She opened her eyes and stared at him.
“Be quiet,” he said in a rasping whisper.
He could feel his heart pumping as he eased his pistol from its holster. Annie was staring at him, her eyes wide with fear. He motioned her to get down and when she didn’t move fast enough, he put his hand on her shoulder and shoved her to the ground.
The horse, head up, ears cocked, nickered again.
Dec scanned the woods around them. Nothing moved or stirred. There were sounds, but they were those that belonged in a forest: the whisper of leaves shifting in the breeze, the call of birds in the branches, the hum of a thousand insects.
As far as he could tell, everything was as it should have been.
A deer stepped from the trees ahead. The horse jerked his head up and down as if to say, See? I told you there was something coming.
Dec let out his breath, holstered the pistol, reached for Annie and brought her to her feet.
“Just a deer,” he said briskly. “You good to walk?” She nodded and he dumped the wrappers from the energy bars into his pack, swung the pack over his shoulder and set off.
She fell in behind him.
“Declan?”
“Yeah?”
“What we were talking about….”
“How about concentrating on keeping up with me? The sun won’t be setting for a few more hours, but it’ll be dark in these woods before that.”
She stumbled. He swung around and steadied her.
“Declan. Please. I only wanted to say—”
“Do us both a favor, princess. Just pay attention to where you put your feet.”
She looked crestfallen. Had he hurt her feelings? So what? Her feelings didn’t matter a damn. And what had just happened, that kiss, would not, could not happen again.
Keeping the two of them alive was what this was all about.
And, yes, he was still attracted to her, but attraction, the old male-female thing, was all it was. It was true that he wanted to know why she’d lied to him, but it wasn’t personal. Not anymore…
Except, instinct told him that the reason for the lie held the key to what was happening now. She was willing to risk everything rather than return to Qaram.
Why?
Yeah, there was her story. That her uncle had kept her prisoner. That he’d sold her to the king of Tharsalonia. It sounded like something out of a bad fairy tale.
Why would he believe it?
On the other hand, why spin such a story?
Never mind.
Right now, what mattered was finding a way out of this mess. Make camp for the night and then figure out how to get the princess to safety. And yes, he was back to thinking of her by her title. It had been a mistake to think of her any other way.
And whether he wanted to hear her story or not wasn’t up for grabs. He had to hear it. Was she at risk, the way she claimed, or wasn’t she? The truth would affect what he’d already done, what he did next, what he’d tell Recovery Base.
Once they got out of these woods and found shelter, he’d interrogate her.
Meanwhile, he needed to keep his attention on the forest, the mountain…