Page 59 of The Searching Songbird

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Well, this evening had certainly gone to shit. Getting caught in an enchantment he would have seen coming if not for the rain, then having to be freed by a woman who looked as if she'd just as soon have given him a swift kick to the groin. All together, not his finest night.

“I think we can stop now. They don't seem to be following us.” He glanced over at Lily, but her expression was unreadable as she continued to charge through the brush, seemingly oblivious to the multiple rips and tears that already marred her clothing.

“Besides, it was just a couple of footmen. Even if they did catch up with us, I'm fairly certain I could take them.”

She muttered something in response, but it was too low for him to make out. “What's that?” Silence. She kept moving. “Lily? Can you stop and talk to me for a minute? Please?”

She slowed to a stop but remained facing forward, not looking at him.

“...useless.”

“What's useless? Lily, sweetheart, you've gotta speak up.”

“I'm useless!” she yelled, snapping her head around to glare at him. Angry tears coursed down her face, and she wiped a hand at them roughly. “I came all this way thinking I could save her, but all I've done is make things worse. Gods, she had to save me tonight, and who knows how she'll suffer because of it? What if he kills her, Draven? What if she's already dead?”

She shook her head back and forth as she fell to her knees and crumpled in on herself. “What made me think I could save her on my own? Just because I'm some kind of mystical Shendri warrior? Ha! Maybe the original phoenix Shendri could have managed it, but I'm just a pathetic shadow of what she used to be.”

“You're not pathetic, Lily.” He squatted down beside her and reached a tentative hand out, pushing back a stray lock of hair. “You're brave and kind and compassionate, but you've never once been pathetic. Your only fault was placing your trust in someone as unworthy as me.”

“Are you?” She lifted her head to look at him, her watery eyes searching his. “Unworthy?”

He sighed. “I was. I deceived you, lied by omission. As you've probably already discovered, given your recent behavior, I was sent here to kidnap you and bring you back to Antos. That hardly speaks to my trustworthiness.”

She was quiet for a moment, and he felt his gut twist under her scrutinizing stare.

“So, why haven't you?”

“Why haven't I what... kidnapped you?”

She nodded, biting down on her lower lip in the most adorable way. Draven found himself staring at that plump lip, transfixed, until he realized she was still waiting for his response.

“I was planning to, back when we were still in Eldour, but there were too many people around, and then I caught wind of your plans to travel and it just made sense to wait.” He gave her a wry smile. “Or that's what I told myself, anyway. To be honest, I was never all that comfortable with the idea of kidnapping to begin with, and once I saw you...” He lifted his shoulders in a helpless shrug. “I was lost.”

Her eyes softened for a moment but quickly hardened again as she stood up. “You didn't seem too concerned about kidnapping when you were offering Fia up to your boss like some kind of consolation prize,” she spat at him. He cringed.

“You heard that, huh?”

She crossed her arms over her chest in stony silence.

“Suzu?”

She arched a brow.

“Suzu. Damn. How did I miss seeing a giant phoenix flying around? I am seriously off my stride these days.”

She pursed her lips, refraining from comment.

He stood up, running his hands through his hair as he tried to sort through the mess he'd made of everything. “The only reason I 'offered Fia up' was because I was desperate. My boss is an extremely powerful man. When he wants something, he gets it. End of story. And he wanted you.” He gave Lily a beseeching look. “I couldn't let him take you. Not when there was another way.”

“Another person,” she shot back at him. “A living, breathing person who doesn't deserve to be saved from one monster only to be passed over to another.”

“Hey, my boss may do some rather questionable things – ”

“Such as murdering people he just met and ordering you to kidnap innocent females?” Lily interrupted, and he winced at the truth in her statement.

“Okay, so he's done some very questionable things, but he's not a monster. Not like Baron Dunlop is. He doesn't hurt women.”