Inheritance - The Dark Sorcerers: Book 1

Chapter 11: The Last Bridge

"You're welcome." She took the glass when I gave it back to her and placed it on the dressing table, meanwhile pushing me down into the chair in front of it. My eyes widened when I saw my reflection in the dirty mirror; my skin was so pale that it was almost see-through—with a greenish tint to top it off—and my normally bright eyes were bloodshot with dark circles around them. My brown curls lay in a tangled mess on top of my head. I looked truly, utterly awful.

"By the Light, I will never drink again."

Ellie burst out laughing. "That's what they all say, right before they do it again." She rummaged through my saddlebag until she found what she was looking for: my hairbrush. Standing behind me, she started untangling and combing my hair to make it look a little more decent. The painful strokes of the brush caused me to develop a new headache. However, as the number of knots in my hair was reduced, I had to bite my lip to prevent myself from purring like a cat.

After she had finished with my hair and I had washed my face, I finally felt a bit better. We gathered our stuff and went downstairs to the pub, where we found Rowan and Larry waiting for us at the bar.

My unease returned at the speed of light upon spotting Rowan and I hoped that my stupid actions of last night hadn't made things awkward between us. I decided to act normal, as if nothing had happened at all, and crossed my fingers that he would do the same. "Good morning."

"Good morning," Larry answered, happy as always. His face lit up when he saw Ellie, but she ignored him.

"Feeling better?" Rowan asked me, his eyes searching my face. I nodded, trying to look casual. He offered me a sandwich with cheese, but I shook my head. The thought of food made me sick to my stomach. "Not all better, I see."

"Let's just go already, shall we?" I said, desperate to leave this place. Too many embarrassing memories.

"Right." Rowan motioned Larry and Ellie to follow and we went outside to saddle the horses. Ten minutes later, we were back on the road.

Trendlumm and the bridge leading to the city were only fifteen miles away now. Ellie and Larry took the lead today, while Rowan and I lingered at the back. A clear tension made the air simmer between us, but neither of us breathed a word for at least half an hour.

When the silence became too oppressive, making my skin prickle with discomfort, I decided to be the one to break it. "Thanks for defending me last night."

Rowan's head snapped up in surprise, my soft voice startling him from deep thoughts. "Isn't that why I'm here? To protect you?"

"Well, yeah, but ... I ... Uhm ..." My face was burning and I inwardly cursed myself. By the Light, this was Rowan. We had spent the last two weeks and three days together, and now I had suddenly lost my tongue? That was so not like me.

Rowan politely ignored my stammering attempts to form a coherent sentence and turned his gaze back to the road, a heavy frown between his eyebrows. "Actually, Kenna, I was wondering ... Why weren't you defending yourself? Why didn't you push that bastard away when he started bothering you? I've seen you fight off more challenging opponents."

I shuddered, remembering the helpless feeling of not being able to move my limbs properly. "I couldn't. All of a sudden, I felt ... almost paralyzed. My body no longer cooperated and when I tried to summon my magic, nothing happened. The rest of the evening is largely a blur ..."

Rowan thought for a moment, biting his lip. "I think that guy might have slipped a sedative potion into one of your drinks when you weren't looking. The symptoms you're describing weren't caused by alcohol, of that much I'm sure. Beer doesn't paralyze people and it most certainly doesn't block magic. My guess is that it was a variant of one of Bloody Ted's potions."