Chapter Text
As Ambrose sleeps, I adjust my eyepatch, making sure it’s secure over my eye.
“Did I miss anything?”
I jump at his voice, and turn around, blade in hand. He puts his hands out in front of him in mock surrender.
“I thought you were asleep,” I say, lowering my knife and turning back around.
“I was. Woke up,” he says with a yawn. “So, did I miss anything?”
My finger trails over the hilt of my blade. “No. Nothing.”
He sniffs. “Good. We’re going to have to set up camp for the night. Are you able to do that with your…”
“With my what?”
“Well, your situation.” He points at his own eye.
I feel my cheeks flush and I get to my feet. “Excuse me?”
He shrugs, a twitchy smile on his face. “Well, it just seems as though not being able to see would make it difficult to do much of anything.”
“I can see perfectly well, thank you,” I spit. “And I don’t need some low-rent Jacob judging me.”
He tilts his head. “Jacob?”
“Forget it,” I grumble.
He lets out an airy laugh. “My bad. Eye see it is a touchy subject.”
The blade leaves my hand before I even know what’s happening. It lodges into a tree, grazing his cheek as it passes. He puts his finger to it, taking it away and revealing a thin cut.
“Make the dam shelter yourself!” I spit out.
“Hey, hey, listen,” he laughs. “I’m sorry, okay? How can I make up for it?”
“You can't!" I bark. Then I think about it for a moment. “Actually. Yes. Make the shelter and go fetch us some food.”
He scowls at the word fetch, but otherwise doesn’t object. “Fine. Build a fire so we don’t have to wait to cook the meat.”
“Fine.”
“Fine.”
✧˖°── .✦────☼༺☆༻☾────✦.── °˖✧
I needed to get back to New Rome University. I needed to get back home. NOW.
I stare at the two sticks in my hand. I had been trying to start a flame for nearly two hours.
Ambrose finally emerges from the woods with a belt full of squirrels and an armful of wood. He stops a few yards away from me.
“What is that?”
I look down. “A fire.”
He comes up beside me and drops the wood to the floor. “I don’t know what that is, but it is definitely not a fire.”
I glare at him. He takes the branches in my hands and throws them aside, then gets to work with his own firewood.
I scoff.
As if he’d have any more luck than me.
It ignites in less than a minute.
“Oh.”
He gets to work on cooking the squirrels. We sit in silence as we sit and watch them cook over the fire.
In an attempt to start a conversation, I say, “This is like camping without the fun.”
Ambrose rips off a bite out of his (raw) squirrel, letting blood dribble down his chin. He doesn’t bother to wipe it, or to even finish chewing before responding. “This is the most fun I’ve had in ages.” He takes another bite. “And we should probably find somewhere to stay the night. Wouldn’t want to be barbecued while in our sleep.”
“Odd idea of fun,” I scoff. “And yeah, you’re probably right. If only those villagers hadn’t yelled at us.”
“Wonder why they attacked. The fire guys at least.”
“Well, the villagers didn’t seem too happy with them. Maybe they don’t like them? I mean, they seemed almost afraid.”
Ambrose shrugs, picking at his teeth with a bone. “We could always try and ask around.”
“And how do you suggest we even get within ten miles of the place? My good looks and charms?” I scoff.
“Of course not, you don’t have any. It would be my good looks and charms.” He shows me a sharp-toothed grin. I chuck some squirrel bones at him. “We’d have to go in disguised. I mean, I already have the robes I stole so there’s just the problem of you.”
He looks at me quizzically. “I guess you could make a half-decent servant.”
“Absolutely not! I’ll just stay on the outskirts. Undetected.”
For some reason his entire tone shifts. His voice is loud and serious. His expression hardens. “No. no way.” After a moment he adds, “you’d ruin it.”
“Ruin it? I’m a daughter of Nyx! I’m made to stay in the shadows!” I finish off my food and throw the remaining bones into the fire.
“So what if you were a daughter of Night?”
“Nyx,” I correct him.
“Whatever. It doesn’t matter. It’s a stupid plan and I won’t let you.”
“Let me,” I scoff. “You’re right, you won’t let me do anything because you don’t get a say in what I do!”
He rolls his eyes then stands up. “I think I saw a cave a little way back. It shouldn’t take more than an hour to get there if we start walking now.”
I stay by the fire. “I’m not going anywhere. Especially with you. You have your plan, I have mine.”
He stops. “Don’t be so difficult. Get up so we can go.”
“I told you. I’m not going. We were always going to separate, right? When we found someone we knew. Why don’t we just separate here? It’s better for both of us.”
“We don’t even know if there is anyone we know here!” but even saying this he didn’t sound convinced. “You’ll just get yourself captured, then I’ll have to go save you. It would be a waste of time.”
“Save me?” I laugh. I’m now on my feet. “I’m not helpless, Ambrose. And if anyone needs saving between the two of us, it’s you! I’ve been off fighting a war, making a life for myself after it! Where have you been?”
He scowls at me. “Do you see yourself? You’re helpless.”
“I am not helpless! I can defend myself perfectly well. I certainly don’t need to hide behind some monster, and even more certainly I’m not going to tuck tail when things start to look bad!”
“I never hid behind some monster. I was doing a job!” he seethed.
“Oh yes, and you just coincidentally quit when things started to look bad for you?”
He grits his teeth, shaking his head. “You’re not going. That’s final.”
“You’re not the boss of me,” I yell.
“No, I am not. But seeing as both of the people who could get you to listen are dead, I am the only one around to tell you not to be completely stupid!”
We stare at each other, his words hanging in the air like a smoking gun.
“I hate you.”
“I hate you more,” he growls. He waves his hand at me and turns to the woods. “Fine. Do what you want. Why should I care?”
I watch him leave, ignoring the angry tears that are welling in my eyes.
What a jerk.
I plant myself on the ground, glaring into the flames that are slowly going out. A minute later I hear something in the distance. It sounds like a voice, but is too distant to make out.
“Ambrose?”
He probably came back to pick a fight. I look around.
The sound seems to be coming from the trees, but that’s not right because I just heard–
“Holy sh–”
I get down just in time for a shot of flames to fire above me. I feel my eyepatch slip and fall, but there’s no time for me to grab it, because more fire is fired my way and the flames eat up the patch.
I clamp a hand over my bad eye and run blindly in some unknown direction. Trees. I’m in the trees. I had to find Ambrose.
“Helena!” He cries out. He’s far. Too far.
“Helena! Run! Get out of here!”
“Ambrose?” Then I slam into something. I go crashing to the floor and get ready to attack whoever it is I’ve unluckily found.
“What are you still doing here?” Ambrose is torn and bloody. A fresh burn covers the side of his neck and shoulder, the skin is raw and pink.
I’m going to throw up.
There’s a wild, scared look in his eyes. He gets me to my feet and pushes me away. “Run! Go! Get out of here!”
His voice is so desperate and he is so unlike himself, that I’m left stunned.
“Go!”
My feet start to work and I run in a new direction. I look back in time to catch Ambrose fighting off a guard, crying out in pain as a blade finds its way into his stomach.
“STOP!”
A voice calls out. I whip around, steadying myself, ready to have to leap out of harm's way, but there is no fire.
A man steps forward, along with a dozen other guards, curling around me. He calls another man over. He has a bloody knife to Ambrose's throat.
“If you move, we’ll kill him.”
Do it. I don’t care.
But my body doesn’t let me move. I watch as Ambrose struggles, but his wound has left him weak.
“Helena go!”
The man arches an eyebrow. “Helena? That’s your name? Well then Helena, what is it that you will choose to do? Run and let your friend die?”
Yes.
“No,” I whisper.
RUN YOU IDIOT! I hear myself yelling.
“Good,” the man says with a smile. His lips are thin and his teeth are perfectly straight, but his smile doesn’t reach his eyes. It looks as though someone forced a corpse to smile.
He waves his hand at me and a set of guards grab my arms. “We’ll take them with us. See if they know the other intruders.”
Ambrose breaks loose and lunges at the man, punching him in the jaw. Other guards rush forward to assist, but he causes them to pause by putting his hand in the air. He gets to his feet and laughs, pushing up his sleeves.
“Does the mutt want to fight? Well then, make it quick.”
Ambrose goes to swing again, but the man is prepared this time. He blocks it and brings his knee up, slamming it into the stab wound in Ambrose’s stomach.
Ambrose staggers back, clutching himself. He curses under his breath.
The man laughs. “What? Is that all you have?”
Ambrose tries to straighten himself, but the man punches him, knocking him to the ground.
“Ambrose!” I yell out, trying to pull myself forward.
“Hold her!” The man screams before turning back to my questmate.
He punches him. Again and again. It’s not until Ambrose slumps to the ground in defeat does he stop.
The man stares down at him. “You lasted an hour. Much longer than I thought you would.” He wipes his hands on his pants, sniffing. He turns and walks away, breaking the circle of men around us.
“If either of them try anything again, kill them.”