His Forsaken Luna-Chapter 47: Deadly Hunt (2)

Again?

My back locks, and I raise my chin, feeling defensive on my brother’s behalf. "Alaric doesn’t want another war. You will have his word-"

"His word means nothing to me," Eryx interrupts, taking one final step. It’s not until my back is against the tree I realise I’d been stepping back, away from the beast whose eyes I couldn’t look away from.

"Trust me, he-"

"And why would I trust you?" He asks, hand leaning high above me on the tree as he looks down at me. "You have given me nothing."

I gave you my virginity. I wanted to say.

"Not by choice," he replies, and I curse under my breath speaking my thoughts aloud. "If you don’t tell me something that will help our kingdoms, then I might as well either discard you or spread your secret that you so dearly wish to keep."

I glared at him and held his gaze as his pupils dilated, his beast surging forward to dominate me. My eyes narrowed slightly until they flicked down. It had nothing to do with dominance. I had to tell him what he wanted to know. "You’re a dick."

"Language, Princess," he mused, but it was half-hearted, and my gaze was still on the snow.

His thumb and finger pinched my chin and forced my gaze up. "Tell me about the attacks on the villages."

I can’t tell him that. That was intel only a few knew besides those still alive in the villages. But I had to tell him something.

"Stop scheming and tell me the truth." His grip on my chin tightened, and something occurred to me then.

"How do you know there have been attacks on the villages?" I’d suspected him to some degree. But he’d come forward and asked about an issue that is relatively new. He either had spies in the mountains—not possible with our defences—or could understand the Issorian language that only a few knew.

"You are not the only ones who can speak Issorian." My eyes widen at his answer. It was genuine—I know it to be so with that arrogant expression on his stupidly handsome face.

In the palace, it had always ever been me, Alaric and his aide who knew the language. I preferred it that way. We could have discussions without anyone else understanding us.

"And what would you do with such information?" I sigh defeatedly, looking away.

"Have more trust in this fragile little spy of mine," his voice softened as did his fingers.

I flinched at the term ’spy’. I wasn’t his spy. Well, I hadn’t really done anything to earn that title, nor did I wish to. But if he trusted me... maybe it could be used for these negotiations. He spoke as if we were the aggressors in this war.

I have been in my brother’s strategy room many times over the problems this Prince has caused us to believe his little pity party. Yet something stirred in my chest, pricked at the back of my mind, my instincts telling me he had been genuine. Maybe Eryx believes we are the aggressors.

There is a difference between believing and what was accurate.

This information wouldn’t do much harm if I told him. I could also test to see if the Prince would use it to his advantage or not. If only I had a shadow on my side as well to follow him. "I hate being powerless," I sigh.

"Then become powerful."

I glance up, blinking back profusely at his words and the intensity in his voice and eyes. "How?"

"With or without the King’s support, control the courts, learn to fight. Stand up for yourself." He hisses. "Find those who will follow you, support you. You are their Princess from an Alpha bloodline-"

"I don’t have a wolf!" I exclaim back but in frustration.

"So you don’t have a wolf... That’s an excuse for you to be lazy. Use your wits. The King would not call you into a strategy room if you had none. Start believing in yourself... Or don’t." He steps back after his little inspiring speech and his demeanour becomes rigid again. "It’s just pathetic watching the whole ordeal. Now, stop feeling sorry for yourself and tell me what I want to know."

If he’d said this to me days ago, I might have felt crushed and offended by his words, but I don’t. Energy burns in my chest. I want exactly what he’s said. I want to be powerful and stronger. I want them—mostly Deyanira and her minions—begging at my feet.

"The attacks are unlike anything we have seen," I say quietly. "Throats and hearts ripped out of bodies, and..."

"And?"

"Some were left hollow like all the blood was taken from their body. Or so Beta Hakon said. I didn’t see it myself." I stared back at him, searching his eyes to see if there was any recognition.

There was none. It was his usual stoic and guarded expression. His brows had knitted together like he, too, was trying to figure out who attacked the villages.

"Is that all? Or can we get moving? I’m starting to get cold."

Eryx scoffed. "That is highly doubtful with that scarf."

Okay, I wasn’t cold, but I wanted to get out of this position and continue with this fake date. Eryx was crowding my space, and now, instead of his body making mine react, it was his words, and I know he isn’t a good man, so what does that make me if my stomach flutters?

Nope. I don’t even want to think about that. There was nothing here but that heat, some stupid tension because we are enemies and dislike each other and an inkling of attraction that has nothing to do with his personality and more to do with his body and looks.

Eryx pushes away from the tree, and I almost deflate in relief. "I’ll show you how to track," he murmurs, seeming deep in thought.

I followed him quietly, only realising now I was out of the bubble Eryx always puts me in, shielding me from the world, that we hadn’t been alone and Cohnal still lingered nearby. He had his back on us, giving us ’privacy’, but with his heightened senses, I knew he probably heard bits of our conversation.

My cheeks heat, I was such an embarrassing person. To think I needed my enemy to give me a little pep talk.

Eryx waved me over, and he kneeled in the snow. "Deer tracks. These are the hooves. And these are rabbits," he explained like he hadn’t been trying to get information out of me.

Still, I focused. If Theo and I did manage to escape again, information like this could be crucial in surviving. If the crossbow does become a weapon of choice, maybe I could get one from the Huntsman. I had enough jewels to buy one, I’m sure.

Eryx taught me the different tracks, and we followed a set and settled down in the snow when we saw more rabbits. This time, he watched me set the crossbow up, and there was no need to instruct me further, which pleased me.

It was a surreal ’date’ one also filled with him questioning me about certain social activities in the palace, decorum that he and his warriors were not used to, then he would ask something more in-depth about the lands surrounding the fort and the border between our kingdoms.

"You don’t know?"

I shake my head. "I’m only privy to information when anything goes wrong." Then I hold his gaze as I release the bolt straight through a deer’s eye. "You keep forgetting my circumstances."

Eryx arched an eyebrow as he looked at the deer. "You also said you haven’t been hunting before."

"I haven’t. If I had, I wouldn’t have listened to you drone on about tracks." I roll my eyes even though I didn’t mean my words. Eryx didn’t drone on. It was fascinating, and I memorised what he said.

"So, you don’t know anything about Vargrfjell fjord then?" Eryx shifted onto his side, resting his elbow on the snowy ground, hand holding his head up as he looked down at me, still lying on my stomach, crossbow aimed forward.

"What is there to tell?" Honestly, I am useless to him, and I’m quite happy about that fact right now. The Vargrfjell fjord is the largest in the kingdom. It is an easy fjord to sail into, but it was also meant to be heavily guarded. "I saw it when I was six?" I add with a shrug.

Eryx’s gaze roamed over my features, frowning deeply the more he looked at me. Was something on my face? I subtly, or not so subtly, touched my face to check.

"So you have never left the palace except for the times you go to Ulfstad?"

I shake my head.

"But you tried to escape without any information about the land?"

I shrugged, not wishing to tell him about the help I had from Sverre. "I know enough through a map."

"A map doesn’t tell you if there are dangerous creatures in the woods or, in this case, large-scale attacks on towns," Eryx clipped back.

"Why are you so angry?" I retort.

Eryx glared at me, leaning closer, slamming his hand down. "Are you so arrogant to believe you will not die?"

"And you care because?"

Eryx scoffed and looked the other way. "Idiocy annoys me."

"Clearly."