Lia set down the last log.
“Here.” She waited for Cassian to look up and tossed him the lighter. “Set up camp. I’m gonna go see if I can scrounge up something to go with dinner.”
Cassian flicked the lighter on and off and rolled it in his palm. “How long will you be?” he asked quietly.
“Scared?” Lia asked dryly.
He rolled his eyes. “Actually, I need to take a piss and didn’t want to leave the fire unattended, but go ahead, make fun,” he retorted, giving her a sarcastic, tight-lipped smile.
Lia huffed at his grumbling. “I’ll be back in twenty if I don’t find anything.” She pointed at the stack of wood. “Nothing too big, okay? Don’t wanna draw attention.”
At Cassian’s affirmative grunt, she was on her way through the trees.
Over the few days that they had been traveling, their dynamic had shifted slightly. Lia was still far from willing to see him in a positive light, but he had been surprisingly useful. Despite growing up in the same home, Cassian was so different from Cade. On the rare occasions that she managed to drag Cade out to hunt with her, their trips mostly consisted of walking, watching, and waiting. But they liked it that way. They didn’t need words.
That was a huge contrast from Cassian. She didn’t know if he was trying to reach out to her or if he was just genuinely curious, but it seemed like he was asking a question every two seconds. What kind of animals you could find at what time of day and where, how to prepare the meat, how to know if a fruit was safe for foraging. Though it was mildly irritating, she answered his questions each time. It reminded her of his age. He seemed so much older when working with his father, but out in the wild, his youthfulness came out in small bursts.
A twig snapping in the distance had Lia freezing.
Behind.
By the sound of it, it wasn’t a small animal. She needed to be gone as soon as possible. Carefully though. Lia didn’t even breathe as she waited for another noise or some indication that she still wasn’t alone.
“What do we have here?”
She closed her eyes for a second, dread filling her. Not an animal. Lia turned quickly to see a large man a few trees away, donned in animal furs, hair hanging over his shoulder in a long braid. A deep chuckle to her left revealed two more of similar stature with the same braid.
Shit. Inbetweeners.
She had never had a run-in with an inbetweener before but everyone who’d grown up on the outside knew of them. They were common in each sector but usually stuck to the outer borders. In between.
Lia quickly scanned her surroundings, searching for a way out. She was normally prepared for any situation she might encounter in the forest but she’d been caught off guard. She was usually smarter than this.
Absently, she remembered that she left her bow and arrow in her bag back where Cassian was setting up camp. She’d only planned to pick some fruit, she didn’t think she’d need it. Big mistake.
Her only other weapon was a small blade in her boot, but she couldn’t reach for it without them seeing. She didn’t think she could outrun them either.
“What are you doing out here all alone?” The second man grinned widely revealing a missing tooth.
She stifled a shiver. Everyone knew the kind of barbaric acts the inbetweeners practiced. They were primitive and didn’t listen to reason so if Lia was going to make it out unharmed, she needed to be smart about this.
Getting an idea, she plastered a sugary sweet smile on her face. “Oh, hi.” She waved at him, angling her body to keep them all in her sight.
“Hey, sweetheart,” he smiled back ravenously. “Where are you off to?”
She tucked a loose curl behind her ear, shrugging. “My husband and I are on our way to the northern sector.”
Much to her annoyance, an inbetweener was more likely to leave her alone if they thought that she was with another man than if she was holding a blade to his throat. She wanted to curse at the stupidity of that logic, but at the moment, she was more concerned about getting far, far away.
“I don’t see no husband,” the first man grunted, taking a step forward.
Lia took a step back to mirror him. Ugh. She just needed to grab her knife. Her smile stayed in place despite her rising anxiety. “He’s just off grabbing something for dinner. I would have gone with him but dead animals just make me squeamish.” She didn’t need to fake her giggle. The thought that she would be put off by something she did every day was laughable. That was the whole reason she was out here alone.
“Is that so?” The third man piped up.
They were advancing on her slowly and she was running out of time.
My knife. If she was quick enough, maybe she could…
“Babe, I told you to stay put.”
Lia could have cried from relief as Cassian stepped out from the brush, a dark expression on his face.
The men all paused their advance and eyed him warily. “She yours?” The first man gestured at Lia, watching Cassian closely.
“Yeah, she is, so fuck off,” he barked, stepping up close to Lia, subtly keeping his back to hers so that all sides were covered.
“Of course, brother,” One of them said, cocking his head to the side. “You might want to keep her on a tighter leash. The forest can be a dangerous place.”
Lia was stuck between rolling her eyes and launching her dagger at the idiot who’d spoken. They were the ones that accosted her.
Cassian, however, looked like a kettle about to boil over. He wrapped his hand around her upper arm. “I’ll keep that in mind,” he bit out with finality.
“Not so fast,” The man started and the hair on Lia’s neck instantly rose. The second man grunted his assent.
“What do you want?” Cassian asked, irritated.
Lia stifled a glare in his direction. He shouldn’t have asked that.
The man stepped a little closer. “Well, we kept an eye on her for you while you were gone. You could at least pay us back. You know, for the trouble.” The smirk he gave them made Lia’s stomach churn.
Cassian sighed beside her. “We don’t have any money.”
He didn’t understand.
“We don’t want your money, brother,” the first said with a subtle smile. He looked Lia up and down. “I must say, your wife is quite beautiful.”
Lia’s gut was sinking. She’d overestimated the protection that Cassian’s presence gave her. He was a man, but he was young, and these men could see that. Besides, they were outnumbered. It seemed that Cassian had finally caught up as his grip on Lia’s arm tightened.
“No!” he said loudly, eyes flicking from one man to the next. “We’re leaving.”
The one behind her cackled. “What, your mother never taught you to share?” he laughed as he stepped closer.
Lia chose that moment to yank her arm out of Cassian’s grip. Bending her right leg back to snag her knife from her boot, she spun and brandished the blade in his direction.
“Step. Back.” she said through clenched teeth.
The man’s smile only grew as he raised his hands in mock surrender. “Not so timid after all. Not a problem, I like that.”
As the men grew closer, Lia was running out of ideas when she heard a clear click.
Cassian’s voice was calm and cold. “I said. We’re leaving.” he repeated as he pointed a gun at the man in front while keeping his eye on the second. Lia had no idea where he had gotten it from but she wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth.
“Woah…” The man on the other side of the gun retreated several steps. “We’re not looking for any trouble.”
“Yeah, sure as hell looks like it,” Cassian snapped. “Go.”
Apparently, they weren’t moving fast enough for him as they slowly shuffled back because he raised his arm and sent a bullet into the tree behind the first man. At that, they all startled and took off in different directions.
When they had put enough distance between them, Lia felt like she could finally breathe again. As soon as they were out of sight, she turned to Cassian.
“Thanks,” she mumbled. She didn’t have to like him but she wasn’t too prideful to recognize that he’d done her a solid.
Cassian’s eyes flitted to hers before he looked back out to the trees. “Don’t thank me,” he muttered. “Sorry I took so long.”
“It’s fine,” she said quietly. Looking down at his hand, she asked “Where did you get that?”
He looked down at his gun. “I snuck into my dad’s study and took it when I was packing. Figured it might come in handy.” He met her eyes again. “It did.”
After walking for another hour, Lia and Cassian managed to find a new spot to set up camp. As she sat opposite him in front of the fire, she thought about how much worse tonight could’ve gone. If it hadn’t been for him, she would’ve…
No. She wasn’t going to think about it. She was just grateful that she wouldn’t find out.
Pushing those dark thoughts away, she ripped into the pigeon that she had managed to catch. It was skinny and dry but after half a day of trekking, a hot meal was a hot meal.
“I’m sorry.”
At the quiet voice, Lia looked up to see Cassian staring into the fire.
“For what?” she asked, though she had an idea.
“Everything.” He paused for a second before continuing. “I didn’t know he would do that for me. At the lodge,” he said, releasing a pained breath. “I was scared and I didn’t want to step forward but I didn’t know that he would.” Cassian let his head fall. “I know it makes me a really shitty brother to admit this but I’m not sure if I would’ve been able to do the same thing if he was in my position.”
Lia let his words sink in for a moment. It didn’t make him a shitty brother. It made him a child. He was a child in a sense. Not many people could have done what Cade had but that’s what made him Cade.
“He talks about you a lot, you know.”
Cassian met her eyes as he blinked rapidly.
“He never hated you even though he had every reason to.” She thought her words might be cruel, but he needed to hear them. “Most of the time, he was scared shitless that your father would get bored because he left and start on you. ”
He averted his eyes and sniffed. “I think I hated him a little bit for that. For leaving. I can’t honestly say that I was a good brother to him when he was at home but I was so angry that he left. That he could get up and leave when I couldn’t even tell my father ‘no’. He was a lot stronger than me.”
“Is.” Lia corrected him.
“Hmm?”
“You said ‘was’. He’s still alive, Cassian, and you still have time to make things right. He deserves the apology, not me.”
“Yeah,” he whispered.
To Lia’s surprise, she found herself wanting to comfort him, to offer him some peace. She wanted to stay mad at him but it was so obvious that he was hurting.
“You’re not weak.” She paused trying to order her words. “Your father’s a bastard, but he’s smart. He pitted you two against each other your whole lives and it only worked on you because of your age.” Cassian was looking at her now but she could tell that he still didn’t understand. She sighed and continued. “What he did to Cade physically, he did to you emotionally. You were both in pain, just in a different way, so you each thought the other had it easier when you were hurting just as much.”
Lia looked up and watched the sky for several moments. “I’m not going to sit here and tell you that none of what happened to Cade is your fault because you are responsible. But you deserved better. Both of you.”
After a few moments of silence, she figured he might want some space so she tossed her scraps onto the ground and dusted her hands, coming to a stand.
“Get some sleep. I’ll take first watch,” she said softly.
