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shrugged, relieved the favor was a small thing, amazed he wanted to grant this woman all her wishes. Ensuring she’d never want for anything again seemed to be his new goal in life, despite knowing the Watchers frowned upon exhibitions of kindness. They’d made sport of him since he was a child, what was one more chuckle?

Chapter 4
    Lily ran her fingers over her box of paintbrushes, feeling the smoothness of the wood, knowing she’d never have to sell them again. The look on Old Tom’s face when Enar demanded the paintbrushes back would be permanently engraved in her memory. She grinned. Clearly, bargaining successfully involved taking with her someone the size of a mountain loaded down with enough weapons to supply a garrison. For once Tom agreed to her asking price, one silver, the same coin he paid her with earlier.
    She couldn’t put the box down.
    Not on the walk to the inn, or when they got Enar’s and Thoren’s horses out of the stables, not even now, as they led the horses to Keara’s. As much as she didn’t want anything to bind her to her old life, she needed a reminder of her parents love for her, needed to remember the joy permeating her soul when she opened the box for the first time. Despite their dislike of each other, her parents had loved her deeply and she missed them.
    What would they say about her current partner?
    Lily glanced at Enar as he led the horses, glaring at anyone daring to look their way. Not many dared. Most took one look at Enar and pressed against buildings, backs to the stones, white shining in wide-opened eyes, in an attempt to get out of his way.
    Not that she blamed them. Enar’s glare could ignite wet wood.
    “Do you enjoy glaring at everyone?”
    “What? You think I need to be smiling and waving at them?”
    “No. I was just wondering.”
    “You like asking questions.” A statement, not a query.
    “How else am I supposed to learn?”
    He shrugged, then leaned over, his voice dropped to almost a whisper. “If I don’t glare at them, then they won’t take my protection of you seriously. Understand?”
    “Ah.” She nodded.
    A woman could learn to like that kind of protection. A woman could learn to like Enar.
    No, no, no. She was not traveling down that road. All that liking business led to broken dreams, broken feelings, broken hearts. Not for her.
    So why wasn’t her heart getting on board with her head?
    Not even the knowledge that for all intents and purposes he was her captor, her potential torturer, swayed those treacherous feelings that threatened to overwhelm her common sense. The bloody things seemed to revel with the evidence he didn’t mind her odd coloring and didn’t think her a witch.
    Provided he told the truth about that.
    He had defended her. Came to her rescue. That boded well for her future.
    And if it didn’t, she had two legs. Last time she checked, her two legs had no problem running.
    As they neared Keara’s shop, the buildings seemed to close in on them, blocking out the light as if they were storm clouds covering the sun. Winding streets grew narrow and Lily began to feel prickles racing against her nape, their staccato beat warning of evil intent.
    “Do you feel that?” Lily whispered to Enar, doubting he could feel the same thing she did. No one but her mother had ever been able to.
    “What?”
    “It feels like someone’s watching us.”
    “They have been, but it’s different here. Is that what you mean?”
    He knew what she meant. What were the chances of that? “Yes! There’s something not right down this alley. I’m surprised you feel it.”
    His head tilted to the side, brows pinched as his gaze pierced hers. “What you sense is a group of soldiers heading this way.”
    “Soldiers?” She cleared her throat in an effort to get her voice to return to normal. “We must hurry inside. Soldiers aren’t a good thing. What if they kill us?” In an instant her throat dried up like earth in a drought, as she thought about Lord