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Every ounce of common sense I had warned me to stay away froto disturb him

Zafir had prepared a poultice for Niko’s wound, so the root fro it with a salve he found in one of the saddlebags The smell of oiled mint reminded me of the oint,the abraded flesh

Whatever it was, though, I doubted Niko could even feel it after drinking froiven hiht before they’d held him down to yank the arrow fro, when the arrow had been co the injury and Niko had passed out

As I stared upon him noeat beaded across his forehead He stirred as I squatted closer, trying to get a better look He thrashed as if my very presence disturbed hi and reaching toward hi her back down

"He’ll be okay," Zafir answered, leaning down beside"He just needs to rest for the night He’ll have to take it easy to thelanced atto the suht now, all I care about is getting you there Alive," he added, his brow raised

"Thanks," I said with a suard can scowl like no other, and Zafir was no exception "It’s not a, Your Majesty We don’t yet knoe can trust Having Bartolo and his men with us adds one extra layer of protection around you"

He was right, of course

But I orried, too, about what Zafir hadus down--injured or not Brooklynn didn’t know yet what Zafir and I knehat Floss had inadvertently revealed to us about a traitor, and I orried about her and the othersit safely to the summit

Plus, there was the other matter to contend with Floss and his riders weren’t quick to forgive the h they’d explained that they’d believed Zafir and I had been captured and were being held as prisoners

Niko’s men had come across Brook’s soldiers after they’d left the train depot, where they’d been ordered to turn the town upside-down if that’s what it took to find me Eventually, that trail had led them to Floss’s place

Apparently, we hadn’t been all that hard to track froroup of Brook’s men Niko’s riders had come across The first party had been butchered and left for dead Every last one of them

My stomach heaved as I considered the implications of that attack Those riders weren’t the only ones ere vulnerable

Floss didn’t see accused of kidnappingAlthough I wasn’t sure what, exactly, he would have called it He had snatched me fro the glint of pleasure in his eyes when he realized that it was Avonlea who’d struck one of their attackers with her arrow "That’s irl," he claimed boastfully to the others as they threw more wood on the fire

"So, Floss is your father then?" I whispered as Avonlea ca, which had been ossified fro at me, at the faint shimmer just beneath the surface of my skin, made a face "Of course not I haven’t always lived with the iht there to be Jeremiah’s bride"

I frowned at that "Really? So, are you? His bride, Iat the notion "Jere a wife He’s practically a child still All he really wants is someone to tell him tales and help him build forts in the caves outside the settleh Floss insists that every man needs his own hoh His place se I’d first been brought to If that here Jereht, it wasn’t much of a home "Mostly, he sleeps in the main house with us"

"So what do you do there, exactly? Why are you still with theravel at her feet Shrugging, she said, "Floss bought me, is why He owns ain if I up and ran just ’cause I didn’t marry his boy, would it?"

I tried not to react, but I wondered if she could see it in htly aswell, as brightly other emotions did "What about your parents? Don’t they want you back?"

"I don’t have parents," she explained "Never really did, I guess I had a mom once, sort of, when I was real small People said I looked liked her, back when I knew people who could tell me so I don’t remember her ain "Never knew my dad, not sure my mama did either"