Page 21 of In Violent Waves

Her scent sang to him, and he should have known the moment it faded to a whisper that she had escaped. But he had been relieved that its grip on him had loosened.

“You smell too,” Lyra replied, stepping close to him again and shivering as the breeze floated by.

His brows hit his hairline. “I do?”

She grinned maliciously. “Yeah. Terribly so.” She gripped her nose with her fingers and waved a hand in front of her face.

A laugh nearly bubbled out of him, but he tamped it down.

His enemy.

She was his enemy, he reminded himself again.

“Let’s go, Legs.”

Wilder stomped through the knee-high ferns, and Lyra scurried after him, throwing cautious glances around her.

“Where is your guard meeting us?”

Wilder didn’t answer her, and a pout plumped her bottom lip.

“Why were you ordered to kidnap me?”

Wilder’s broad shoulders seemed to grow wider as he flexed them under the weight of that question. He shifted his rucksack once more.

“You’re back to asking questions.”

“I am.”

“My father requires your presence. I’m following orders.”

“But why does he wantme? And why,you? Don’t you have a royal guard or paid kidnappers?”

That was a very astute question. But it led to even larger questions that he had.

“I don’t know what he wants from you.”

“And?” she prodded.

“And we do have a guard to complete this task. But I am the best,” Wilder replied.

He didn’t say it arrogantly, but Lyra still snorted.

“Best at kidnapping females? My, my, what a reputation you have, Princeling.”

Her biting wit and sneer had Wilder hiding another smirk.

She was resilient. He’d give her that much. She had faced a horror most females don’t walk away from, and it had only knocked her down a peg or two.

But it was her darting eyes that gave her away, and the constant twisting of the sapphire charm on the end of her necklace. Lyra could feign normalcy all she’d like, but he could smell her fear even now.

It made the smell of the sea sharper, like lingering salt on dried skin. But he would play along. The sooner she was back to normal, the sooner this would all be over, and he’d never have to see her again.

He truly didn’t know the plans his father had for her. Wilder had only been instructed to escort the Princess,alive, to the Wilds. And that’s what he would do. First, he had to get her there, and the safest way to do that was to meet up with his crew in Fresia.

“It’s a two-day trek to the village where we’re to meet them, and we have to skirt the human capital. I know it’s impossible foryou, but to keep us from running into any more ruffians—shut your mouth.”

“Why do we have to skirt the human capital?”