different than any other day? I told you I wouldn’t. Now get out.”

Cue screw hitting the ground.

He slammed the door behind him, and I heard his boots treading down the stairs. I waited a few minutes after he left before I crept out of the inn. I felt some guilt rush over me, but then I reminded myself: he isn’t my keeper, he’s my captor.

Some part of my brain wanted to latch onto the thought that he was a good thing; maybe it was confused because he had saved me multiple times. But that part of my brain didn’t understand it was all for some selfish motive of his. Money? I was sure he already had that. Power? It seemed to me he could have that without more magic. Sex? I only scoffed.

See, this was why I didn’t want to deal with a . . . non-human.

I took my time in the bathhouse, scrubbing my body more than once. On my way back, a church bell rang, and I looked up from my feet to take in the city.