Afraid of how the guard might respond, Nora quietly bargained, “I won’t tell you anything, but I’ll give you the ring I stole.” While she spoke, she wiggled and twisted her hands in the shackles.
The restraints were meant for a man or a large woman. They weren’t tight enough to hold her, and the chain between them was long enough to maneuver.
Ignoring the woman’s fidgeting, Kalin sighed at her unwillingness to talk. He didn’t want the ring. Lord Taegun did, but Kalin had already resolved not to return to the estate, so that ring was worthless. What he wanted was information.
Calmly, Kalin threatened, “Don’t be stubborn. Let’s not draw this out.”
Even though the words themselves weren’t alarming, their underlying meaning was clear. The thief had no choice. Either she’d tell him by force, by the influence of a spell, or he’d tail her until he discovered what he sought on his own.
Nora’s jaw clenched at the threat, but she couldn’t feel more fear than she already did.
Sliding her shackled hands to the side and lower so they might be out of his vision, she worked harder to remove her hand. Unlike what he wanted, she needed to draw this out.
“You want to know who I am. Why? Did you want to take me on a date? No offense, but I don’t date guards,” A smirk lifted Nora’s lips as his brows raised. ‘I don’t date anyone,’ she wistfully added in her mind.
Loudly, Kalin scoffed and dishonestly painted a picture that wouldn’t come to pass unless he changed his mind. “You’re already spoken for by the bed that awaits you in the Taeguns’ cell. It’ll be your date for life. That is unless you answer me. I’ll let you go if you do, on the condition that your words are honest.”
Nora bit her bottom lip while continuing to twist a hand in the shackle as if she was considering his offer. Her hand was almost free of the restricting metal. “How can I know you’ll actually let me go?” She studied his face, assessing his credibility, while she waited for an answer
He had a classic heart-shaped face. It was angular, not at all chubby There weren’t deep lines on his forehead or wrinkles, but there was a weariness to his expression as if he was tired of his life.
‘I suppose being a guard at a noble’s estate isn’t thrilling. Tonight could be his most exciting night in years. Maybe that’s why he doesn’t seem to want to bring me back.’
Her gaze swept down past his cheekbones. The stubble on his face was not rough but well-kept, so she knew it wasn’t out of laziness that he wasn’t clean-shaven. The shadow it created faded nicely into loose dark curls just long enough to spill over his eyes.
“You seem more interested in me than you are in having an answer to your question,” Kalin accused as he watched her eyes wash over his face. With a sneer, he said, “You wouldn’t like the answer, anyway.”
‘That ego of his is vast. Can I get it out of this with flattery?’ Nora wondered and decided to try it despite avoiding romance of all kinds for seven years.
“You-you’re very…” the words fizzled out on Nora’s tongue. The guard was attractive, but it was too strange to say in this situation, so she latched onto what she’d accused him of earlier. She muttered, “I’ll tell you everything if you take me on a date for dinner. Somewhere expensive, but without the shackles, obviously.” Shame heated her cheeks.
Nora’s gaze bolted back up to the guard’s gaze when she heard him clear his throat. His golden brown eyes were expressive and seemed lifted at the corners, and then he laughed. “Thief, no matter what you say, you’re in no position to bargain.”
Even though Kalin rejected her, he did find her appealing. Something about her was magnetic, and he peered at her face again. ‘She’s from Yorith. I can tell by her accent, so did I see her there? It was so long ago, but that seems right.’ He couldn’t let her identity go.
While he was distractedly eyeing her, Nora bit her lip to brace herself, then painfully squeezed one hand out of the shackles. If it had been any tighter, she’d have broken her thumb. Swiftly, she lifted her other hand, which sent the metal bonds swinging by their chain upward toward the guard’s face.
Kalin’s eyes widened, and he grabbed the shackle before it could smack into his jaw. Clutching the metal in his hand, he used it to reel her toward him. “You should’ve known better than to try to best me in a fight.”
Pulled forward by the guard, Nora forcefully leaned her body to the side to avoid falling directly into the guard and ended up on the ground by his feet. “Who said anything about fighting?” Nora’s eyes lit with mischief.
“Actions speak louder than words, thief,” Kalin stood while keeping the shackle firmly in his hand. Just as he began to pull her back up with it, something soft, wet, and cold slopped onto his face. It stung his eyes and blocked his nasal passages, which filled with an earthy odor.
Acting on instinct, he let go of the shackle to wipe the mud off his face.
Nora rolled away from him, then hopped to her feet with the shackle hanging loosely from one wrist. “It was so nice to meet you, Mr. Guard. Farewell forever!” Before she took off, she scooped another handful of mud, then sprinted away.
A decent distance from him, she heard his thudding boots sloshing in the mud and looked over her shoulder to see him chasing her. Once again, she pelted him with mud, and he had to stop running as it blinded him.
Shaking the rest of the mud from her hand, Nora abandoned her backpack by the tree with the guard and sprinted back in the direction from which she’d come.
Somewhere along that path, there was a rocky outcrop that looked like an excellent place to hide, but first, she’d need to break his line of sight. ‘That must have been the problem last time. There were no trees to hide me on the road. Now, there’s nothing but trees to get lost in.’
After a while, her lungs started burning.
‘This should be far enough away to find a place to get low and hide.’
Nora slowed when she was sure she couldn’t hear any footsteps behind her. There was also no feeling of being watched, so she caught her breath while jogging and veered off to the left in search of the rocky outcrop.
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After being insulted by having mud slung in his face not once but twice, Kalin decided he’d had enough of that woman, at least until after he took a break. With his abilities, finding her again wasn’t going to be an issue.
Plus, he also knew where she was headed; Nora had told him she lived in Mirnis, and it was evident by the way she avoided going toward it for so long during their leisurely hike through the forest that the thief was headed to that city.
His mind made up to track the thief’s movements later; Kalin drank the rest of the water from the jug she’d left behind and sat down against the tree to rest.
As he lounged, he replayed the night’s events in his mind. It was shameful that a dirty-fighting rogue had bested him. ‘My siblings can’t ever know of this.’ They would tease him endlessly, especially his oldest brother.
‘I wonder how they’re doing.’ It had been long since he’d seen them, and it shouldn’t have been. ‘After I deal with the mess this thief made, I’ll go there. There should be a new moon in a week or less. Maybe Father won’t make me come back here this time.’
With his thoughts returned to the woman who’d slung mud in his eyes, he wondered how she’d managed to do any of the things she had while he hunted her.
Visibility for a human wouldn’t be far at night in the foggy forest, yet the thief had navigated through it effortlessly. She’d also hit him with that second handful of mud from far away.
A curious interest in the woman flickered in Kalin’s heart. ‘Can she see as well as me in this darkness?’ he pondered with his chin cupped between his thumb and index finger. ‘Those eyes of hers are not something a mortal would possess, and they look familiar.’
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Just ahead was the lofty dome of a hill. Nora clambered over the peak. The steep slope was blanketed in thick creeping vines and bushes. The foliage would provide her body, which ached from the night’s exertion, with good cushion. Without hesitation, she rolled herself into vibrant green plants on the downward slope.
Thorns pierced her skin as she rolled. She hissed in pain, gritting her teeth so hard her jaw hurt to keep from crying out. From all sides, she felt piercing and slashing pain from the thorns, but if she stopped, she’d have to navigate through slowly. It would end up being more painful.
Only when she reached the bottom of the slope did she uncurl herself and peek at her surroundings. Looking back at the plants on the hill that had blooded her exposed skin and snagged her clothes, she saw blackberry vines lurking within the creeping thyme.
If she’d looked more carefully, or perhaps if it had been just a bit brighter, she would have noticed them and braced herself before plunging into the thorns or found somewhere else to descend the hill.
Nora wiped away some blood that trickled down her cheek from her temple and turned around. With more caution than before, she scanned the forest in front of her. The trees here were thinner. Grasses, ferns, and underbrush grew more abundantly.
A hint of gray drew her eyes to the right. There was the rocky outcrop. It wasn’t far, so she pushed herself to stand from all fours, then dragged her tired body over to it.
Nora folded onto the ground underneath it and scooted back as far as she could. Even if that man had followed her, she didn’t have the energy to care.
All Nora had the energy left to do was force her remaining trapped hand out of the shackles. They dropped onto the ground, and she rubbed her wrist and hand.
Free of the guard and his shackles, she lay against a sloped rock. She shuffled around until she was as comfortable as possible and quickly drifted off to sleep.
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