Love And Honour (Book 2)

Chapter XXII

"So tell me, Lady and Leader Zara Ricell..." Hunter drawls, "what is my punishment for helping a criminal escape who is now proven innocent?"

"I will publicly forgive you. We have already made a great mistake with your brother; I hope this will go towards fixing that." She says softly. Hunter scoops up some more water and takes a drink from it. He stands and wipes his hands on his breeches. He studies the young woman waiting patiently for his answer. She stands with dignity but her hands, messing with her skirts, give away her anxiety. Her eyes are a little too large for her face and the grey drains of colour in the natural light of the day. But her hair breathes like fire around her.

"If that is what you need to do." He slowly replies with a little nod of the head. "You will have to do so much more than that if you want my brother back. You do know that do you not?"

"I do. Trust me when I say I will do anything to make it up to him."

"Words do not mean anything. Actions do. Are you going to call off your engagement to Egan or are you too scared that you will end up with neither?" Hunter sits down on the lush green grass and pulls off his boots.

"I do not think I ever actually could have gone through with marrying him. I do not love him like I love Logan. I have tried so hard for so many months to move on and I thought I could do it. I thought I could make it easier for my family, my brothers wished for me to marry as did my parents and Egan, he was an easy choice."

"Stop." Hunter orders loudly. "I do not care why you did any of this. This is between you and Logan and I will refuse to do anything that will assist you. Make your declaration soon and then we can all get back to our lives."

"Hunter..." she speaks softly. He glares at her.

"I would leave now if I was you, unless you wish to have something extra to explain to my brother." Hunter removes his daggers from around his hips and she registers what he means. She hastily turns her back and marches away. Hunter smirks and prepares to dive into the water.

Not ten minutes later he climbs out from the pool of water and redresses. The material clings a little to him but he does not care. For the first time in a while he is calm and thoroughly clean. Spending time with the Ricells makes him feel dirty and disgusting. This feeling will not last long but he enjoys it while he can.

He strides back through the woods. He sighs audibly as he passes a large tree, catching sight of someone out of the corner of his eyes. He carries on walking. Light footsteps follow after him. "Waiting for me while I bathe will not go down well with Logan either." He says tiredly. "You should be going back to your fiancé."

"My fiancé? I was not aware I had one." She speaks; a playful tone to her voice. Hunter frowns. That is not Zara's voice. He would certainly recognise it. He pauses so she catches up. She passes him and faces him, an amused smile laughing on her lips. Hunter studies the young woman before him. She is stunning and she clearly knows it. Rouge highlights her defined cheekbones and black lines her lashes making her honey coloured eyes appear larger. Red gleams on her lips as she continues to grin. Her dress fits her tall, womanly figure perfectly. It looks new. Hunter has an inkling he knows who she most likely is.

"You are not Zara." He comments on the obvious.

"Clearly." A little crinkle appears on her forehead. "I did not think you were going to refer to her so informally or is it because she is no longer within hearing?"

"We have not been introduced, how about you do the honours?" Hunter says with little patience. She smirks, deliberating on how she should answer. Hunter feels his calm dissipating, the dirty feeling returning.

"My name is Ebony." She extends her hand for him to kiss. Hunter raises an eyebrow incredulously. Her eyebrow tweaks up but her satisfied smile does not drop. "And you are Hunter, the boy who could never truly be a Usani."

"If you are trying to cause me pain or rile me, you are failing." Hunter replies, quickly turning stoic. "Will that be all?" He moves to step past her but she quickly moves into his way and places her hand on his chest. She smiles sweetly up at him. Hunter frowns. He has never let anyone he disliked get this close to him before. The urge to chop her hand off at the wrist makes an appearance. He restrains himself with great difficulty.

"I think we could be of use to one another." She traces her hand down his chest. Hunter grabs her wrist, his grip quickly causing the blood to struggle to circulate through her hand. He pulls it away from him.

"I am not interested." He grinds out. Her smile drops and she pulls away. He lets her go, his skin crawling.

"You wish for your brother to return home with you do you not?" She cradles her wrist, rubbing the skin tenderly. Hunter, who was about to leave, remains and looks at her with some curiosity. "I am correct, am I not?"

"What does that have to do with you?"

"I want the same. I want your brother to return to the Usani lands and live whatever happy ever after he can there. I want him gone as soon as possible. We can work together to make that happen." Ebony purrs.

Hunter studies her and beneath the cosmetics he sees features that are similar to those he saw earlier in the day. She is female but the features were present on a male. Hunter chuckles. Her eyes fly to him. "You want my brother out of the way so that Zara remains with your brother."

"Do you really care what my reasons are? We both want Logan gone from here and neither of us wishes him to reconcile with Zara. Do you want to work together?" Her lips tweak upwards.

"You sound like you have a lot to lose." Hunter muses.

"As do you." She replies sharply.

"Perhaps." Hunter grins at her, a knowing grin. "But I do not have as much to lose as you. If she breaks up with your brother I am guessing a lot of hard work has been done all for nothing. I can also guess that you will have to move away, there is no way she would wish for you to be there as a constant reminder of betrayal to Logan. I do not think you want a life away from power and riches. You have much more to lose than I do." Hunter gives her a final evil smile before striding off.

Her words reach him regardless, "Only if he remains innocent. I could have been confused with what I saw regarding Gethin poisoning his brother. My memory is a little patchy in parts. Did I really see Gethin do that or did I see someone else do it? It could have been that guard who was kind to your brother. Maybe Logan left an order to punish them. Perhaps I should tell Zara and Gavriel what I have remembered." She speaks with a manipulative glint in her eyes.

Hunter freezes.

She waltzes past him. "I will get in touch when I need your assistance."