Part of him simply wanted to pull Rayne into his arms and hold him again until they both fell asleep, but Eno honestly couldn’t figure out if he was doing that for Rayne or himself.
What the hell was he even doing?
Rayne Laurent was ridiculously out of his league. They were from two different worlds. Maybe they had the common goal of protecting and guiding Caelan, but what else was there?
Except he couldn’t get Rayne out of his mind. He couldn’t forget about Rayne’s reactions to him. Couldn’t forget about how the man had felt in his arms or how much he’d enjoyed taking care of him when Rayne had refused to prioritize his own well-being.
Eno was torn from those thoughts as he caught sight of Caelan and Drayce walking along the side of the shop toward the front door. The prince at least had his ball cap pulled low to obscure his face. Drayce walked beside him, hands flying through the air and mouth moving a mile a minute as he told Caelan some story. What the hell were they doing? They were supposed to be waiting in the apartment until he and Rayne returned. Eno could only guess they’d gotten bored or hungry.
Eno groaned and rolled his eyes. At least they couldn’t get into too much trouble in the store, and he knew exactly where they were. He turned toward Rayne to tell him that he was going to walk over to the Sundries shop while he finished up. Maybe he was being too overprotective, but he needed some peace of mind where these lunatics were concerned.
“Hey, Rayne!” he shouted.
Rayne’s head popped up and he started to turn, but his eyes caught on a military Jeep that was roaring toward the town in a cloud of dust. Eno’s heart stumbled in his chest and sped up. He couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move a muscle.
It was going to pass by. This had to be the morning patrol, and they were just going to pass right by them.
He repeated his new mantra or prayer to the gods over and over again, but there was no mistaking the shift in the motor as the Jeep slowed and pulled into the parking lot of Andy’s Savage Sundries. Eno took a step forward and grabbed one of the supporting poles for the metal roof that extended out over the pumps.
Behind him, Rayne’s sharp, brisk footsteps beat on the pavement, slowing when they reached his side, but he didn’t look at him. His eyes were locked on the two soldiers who jumped out of the Jeep and walked into the shop. They were talking lightly and didn’t seem to be in a hurry. Grabbing supplies then. Not after the Crown Prince of Erya and his companion.
“They’re just getting supplies,” Rayne said with a sigh of relief. “They should leave again with no problem.”
“Except Cael and Drayce are in the shop too,” Eno grumbled.
“What?” Rayne gasped. The advisor stomped around so that he was standing in front of Eno, face flushed and eyes wide behind his glasses. “What—”
Eno cut him off, stopping Rayne from working himself into a real tizzy. “I watched them walk in less than a minute before the Empire soldiers arrived.”
Rayne growled and turned toward the shop. “Maybe they’ll have enough sense to keep their heads down and avoid being noticed.”
“What are the odds Empire soldiers would recognize the prince of Erya anyway?”
The front door to the shop was thrown open and one of the soldiers came running out as fast as he could to the Jeep, but rather than climbing into the back seat, he went straight to the driver. He was pointing toward the shop and speaking quickly. Both he and Rayne started moving at the same time, jogging toward the shop, which allowed them to pick “prince” out of the man’s frantic words.
“Fuck,” Rayne snarled.
Eno couldn’t agree more. Caelan had been spotted, and their cover was blown. If they didn’t do something, the Empire was going to know exactly where the real Caelan Talos was.
Beside him, there was a brief glint of silver in the morning sun, and then Rayne was throwing. The knife sliced through the air in a beautiful line and buried itself in the chest of one soldier as he climbed out of the passenger side. Well, that was one way to deal with the problem, though Rayne might have just created a new one for them by killing an Empire soldier in front of everyone seated in the diner.
Eno pulled his own knife from the sheath at his back while gunfire exploded from the interior of the store. Glass shattered and the man standing beside the Jeep went down. The guy behind the steering wheel gunned the engine and slammed the vehicle into reverse. Eno swore as he threw the knife in his hand with unerring precision, but his heart didn’t actually start beating again until he saw the blade dig into the sidewall of the thick Jeep tire.