A Storm of Chaos (The Hunter Legacy #1)

Chapter Eight

Noah yawned, fighting the urge to slump forward in his saddle.

His late-night walk hadn't, in fact, helped him return to sleep. It had done the exact opposite, and had left him with an aching palm despite the Reapers having moved away from Wayside, and thoughts only of Kaya. The image of her kneeling beneath the ambience of the sunstones – not in prayer or contemplation, but in pain – at the forefront of his mind.

'So,' said Felix as he hoisted himself up into his saddle beside Noah, 'what did you two talk about last night?' He tipped his head in gesture to Kaya, who was checking the saddle on her mare inside the stables.

'You knew I snuck out,' Noah said flatly, and then he slapped his palm to his forehead as he said, 'No wonder it had been so easy.'

'If you thought I wouldn't wake to you leaving the room in the middle of the night, then the last twenty-three years of our friendship has been an entire waste of our time,' Felix remarked. 'So?'

Noah shrugged. 'It was brief. She returned to her room before we could really have a conversation.'

'She's not going to let her guard down easily, you know.'

'She can't afford to let her guard down,' Noah replied, keeping his gaze ahead, 'and I wouldn't want her to, regardless.'

But he stole a glance at Kaya again, and even while she saddled her horse and gently stroked its neck, there was a sharpness to her eyes when anyone else would have simply been at ease. Her sharpness wasn't aggression though; it was of perception, of caution, lined with instinct that Noah assumed would tell her to run the moment she felt threatened. Noah didn't want her to feel threatened though, but he knew mere words wouldn't soften her edges that covered her like tightly fitted armour.

'When are you going to tell her?' Felix asked then. 'Or, better yet, if she is who you think she is when are you going to tell the others about her? Addius is furious that you didn't tell them in your last message.'

Noah gave Felix a pointed look. 'Addius becomes furious when the sun is too hot, or when his meal takes too long. I won't cave beneath his moods.'

'Don't let him hear you say that,' Felix quipped, just as Addius approached his horse that had already been saddled for him.

Behind Addius, though, several attendants came rushing from between the stables and the guestrooms. The owner of Wayside appeared from the guestrooms entrance, frowning when he saw the panicked faces of his staff.

'Two bodies,' one of the attendants said, breathlessly. 'There must have been some sort of fight. They... I think they took each other down by their own blades!'

'One of them had tried to drag himself away. Come!' the other attendant begged, and the three hurried back between the buildings.

'Shall we go?'

Noah blinked, bewildered, and turned to see Kaya wheeling her horse toward Wayside's entrance. She looked across them expectantly, and then with a tap of her heel her horse trotted out toward the Guarded Road.

'Noah,' said Felix, his eyes on Kaya's back. 'Did you actually see her go straight to her room last night?'

Noah frowned. 'I didn't, no.'

Felix's expression was dark as he said, 'Right, good to know,' and then he urged his horse into a canter out of Wayside.

*****

They reached the border of the House of Wind in two days, during which Felix and Addius had fortified their guards around her. Kaya knew it was due to the deaths at Wayside and that they likely suspected her, but she didn't blame them; she would have suspected her too if she was them. So Kaya had spent the last two days debating whether she should play innocent and try to smooth over the renewed tension, or enjoy the sense of superiority she felt from their wariness of her.