Blaze (Virtues & Lies 3)

“Did I?”

“Yeah, you didn’t run. You weren’t scared.”

A maniacal laugh burst from me with a downpour of tears. Is he joking?

“I was shitting myself. Hiding…running would’ve been easier. But my duty is to protect her. My only duty is to her.” My hands smooth over my belly. “If I’m running away, I can’t see the danger chasing me.”

“You only see it if you’re facing it,” Ryan murmurs with a low snicker.

“Yes.”

Lucian pats my knee before he takes the dirt-stained wipes from me and shuts my door.

“You’re braver than you look.” Ryan leans forward, between the seats.

He pinches my chin between his thumb and finger, eyes roaming over my face. I’m not sure what he’s searching for, but the longer he looks, the closer he comes. We’re a breath apart, his hand cupping my face.

“Not just a pretty face, are you, princess?” he whispers over my lips.

“I’m not a princess.”

“Because you don’t belong in this world.” His retort brings him close enough that the tips of our noses touch.

“Where do I belong, Ryan? Where do we belong?” I dip my chin towards my bump, never taking my eyes away from him.

The driver’s door opens suddenly, and I draw away from him. Ryan doesn’t answer my question and falls back into the shadow of the back seat.

Lucian doesn’t say anything, but I sense his disapproval. It’s obvious he knows something has happened between Ryan and me. It doesn’t matter, though, because it won’t happen again.

It’s not this world I belong to. It’s not this world I live for.

I belong to her now. I live for my daughter.

“Where are we?” My question comes out wispy from my awe at our surroundings.

The dirt road has smoothed out a bit, and the trees have thinned out some to reveal the most serene-looking lake. The water is deep and dark, reminding me of eyes I miss with all my soul. “It’s beautiful.”

“We’re just outside of Ourense, north-west Spain. About an hour away from the Portuguese border.” Lucian sounds tired.

All this makes the world truly feel miniscule. Even if the fortress-like Alcázar rising from the tall rocks on the shore looks imposing, its stone stained and marled with history. Red clay and black slate marbled with limestone, draped in rich green moss.

“This is it? This is where he wanted me?”

Ryan scoffs in the back. He’s probably thinking that I don’t belong here. Maybe he’s right, but I can see Casper here. Impenetrable like the setting. Quiet and shrouded in a mist that allows the early spring sunlight through, but not enough to reveal its true beauty or its secrets.

“You’ll be safe here,” he tells me as we approach the heaven-high gates. Two green-and-gold uniformed guards step down from the stone sentry boxes at either side.

Unlike their traditional regalia, their weapons look very much up with the times, with the exception of the sabres sheathed at their sides.

Ryan gets out of the car and talks to one of the guards for a while. Something about his stance isn’t exactly easy. I’m not sure what’s going to happen right now, but safe isn’t what I feel as the other guard walks around our car, stopping by my door before he opens it and looks me over.

His stare is intense, making me uneasy.

“What did you say I was?” I glance over at Lucian, who seems indifferent to the entire situation.

“Relax, it’s protocol.”

“Protocol for what?”