Chapter 354

I WOKE WITH A JERK, heart pounding, mind sharply aware of a person's hand moving across my leg.

'Sorry,' Rashid hissed the word under his breath.

I felt the saddle bag he'd grabbed drag across my lower leg. The breath I didn't realize I'd held whooshed out in relief.

In the dark of the early morning, with no moon to offer any light, I couldn't see a thing but the warmth of the two centaurs meant there wasn't a chance to feel cold. Listening to their steady breaths I knew they slept. But Rashid lay awake.

Finally, he spoke, a whisper of a voice so not to wake the men. 'It wasn't you he wanted. You do understand that?'

The words moved slowly through my mind.

'It was what you are. You as a person, you challenged everything he was.'

I lay on my side, considering his words.

He spoke again but in the barest whisper. 'She's broken hearted about it.'

The halted tone, and the memory of Leseach's stricken face as she told me, made my throat thicken, tears filling my eyes. With her fac