Chapter 10
Corazon stared at the piece of paper in his hands. This wasn’t what he needed, not right now. To be sent away at so crucial a moment was unthinkable.
They needed to delay the attack on the nearby humans’ fort after the other night, but attending this meeting at the second garrison would keep him away for weeks.
He didn’t like the thought of Scarlet being alone all that time, and he hated the idea of Daliel being left in command of her. He had kept an eye on Daliel and had watched him slowly working his way through the women of the fort with little success. Scarlet was beautiful and bound to catch his eye sooner rather than later. He wanted to be here when Daliel noticed her. He wanted to make sure that Daliel noticed him too, and the fact that he would never let another man touch her.
To be sent away tonight, after everything that had happened recently, made his head ache. There was only one good thing that could come of it. It would give Scarlet much needed time to think about her feelings and come to a decision about whether she could trust him or not. By the time he returned, she might have got things straight in her head.
There was a knock at the door.
“Enter,” he said, eyes still locked on the piece of paper.
The door opened and someone walked in, barely crossing the threshold. His senses automatically locked onto them. It wasn’t Scarlet. His heart fell along with his hopes of seeing her before he left.
“The coach will be leaving shortly.”
“Very well,” he said.
The door closed again.
Corazon sighed, dropped the piece of paper to the table and leaned back in his chair. He pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose and then swept his hands up into his dark hair. It tangled in knots around his fingers and he closed his eyes.
He would have to leave soon and then he wouldn’t see her for weeks. His heart said to find her, but another part of him said to stay where he was. If she wanted to see him before he left, she would come to him.
But he had assigned her to the East Wall tonight.
She wouldn’t leave her post to come to see him, not even when she had Aradne and Milton with her to watch the wall in her stead.
Corazon grabbed his travelling cloak and stood. Fastening the cloak to the metal clips on his black dress uniform, he thought about what he was doing, and then pushed all those thoughts away.
He had to see her, even if it meant going to her. He couldn’t leave without knowing that her feelings for him were unchanged and without seeing that she was going to be all right here without him.
Once he left the fort, communication with her would be impossible. A captain couldn’t send a letter to anyone below the rank of lieutenant without arousing suspicion. He couldn’t even pretend he was discharging her because one of the generals had to countersign such a letter and people would wonder what was happening when it turned out that she was still a soldier.
He brushed the lint off his trousers and then left his quarters to find her.
He had to see her.
* * * *
Scarlet stared at the quiet world below, her thoughts firmly fixed on one thing.
Captain Corazon was leaving.
It made her ache inside. Being here without him would be like having a hole in her heart. She wouldn’t feel complete. She would be listless and her thoughts would constantly be with him. She didn’t even know if they would receive word when the captains had arrived safely at the second garrison. What if something happened to them en route? They had an entourage of twelve soldiers riding alongside the coach, but would that be enough to stop the humans?
Her heart whispered that she knew he would be safe. Corazon was strong, and the magic bound to his arm would protect him.
But what if there was a distance attack? Would the coach hold up to arrows and other missile weapons?
She sighed, convinced that she was going to worry herself sick before he returned to her.
Turning away from the world outside the fort, she stared down into the courtyard at the coach. Iron plates reinforced the black bulky frame where it mattered most, and there were no windows. Restless neighs reached her ears as the black horses scraped at the dirt. She could sense they were eager to go.
Night had only just fallen, but it was a long hard ride to the nearest garrison. They would have to travel to the fifth first and rest there a day before going on to the second.
Something moved out of the corner of her eye and she frowned when she saw it was Corazon. When he reached the top of the steps, Milton and Aradne saluted him and received a curt salute in return. Her stomach flipped as he walked straight towards her, his pace quick and determined.
“Captain Corazon,” she said as she saluted him.
He came to an abrupt halt and the confidence in his look faltered, as though he was having second thoughts about being here or what he was going to say.
He nodded and she lowered her hand and relaxed again.
“I hear that Captain Daliel is to take command of the garrison,” Scarlet said, not knowing how else to fill the silence as Corazon leaned against the wall and stared into the distance beyond the forest.
“He is,” he said, voice heavy and thoughtful. There was an edge of anger to it that she hadn’t been expecting. She leaned beside him and her eyes traced his profile.
Something was upsetting him.
She could read it in the hard set of his square jaw and the way his eyebrows had knit so tight together that his eyes were narrowed and dark. He still looked beautiful, if anything, more so than usual. She picked at the lichens on the stone they were leaning against and drank her fill of him. He looked not much older than she remembered her brother looking when she was human. In her village, Corazon would’ve been seen as a man now, over thirty and strong, gaining wisdom and skill all the time.
But Corazon’s age couldn’t be measured by appearance. He was over two centuries old. To know that made her feel young and foolish, and in a strange way undeserving of his attention. Not many of the older vampires associated themselves with ones as young as her, especially not the high-ranking soldiers like himself.
He looked at her with black eyes that she couldn’t read in the darkness.
“I have spoken with Lieutenant Troy about the procedure for while I am away. He is in command of seventh company but must follow Captain Daliel’s orders. If there is an attack, you are to assume command of the archers.”
“What?” Her eyes flew wide. It was such an important position. “But...”
“No buts,” Corazon said, his tone serious. “You are our finest archer and I am certain that leading them will not be a problem for you. Prove yourself, and this time you might just make second lieutenant.”
There was an edge of a smile about his expression, as though he liked the idea of her gaining another rank and moving one step closer to being his assistant in Troy’s stead. Troy wouldn’t always be first lieutenant in seventh company. One day he would gain promotion to captain and Corazon would need a new first lieutenant.
She smiled, silently thanking him for his belief in her.
“Is Captain Daliel a good captain?” she said. She had never met him before and she had only seen him during the nightly inspection. Each time he had looked at her in a way that made her skin crawl.
“He’s a fine captain, but a lecherous one.”
Scarlet was surprised to hear Corazon speak of another captain that way, and was doubly surprised when he stood and caught hold of her hand. His eyebrows rose into a look that was almost pleading as he stared into her eyes.
“Watch yourself, Scarlet.”
She swallowed hard, her whole body starting to tremble as his other hand closed around hers and he held it in both of his. His grip was firm, steady, and unrelenting. She got the impression that if she tried to take her hand away, he wouldn’t let it go.
“I do not trust him,” he whispered and looked around them. When he looked back at her, there was a decidedly different look in his eyes. He was worried. “I know that after the woods you mustn’t trust me—”
“I do,” she interjected, stepping closer to him until she could feel his breath on her face. “I really do. I trust you and I know that if it happened again that you wouldn’t hurt me. Don’t worry yourself about such things.”
She felt as though she stood on a precipice and below her was nothing but jagged rocks that would kill her if she fell. Looking into Corazon’s eyes, and seeing all the concern in them and the fear, she was willing to step out into the air and trust that he would catch her. Everything over the past few weeks, months, felt as though it had been pushing them towards this moment, and she couldn’t be frightened and turn away now. If his feelings for her weren’t what she believed them to be, if she broke her heart by taking this risk, then she could simply ask to be transferred and pray that she would never see him again.
But he was leaving, and there was a feeling inside of her that said that if she didn’t do something now it would be too late.
“Scarlet,” he said and then sneered when a guard below hollered up that it was time to leave.
He held her hands tighter, so much that it hurt, but she didn’t make him let go. She wanted to hold onto him too. She didn’t want him to leave. She was frightened to be here without him, and she feared something would happen to him.
He glanced around them again and she began to panic when she thought he was going to leave.
“I must go,” he whispered and she could do nothing but stare into his eyes as one of his hands left hers and cupped her cheek. “I will only be gone a few weeks.”
She nodded and tried to hold back the tears that threatened to fill her eyes.
It felt as though her heart was breaking right that moment but no matter what she tried to do or say, she couldn’t move and she couldn’t speak.
“Be careful, Scarlet,” he said and then stepped towards her, turning her so her view of the world was obscured by him.
Her heart leapt into her mouth as he pulled her close and his lips claimed hers. Her eyes slipped shut and she closed her fingers around his as she kissed him back with fervent desperation, trying to show him that she loved him and she didn’t want him to leave.
It was over in a second, quick enough that none would see them in the dark, and before she could open her eyes, he was stepping away from her.
Tears blurred her vision as he moved backwards, still holding her hand until the last second when they could no longer reach each other and his fingers slipped from hers.
“Goodbye, Scarlet,” he said with a smile.
She forced herself to stay where she was and not run after him as she wanted to. He had given her the comfort she needed to last his absence and reassured her that he shared her feelings. Now she had to let him go and hope for his safe return.
Holding her hand up, she sniffed to stop her tears from falling, wanting his memory of this moment and his image of her during their separation to be something other than her crying.
“Goodbye, Corazon.”
He turned away and she let the tears fall as she watched him walk down the steps and get into the carriage. When the door closed and the coach started towards the gate, she ran to the North Wall.
The coach trundled through the gate below her and out into the night.
She touched her lips and furrowed her eyebrows.
She asked the gods to listen to a demon.
She begged them to protect the man she loved.
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