A Girl Named Calamity by Danielle Lori

Author:Danielle Lori [Lori, Danielle]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Alyria #1
Publisher: Danielle Lori
Published: 2016-07-12T16:00:00+00:00

* * *

The ache in my head was a constant all the way back to the camp. I assumed the guards would be running at us any minute, but no one followed. The only sound behind us was the swish of the long, dry grass and the song of the cicadas. I could still see the flames when I closed my eyes as if they had left an imprint on me forever.

“Why aren’t they following us?” I asked, my thoughts of Weston leaning toward the uncomfortable side after my realization that he wasn’t human. I knew human men. They were motivated by sex, money, or power, weren’t they? But what drove Weston? I didn’t know how to understand his motives, and I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to.

“They don’t care what happens outside the city,” he said as he made his way into the camp. Color had returned to his lips, and the ice had melted, dripping down his face. No one would have ever guessed that he had just walked through man-killing flames.

“How did I live through that?”

“I shielded you,” he said as he sat me down next to the fire. I couldn’t decide if I felt better that he’d shielded me than I would if I were some kind of immortal farm girl from Alger. I wasn’t familiar with that girl, and she kind of scared me. But maybe . . . just maybe she didn’t exist, and I only survived because of Weston.

“How did you survive that?” I asked.

“Enough questions,” he sighed. Walking through the flames distracted me from the real problem I now faced. The cuff had come off. For enough time that I was sure it didn’t go unnoticed.

“Weston, we need to go,” I said as I stood up, wincing at my aching head.

“We aren’t going anywhere tonight.”

“You don’t understand. We have to leave.” I put a lot of emphasis on have. I didn’t know how to explain it to him, and I hoped I wouldn’t have to elaborate.

He raised a brow. “Why don’t you make me understand, then?”

I swallowed. “There are men after me.”

“I’ve been aware of that since we left Cameron.”

“They know where I am now.” My shortened pants started to slide down my hips under my cloak, and I grabbed them with a fist to keep them up. What happened in the Burning City slammed into me like a tidal wave and I felt too exhausted to stand, but my worry over the cuff was like a tug-of-war of emotions keeping me standing.

Weston looked down at my fist and then back up to my face with fury simmering underneath the emerald green.

Nobody at that moment could have convinced me Hell was red. No, it was most assuredly contrived of green flames.

“Let them come,” he said darkly as he sat down, leaning against a tree trunk and focusing the intensity of his stare on the fire.

“They can’t find me,” I breathed.

He glanced at me. “They won’t.”

Maybe I was a naive girl, but I felt impeccable trust at that moment.

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