Broken Aro (The Broken Ones) (19 page)

"This far north, bad," Prince replied with a
frown. "Lots of ice, lots of snow."

The men all grimaced. "We need to get to one of
these cities before the bad weather hits," Bo declared.

The men started talking quietly, making plans, and she
closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the tree. At least they had a
plan now.

Dark images suddenly appeared in her mind, trying to
swallow and drown her. Her eyes snapped open. Fear overwhelmed her hatred for a
moment. She sucked in a deep breath, trying to push the clawing hysteria away.
Somehow she managed, concentrating on the hate until the shadows in her mind
mostly drifted away. She glanced at the others quickly, hoping they hadn't
noticed her distress.

Prince looked solemnly at her. "You told my
secret."

She shifted uncomfortably against the tree. "It
wasn't a secret. You never told me, I just guessed."

"There was a reason I didn't say anything."

"And what would that be?"

He paused and glanced around at the others before
looking back at her. "I can't expect any of you to understand what it
means to be a prince in these lands. It is much different here, much more
dangerous."

She rolled her eyes. "That is the stupidest thing
I've ever heard! Why don't you just say you don't trust us?"

He inclined his head slightly. "There is a bit of
that as well."

His answer wasn't really a surprise, but for some
reason his admitting it hurt. "You can trust us."

"You wish to talk about trust?" His face
looked far too innocent as he raised his eyebrows. "So should I tell your
secret? The one you never told me, but I guessed?"

Dumb, arrogant, blighting idiot prince. She tried to
keep the anger from her voice, but it didn't really work. "You should have
just told us! What you know can help us here! Mine isn't good for anything."

Prince smiled slightly and tilted his head to the
side, still all fake innocence but real anger. Yes, he was rather furious with
her. She didn't really care.

The others watched them both in morbid fascination.

"It would be good for you," he finally said.

She grimaced. "Good way to get me killed."

Avery interrupted them. "Aro, what are you
hiding?"

She clenched her teeth and continued to glare at
Prince. "You'll tell them if I don't. Won't you?"

"Yes, I will." His faint smile wasn't
friendly. "It's your choice."

"That isn't any kind of a choice." How
exactly was she supposed to tell them? "I don't want to tell them at all,"
she muttered. She closed her eyes, thinking quickly through her anger. It
didn't matter really. Her pretending to be a boy hadn't saved her. They hadn't
either. "Fine, then."

Everyone waited for her to reveal her secret. She
stalled, leveling her gaze on Prince. "You were right. About depending on
others. If I want to live, I need to start taking care of myself."

"Aro, that is not–"

An idea came to her. Raising, a hand she cut him off
and looked over at the men, her face grim. "I saw a Were." When they all
started to speak at once she raised a hand to silence them. "Let me tell
you the whole story. Before I ran into the slavers, I saw a giant wolf."
She pointed to her head. "It spoke in my head, telling me to run. I
thought it was me thinking it, so I did...straight into the slavers. I didn't
know Were could talk in your head like that."

Prince raised his eyebrows and shook his head
slightly. He wasn't going to let her get away with not telling everyone she was
a girl. For a moment she rather hoped he would pity her and leave her alone.
She didn't want to deal with this right now, even if it was a distraction from
her memories.

She paused, trying to think of how to say the words. "The
Were had one last comment before he disappeared." She glanced at Prince. He
watched her intently. No more stalling. "He called me a stupid girl and
ran off."

She looked back at the men. They all stared at her in
shock.

Avery leaned in toward Bo. "Was the secret that
she saw a Were or that she's a girl?"

"Rot it," Bo snapped. He rubbed his
forehead, clearly at a loss. "This is…this is…"

Avery remained innocent. "You didn't know?"

Both Bo and Cain glared at him. "And you did?"

Avery grinned and winked at her. "She's a tough
girl, but definitely is one. Too curvy and pretty for a boy. And seriously, did
you think both Kei and Prince prefer boys? You've seen how they've been acting
with her." He made a tsking sound. "You two need to pay more
attention."

She watched Bo and Cain try to hide the fact that they
had thought Prince and Kei liked boys. Normally she knew she would have burst
out laughing and made some sarcastic comment at them...but she didn't. She
couldn't. Not even a small smile would form on her lips. She worried at her
swollen lip as she tried to figure out what was going on inside her head.

"Well," Bo said finally.

Cain shook his head but smiled up at her. "I
understand why you didn't tell us."

They both looked more shocked than anything else.
Avery was clearly amused. She let out a deep breath. That hadn't gone so badly.
"We don't have any problems then?"

"Don't worry, pup," Bo said. "Nothing
has changed."

She doubted that, but nodded. Pain shot through her
head.

"Well enough of all that," Avery said
quickly. "What are we doing now?"

"You three jump into the stream and head east as
far as you can." Bo's eyes flickered over to her, and she knew he meant as
far as she could make it before collapsing. "Cain and I will make a false
trail for a while and then come and join you."

She didn't comment on how quickly Bo had changed the
topic. She didn't protest when Bo lifted her over the low brush between the
stream and the trail and gently set her in the water. She did flinch, even
though she didn't really know why. Prince and Avery both jumped over on their
own.

She let out a little gasp as cold water quickly
started to fill her boots. The stream wasn't very deep, not even up to her
knees, but she didn't remember it being so cold.

As they started walking carefully upstream, Avery
touched her arm, making her jump. "You don't have to worry," he said
quietly. "We aren't going to hurt you or anything."

She glared over at him in response. She didn't want to
be reminded.

He shrugged. "Bo and Cain like their women, uh…
more mature."

She grimaced. "Fine. I'm not done growing. No
need to rub it in."

 "Oh... I didn't mean to imply…" A shy grin
spread across his face. "Of course, you're my kind of girl."

"I don't want to talk about this," she said
flatly

Prince turned on them both. "You touch her and I
will kill you," he snarled before spinning around and moving angrily ahead
of them.

She raised her eyebrows in surprise. She certainly
hadn't expected that response, not with the way he'd been acting and being
angry with her for telling his secret.

Avery only laughed. "You were right about him. He
definitely has taken the role of overprotective brother."

She clenched her teeth together, suddenly angry again.
Of course. Prince was just like a brother. She didn't want to think about her
brothers right now. Missing them. She couldn't…

She pushed the heels of her hands against her temples
at the sudden pain in her head.

"Aro? How are you doing?"

She turned her head away. "Just stop talking."

He flushed and looked down at the water. "Sorry.
I know things are hard right now."

"Hard? Blighting idiot," she muttered as she
lowered her hands and started walking faster before Prince pulled too far ahead
of them.

Chapter 16

Anger and Forgiveness

The cold water certainly took her mind off of almost
everything else.

She stumbled along, trying not to twist her ankle on
rocks or submerged debris. She kept her arms wrapped around herself, more from
her shivering than pain. Prince had moved far ahead of them. Sometimes she lost
sight of him altogether as the stream gently curved and overhanging scrub and
branches blocked her view.

She didn't worry about it. They both could certainly
use time to cool their anger. Besides, she wasn't alone. Avery kept pace with
her, and a close eye on her. She kept her mouth clamped shut to keep from
yelling at him. Would everything change now that they all knew she was a girl?

She paused suddenly as she caught sight of Prince
sitting up on the far bank. Maybe he'd calmed down already? It could be
possible, they'd been walking for quite a while, long enough she couldn't feel
her feet.

As they approached he nodded his head upstream. "I
found the road. We can wait here for the others."

She looked upstream and could barely make out what
looked to be a crude wooden bridge in the distance. Looking up at the sky she
frowned. It wasn't even noon yet. She had hoped they would be traveling most of
the day. Yes, she was tired already, but not tired enough to pass out and avoid
the dreams she knew would torture her.

"There is a well sheltered clearing just behind
me," Prince continued quietly. "The others should find us easily
enough, but there is enough cover we can have a fire."

A fire sounded like a fine idea. She knew his words
should have at least made her smile, but inside she felt...nothing.

Prince stood and pushed his way through the brush.
Avery jumped up onto the bank and turned, holding his hand out to her.

She froze and stared at the hand for a moment and then
glared up at him. "I'm not some useless girl!"

He let out a weary sigh. "I know you aren't. Now
be quiet and get up here. I'd rather be sitting in front of a fire warming my
feet than fighting with you."

She clenched her jaw to keep from saying anything else
and held out a swollen, darkening hand. He stared at it for a moment before
grabbing her by the wrist and hauling her up the muddy, crumbling bank.

She tucked her hands back under her arms and started
pushing her way through the bushes.

Avery followed behind her. "Rot it, Aro. How hurt
are you?"

She didn't answer him.

Walking with almost no feeling in her feet was painful.
The bushes that surrounded the clearing grew thick and thorny. She had some new
scratches on her face and was certain she'd lost some hair as well. By the time
she stumbled into the clearing Prince had collected a number of rocks and had
started placing them in a ring for their fire.

Prince continued working on the pit, only briefly
glancing up at her once.
Gah.
He was still upset with her then. Fine.
She wasn't any happier with him.

Avery walked around her and started putting his things
in a pile Prince had started. He silently began gathering up twigs and small
branches that littered the clearing. She started to help.

"Sit down."

Her head jerked up at the sharpness of Prince's voice.
"I can help."

"Just be quiet and sit down," he snapped at
her.

She gritted her teeth as tears sprang to her eyes. He
didn't even look at her, just kept working on the fire.

She sat and wrapped her arms around herself tightly.
She wasn't going to cry.

He and Avery got the fire going and worked silently
for a while, gathering a large pile of branches. When they finished both sat
and took off boots and socks, setting them by the fire to dry.

She grimaced, she should have thought of that. Pulling
up a pant leg, she began fumbling with her boot laces. She cursed. Her swollen
hands were useless on the tight wet knots. She gently rubbed at her knuckles.
Bruises were forming but at least the torn flesh from where she'd punched some
of the slavers in the teeth had stopped bleeding.

She didn't even hear Prince come and kneel beside her.
She jumped as suddenly she found him on his knees in front of her, undoing her
laces. She looked up at him, startled, but didn't say anything.

"Her hands are really bad," Avery commented.

"Yes, they are," Prince said quietly,
keeping his head bowed as he worked. "What did they do?"

She frowned. "Nothing. It's from blocking their
hits and fighting back."

He raised his head to look at her in surprise as Avery
unexpectedly chuckled.

"I'm not some useless lady," she snapped.

"Apparently not," he murmured. He got her
boots and socks off and rubbed her feet down with one of the shirts from his
collection before wrapping them snuggly in it. "Let me see your hands,"
he demanded.

She held them out and ignored his sigh. She looked
passed him, staring at nothing as he gently moved his fingers along her hands
and forearms. "I don't think anything's broken," she told him.