The Night House by J. C. McKenzie

Author:J. C. McKenzie [McKenzie, J. C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-03-21T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nineteen

Country Road

Taya stepped through the blue haze and took a deep breath of air filled with cedar and fir. The dew covered needles on low hanging branches glistened in the morning light. The remaining mist clung to the rolling landscape as if begging the mossy trunks and ferns to save it from the sun. It must’ve rained sometime during the three weeks she was away. Only small patches of snow littered the ground.

Home.

The familiar scents of the Canadian forest surrounded her like an invisible hug. Instead of running off into the damp underbrush, she remained on Sugar trying to soak it all in through her eyeballs and plumes of air escaping her mouth and nose.

“This way.” Thane nudged his horse past hers and led them down a path. This wasn’t the same narrow trail they’d travelled before.

Sugar ambled forward, her smooth gait gently swaying Taya in the saddle. Taya’s thighs still hadn’t fully recovered from their last ride, but the ache wasn’t as deep and her muscles not as tender.

Taya’s lightning blades pressed against her back and offered comfort with tiny zaps of energy through their sheaths. Out of the entire team, she was the only one not wearing heavy metal armour. She was also not the size of a fully grown grizzly bear, or trained from birth to wield battle axes and broadswords. Her leather riding pants allowed a more comfortable ride and protected her from the damp cold currently biting at her face and trying to sink into her bones.

Taya leaned forward and patted Sugar’s neck. The horse rumbled with approval. Despite the soreness of her legs, Taya rode Sugar every day. She’d learned her horse was called a blue roan, not a gray, and the black marks lining her body were caused from rubbing or injury.

Taya also learned Arkavians, despite all their flashy armour and extraordinary magical capabilities, were suborn mules. From her limited experience, mares and geldings seemed easier to handle and just as hard working, but the warriors from the House of Jericho rode stallions…because stallions. They equated the virility of their mounts to the potency of their manhood.

Well, she had no manhood to prove. Hopefully, Thane would let her keep riding this mare. She patted Sugar’s neck again.

Thane sat rigidly on Hades, back straight and expression closed. He’d hardly spoken to any of them this morning. She let him get ahead before following.

“Don’t take it personally,” Soka whispered.

“Huh?”

Lokni leaned in from the other side. “He’s been in a foul mood all morning.”

“Because of the sacrifice?” she asked.

Lokni grumbled and looked away. Their horses picked their way over dead branches and exposed gnarled roots.

Soka waved his brother away. “Because he learned the woman who spurned him and cancelled their engagement is now planning to marry his brother.”

Oh. That. No wonder the meeting last night was tense.

“Now he’ll never be rid of her,” Soka said.

“Did she call it off because she wants to marry the heir instead of a second son?”

Soka glanced at Thane who’d placed more distance between them.

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