Chapter 69: We will be friends, Ayla
AYLA
I was across the courtyard when I saw him.
Alistair stood near the stable entrance and the moment our gazes met, he smiled at me.
I looked away and quickened my pace.
I had been avoiding him since the hanging. Since I watched that stranger swing for a crime I committed while Alistair stood in the crowd with that satisfied smile on his face. Every time I caught a glimpse of brown hair or heard footsteps too close behind me, my heart seized in my chest.
I did not want to see him and I most definitely did not want to talk to him. I just wanted him to disappear from my life like the bodies he had hidden.
"Ayla."
His voice came from behind me, close enough that I could hear his breathing.
I kept walking.
"Ayla, I know you can hear me."
His hand closed around my elbow. I turned, pulling my arm free, and found him standing barely a foot away.
"What do you want?"
"I want to talk." He smiled again.
"We have nothing to talk about."
"I disagree." He stepped closer, and I stepped back.
He did not close the distance, but he did not need to. He had me cornered without lifting a finger.
"I think we have plenty to discuss. Starting with why you have been avoiding me."
I lifted my chin.
"I do not want to be friends with you, Alistair."
The smile on his face dropped and for a fraction of a second, I saw something dark pas through his gray eyes, something that made my blood run cold then it was gone and in its place an infuriating calm.
"I thought I had proven to you that you can trust me." He tilted his head. "Those bodies were never traced back to you, were they? And they never will be."
"Not at the expense of someone else losing their life."
He shrugged, waving a hand through the air like he was swatting a fly.
"That man’s family is taken care of. He was more than eager to die."
Aghast, I stared at him.
"Eager?" My voice cracked. "He was hanged, Alistair. He dropped through a trapdoor with a rope around his neck and his neck snapped. That is not a service to his family. That is murder, and you made me complicit in it."
His expression did not change.
"He had a debt; a large one. His family would have been sold to cover it. I cleared the debt and gave them enough to live on for years. He chose the noose over watching his children starve."
"That does not make it right." I backed away from him again. "This cannot continue. Please, stay away from me."
I turned to walk away, but his hand shot out and caught my arm. His fingers wrapped around my forearm with a painful grip
"Ayla." His voice dropped. "Nothing can ever be over between you and me. Do you not understand how important you are to the revolution?"
I went still.
"Revolution?" I turned to face him, my heart hammering. "What revolution? What are you? Who are you?"
He smiled. It was the same smile he always wore, but there was something different in his eyes now. Something that made me want to run and never stop running.
"It does not matter who I am." His voice was almost gentle. "I am nothing in the grand scheme of things. What matters is who you are and what you can do for me."
"I can do nothing for you."
"You can do everything." He stepped closer, and this time I had nowhere to go. My back was flat against the wall, and he was inches from me.
"I am going to let you take a beat to think things over and then we can revisit our friendship and this discussion. Okay?"
I stared at him, my breath hitched in my throat.
He looked me over, his fingers coming up to brush my cheek.
"Such beautiful eyes," he murmured. "I have never seen anything like them."
"Let go of me." My voice cracked.
He did not.
His hand slid from my cheek to my jaw, tilting my face up. His eyes dropped to my lips, and I could swear he was about to kiss me.
I started to struggle before a voice snapped at us.
"How dare you put hands on my daughter!"
My knees went weak with relief. I had never been happier to see my mother in my entire life.
Alistair’s hand fell from my face, and he stepped back just as my mother marched toward us, her eyes blazing with a fury I had never seen in her before.
"What do you think you are doing?" My mother grabbed my arm and pulled me away from Alistair, positioning herself between us like a shield. "Are you mad? I should have you whipped." She looked around, her voice rising. "Where are the guards? Guards!"
"Mom." I grabbed her arm, shaking my head. "Mom, no."
She looked at me, her eyes searching mine then she turned to Alistair.
"I told you to stay away from my daughter."
Alistair looked at her, then at me.
"I wish I could." He inclined his head in a mockery of a bow. "See you around, Ayla."
The moment he was gone, my legs gave out.
"Mom," I sobbed.
"Get yourself together, Ayla." My mother snapped at me. "What do you want the world to think if you let that bastard turn you into a sniveling puppet?"
I tried to contain my tears, pressing my palms against my mouth.
"Come with me."
She led me back to my room, her hand firm on my arm, and sat me down on the edge of my bed.
"What did he say to you?" she asked me.
I told her everything and when I finished, she was pacing.
"I knew this was going to happen." she murmured.
"What do you mean?" I asked. "And what did you mean about telling Alistair to stay away from me? When did you do that?
My mother stopped pacing and turned to face me.
"You never did tell me how you killed those men. How did you do it, Ayla?"