Gilded Serpent by Danielle Jensen (top 10 novels txt) 📕

“You didn’t give me much choice.” Why was he answering it?

“Is that what you tell yourself so you can sleep at night?” she said. “You had a choice. And everything that has come to pass, all the blood that has been spilled and will be spilled, that’s on you. Because I was right. I saw the enemy clearly when no one else did, and if you’d only believed in me like you promised, none of this would be happening.”

His heart was thundering, his breath coming in too-fast gasps. “That was a mistake. I’m here now. I’ll get you back.”

“Oh, yes. Because it was me you were thinking about while you held her in your arms. I see right through you, Tom, I know she consumes your thoughts. I know that you dream about being with her. That you imagine how things would be different if I’d stayed dead.”

“That’s not true!” he snarled, hating that it was.

“I trusted you!” Malahi was sobbing now, the sound like a knife to his chest. “I loved you and you betrayed me.”

Dropping his bow, he wrenched out his sword, determined to silence this horror with steel, then Agrippa said loudly, “Jilted lover! That’s a new one. About time you little bastards showed some creativity.”

Whirling, Killian found Agrippa standing behind him. “They’ll do whatever it takes to lure you out. Fear. Guilt. Anger. They see straight to your soul and use what they find against you.”

Shoving his sword back into his sheath, Killian scrubbed a hand through his hair, wondering how much Agrippa had heard. “How do you keep coming back to this place?”

“Greed,” Agrippa answered. “It’s hard for them to bother you when all you care about is gold. Now what do you say to a bit of target practice?” He held up a full quiver. “Make the furry bastards work for their dinner, right?”

They spent the rest of the night shooting at the mimics whenever they made a sound. Likely a waste of arrows, but there was an undeniable catharsis to it, especially when one of them struck true. Yet when dawn lit the sky with a faint glow and Agrippa moved to wake the others, Killian found himself hesitating to wake Lydia, reluctant to touch her.

“You should’ve woken me earlier,” she murmured, rubbing at her eyes. “Those things are pure evil—no one should be on watch alone.”

“It was fine,” he said quickly, avoiding her gaze. “I don’t need your company.”

She was quiet for a moment, then said, “It doesn’t have to be me.” Without another word, she rolled up her bedroll and went to see to the woman who’d been shot the prior day.

 84LYDIA

He was upset with her, that much was obvious. But trying to speak to him about it was an impossibility. Agrippa and Baird had them hurrying to be on the water as soon as the sun was in the sky, snapping at them the entire time that the wildmen didn’t sleep in, so neither could they.

Frost had coated the trees overnight, the landscape sparkling and silver as they floated down the frigid river. Chunks of ice rode the rapids to either side of the boat, and the wind was not as warm as it had been the day prior. Baird was once again at the oars, guiding them through the safest route with the ease of someone who’d done it many times before. Killian was in the rear, but Lydia refrained from looking back, discomfited by the growing tension between them. Instead, she focused on Agrippa, who stood watchfully at the front, his eyes scanning the trees for any sign of motion, his bow held loosely in one hand.

He had to have questions about who she was, yet he hadn’t asked any, which in the light of day struck her as strange. Given how much she and Killian were keeping from him, his disinterest should’ve been a relief. Yet instead, it pressed upon her and would’ve consumed her thoughts if they weren’t so twisted up with creating increasingly elaborate scenarios for why Killian was avoiding her.

Although logically Lydia knew she couldn’t have said or done anything, given she’d been asleep the majority of the time, as the hours passed without incident, she grew increasingly convinced she’d said something in her sleep. Or made some sort of inappropriate noise. Or moved against him in a way that was indecent given they were on their way to rescue the girl he was supposed to marry. By midday, her cheeks were aflame with all the things she’d imagined herself having done to provoke him, so she almost missed it when Agrippa called, “Ravine’s ahead, Baird!”

The giant released a world-weary sigh. “I hate this spot.”

Curious, Lydia wiped spray from the lenses of her spectacles, noting that the river narrowed as it flowed between twin cliffs, the water white with the violence of the rapids.

“It’s going to get rough,” Agrippa announced. “So hold on. If the boat gets turned over, try not to drown while the current takes you downstream. When the river widens out, there’s a spot we can get righted. Unfortunately, it’s also a spot where the wildmen like to ambush us, so if you aren’t drowned, try not to get shot while Baird gets the boat sorted.”

Murmurs of concern passed between the other travelers, and Lydia’s heart skipped as she saw the size of the waves formed by the rapids, water exploding against the boulders protruding from the surface.

“Please tell me you can swim.” She jumped as Killian spoke in her ear, the first words he’d said to her in hours.

“Well enough,” she answered, turning her head to look at him. “Can you?”

He lifted one eyebrow as though the suggestion he couldn’t do something was utter lunacy. Then he said, “Take off your cloak. Put your spectacles in a deep pocket of your dress where you won’t lose them.” Then he lowered his voice.