CHAPTER14
Iawoke to the sound of men talking and groaned. I hadn’t had enough sleep. I snuggled harder into my bedroll and relished in the warmth. My body ached from sleeping on the ground, but as I buried my face into the heat, I sighed.
“Good evening, princess.” Evren’s rough voice rumbled beneath my head, and I jerked back. But Evren tightened his arm around me and forced me back down against him. “Not yet.”
“Let me go,” I grumbled even though my body desperately wanted to burrow into him and let him hold me until I forgot about our reality.
“You’re the one who snuggled into me, princess, and I’m going to enjoy it for a few more moments.”
“I said let me go.”
Evren chuckled before his arm dropped to my side. I pushed myself up and looked around the camp before looking back down at him.
“Everyone else is already packed up and ready.”
“I know.” He nodded before leaning up on his elbow. “But you needed rest after everything that happened last night.”
The memories slammed into me quickly, and I tried to force them from my mind even as my wrist burned as a reminder.
“You should have woken me.”
I stood from the bedroll before reaching down for my cloak. Evren handed it out to me with a soft smile on his face, and I hated it. I hated how easily he could pretend like things were normal between us.
But as he climbed to his feet and loaded our things back into the saddlebags, it felt more normal than anything I had done since I had arrived in the fae realm. Running away with Evren felt like a dream I had wished a hundred times over.
“You ready?” Evren climbed onto his horse and settled in the saddle before reaching his hand out to me. I hesitated for only a moment, but he noticed. His gaze darkened and the soft smile fell from his face. “Princess?”
“Yeah.” I nodded and put my hand into his. He pulled me up, and the moment I wrapped my leg around the horse, he pressed his chest into my back.
“We’ll be there soon,” he murmured against the back of my neck, mistaking my indecision over him for hesitancy for the rough travel.
“I’m fine, Evren.” I stiffened against him even as he pressed his hand to my stomach and forced me farther back in the saddle.
We rode like that for a long time before either of us spoke again. The sky had darkened above us and the moons were the only light with which we rode by.
Jorah had ridden ahead of us several moments ago, and I searched the trees as we waited for his return.
“He’ll be fine, princess. Jorah is the deftest soldier I know.”
“I’m not worried.” I looked away from the tree line I had been searching, and Evren’s thighs tightened around mine.
“You could have fooled me.” He ran his nose along the back of my neck, and I stiffened. “You seem awfully worried about the things you claim to hate.”
I clenched my jaw as I rolled his words over in my head. “I have never claimed to hate you.”
“Haven’t you?” he murmured against my skin. “You’ve barely been able to look at me since we left the palace without hate in your eyes.”
He was right. I was so confused about how I could feel so much animosity and want at the same time, but they battled inside me like the enemies who were now at our doorstep.
Jorah came through the trees, and I was thankful for the distraction as he rode toward us.
“It’s clear.”
“Okay.” Evren nodded his head and pulled the reins. “We’ll rest here for a few hours.”
“What? Why? We haven’t been riding that long.”
Evren pulled us to a stop, and my legs ached at the movement.