A Prince of Fire

Chapter 39: Tressa

Tressa led Caspen far enough away from Clementine but within sight. After she laid her down, she fell fast asleep, Caspen's cloak wrapped tightly around her. Tressa knew she probably wouldn't wake up anytime soon, but she didn't want to risk waking her.

"Out with it then," Caspen said impatiently. "I'm sure you have thousands of questions."

Tressa took a deep breath and scratched her arm. She did have a lot of questions that she'd been aching to ask him but now that he was here, she didn't know where to start.

He noticed her hesitation and stiffly crossed his arms. "Fine, I'll start then," He said, his eyes narrowed. "Why did you save me?"

Tressa blinked, surprised. "Uh...it was Clementine's idea."

"I'm aware of that, but you didn't have to do it. You could have gotten her out of there safely," his face was calm but Tressa could see the anger behind his eyes. "Instead, you risked her life in some stupid scheme to rescue me."

She gaped at him, suddenly angry. She saved his life and he was scolding her for it? Shouldn't he be thanking her? "I didn't want to! But Clementine was convinced you had changed and that you were her friend. All I wanted to do was go home."

"You can never go home," he muttered. "Jarvis knows where you live. That's the first place he'll look." He shook his head. "Nevertheless, it was a stupid plan‒"

"Yeah I know it was stupid! But you risked your life to save Clementine. I thought maybe she was right and that you cared for her."

"You don't know what my motivations were."

"Maybe not," Tressa agreed, clenching her fists. "But I know that you care about her. You wanted to save her and there was no denying the happiness on your face when you saw her."

He was silent a moment, looking at her sharply. "Yes, despite everything that's happened, I do care for her."

"Well, at least we have one thing in common then," Tressa said, turning to look at Clementine's sleeping form. She stifled her sigh of relief; she was glad that he cared for her. At least now she didn't have to worry about his intentions around her, but that didn't mean she trusted him yet. He was still the assassin who kidnapped her sister. Her eyes found his blue ones and she tried not to get distracted by the mesmerizing color. "Why didn't you kill Jarvis?"

He visibly swallowed and looked away. "It's complicated."

"He seemed to have no qualms about killing you. So why didn't you? You had every reason to‒"

"I'm sorry," he rolled his eyes, his voice laced with sarcasm. "Do you want me to go back and stick an axe in his head?"

"Well, I‒"

"We were already short on time as it was and I had to make sure you were still conscious." He pinned her with a piercing stare that made her skin go cold.

"It's not my fault you hit me over the head!"

"I told you to duck!"

"No you didn't!"

"Whatever," he growled. "What's done is done. If you wanted him dead, you could've done it. But I didn't expect you to be the kind of girl to have bloodlust."

"I don't," Tressa said, feeling her stomach drop. Her mind went to the cellar, where she had killed those two guards. She could see their cold eyes, her hand on the knife, their blood soaking the floor...

"Then how did you get Clementine to escape?" He crossed his arms, regarding her with an expression she couldn't decipher. "You must have killed the guards."