Home > The Last Warrior (Shifters Unbound #13)(7)

The Last Warrior (Shifters Unbound #13)(7)
Author: Jennifer Ashley

“I don’t know what that is, but you’re welcome to look around.” Ben indicated the counter full of food and another tall cabinet with metal doors. The cabinet hummed.

Rhianne moved to the counter. “Golden bread has honey and seeds in it. Sometimes raisins if the chef has plump ones.”

“Sounds good, but I guarantee we don’t have anything like that.”

Rhianne found a transparent bag with what appeared to be bread inside it, but it was pure white and smelled unpleasant. Also very squishy, she realized when she squeezed it too hard.

She shoved the bread behind a large jar of some substance with a bright label and approached the stove. “Perhaps I will have whatever you are cooking. Is that the flesh of a hunted beast?”

Ben poked at the bits of meat sizzling in the pan. “Sort of. It’s bacon, anyway.”

“Bacon?”

“Comes from pigs. From their stomachs.”

Rhianne gazed at Ben in surprise. “You eat this?”

“It’s good. Especially with eggs.”

“Eggs. I can eat those.”

“I scrambled up a mess.” Ben moved his flat stirring implement to another frying pan on the back of the stove. Inside this lay yellow blobs flecked with black.

Rhianne eyed the concoction dubiously. “Well, I am hungry.”

Ben’s laugh echoed in the room. “Are you saying you don’t like my cooking? You haven’t even tasted it.”

“I do not wish to be rude, but …” Rhianne looked over the pans. The one with boiling water had sausages floating in it. “I can have those.”

“Oh, you can, can you? Tell you what. I’ll fix you up a plate. Check the refrigerator—might be something else in there you’d like.”

He indicated the humming cabinet. Curious, Rhianne approached it. The door’s handle was cool, and she had to yank at it several times before the ponderous door swung open.

A wave of very cold air wafted out, as though she’d walked into a deep root cellar. More surprising were the shelves filled with a curious array of food.

Peppers, carrots, and onions she knew from her mother’s garden at home, as well as market stalls, but she’d never seen the variety of packages, all with the same colorful labels as the jar on the table. She didn’t recognize the words—salsa, ketchup, tabasco, soy sauce—or if she did know the words, she didn’t understand the food—hot sauce, curry paste, honey mustard.

Apples. Those she understood. She pulled one from a bowl, wiped it on her shirt, and took a big bite.

Crisp. The iciness of the cabinet made the apple pleasantly crunchy and cold. Rhianne wiped a droplet of apple juice from her chin.

Ben had filled two plates with all the things on the stove. He took browned slices of the squishy bread from a device with slots on the top and added them to the plates.

“Breakfast is up.” He carried the plates to the dining table.

“How is that done?” Rhianne, apple in hand, approached the stove. Its top was smooth and black. No fire anywhere or any sign of smoke. “Magic?”

She touched the surface.

Ben slammed the plates to the table and was leaping back to her at the same time Rhianne shrieked and jumped. “Shelarank!”

Arm around her shoulders, Ben dragged her to a basin. He touched a tap similar to those in the bathroom and shoved her hand under a cold stream of water.

“Your mum should have given you a manual to the human world,” he grumbled.

Rhianne wriggled her singed fingers, which felt better under the chilly stream. Ben’s hand engulfed her wrist as he held her steady, but his touch was gentle on her healing skin. His other arm was still around her, his support solid.

Rhianne recalled the gargantuan creature that had ripped the bars from her cell, setting her free. The hands that held her now were much smaller, but she felt the same strength in them, saw battle scars on his skin that a change of form couldn’t hide.

She peered at him as she let the cool water soothe her fingers. “What are you?” she whispered.

Ben’s cheeks grew red, but he shrugged. “Ghallareknoiksnlealous. Don’t try to say it. Goblin is fine.”

Rhianne stared at him. “Goblin? But you’re extinct.”

A hardness flickered in his eyes. “That’s me. Extinct.” He released Rhianne’s hand and tossed a towel at her, turning away for the table.

“That’s not what I meant,” she said quickly.

“I know. Come and eat before it’s cold.”

Rhianne somehow still had hold of the apple. She dried her hand and moved to the table. Ben dragged out a chair for her, and Rhianne sat.

“I didn’t mean to offend you,” she said. “Not after you rescued me so kindly.”

Ben grunted. “Goblins are gone from your world. They were never very important to Tuil Erdannan anyway.”

Rhianne realized his gruff tones masked a pain so deep she would never understand it. She suddenly wanted to. This creature had braved a hoch alfar lord’s fortress, with only one companion, and had whisked her to safety. Relative safety, that is. Rhianne wasn’t certain if she was out of danger here.

“You’re important to me.” Rhianne set down the apple and picked up a fork—at least humans knew about eating implements—and scooped a hunk of what he’d called scramble. “You took me out of that shithole.”

Ben’s hardness remained as he nonchalantly crumbled his toast. “That place literally was one. So how the hell did you get into that shithole? I can’t believe a plain old hoch alfar took down a Tuil Erdannan.”

Rhianne grimaced. “Well, he did.”

“Give me the whole, sad story, sweetheart. I need to know what we’re up against.”

He said we’re as though he were part of this fight.

Rhianne made herself take a mouthful of the eggs and paused in amazement. They were good, rich, and peppery, cooked to perfection. She revised her opinion of egg-scramble.

“I was taking a walk on a cliff path above the ocean,” she said after she swallowed. “I live in a village on the coast—I’m a scholar. I research the heavens and write papers and books about it, and I also teach children about it, not just the Tuil Erdannan aristocrats, but the servant-class children as well. Some of them are quite bright, and I help them study to go to university and become scholars too. I take that walk during the evening before I set up to stargaze. It’s beautiful. Soothing. I guess Walther knew I liked it too. He had his toadies surround me.”

“You didn’t see them coming?” Ben stared at her in amazement. “All that Tuil Erdannan magic couldn’t let you get past a circle of dumbass hoch alfar?”

“It should have.” Rhianne’s forehead grew tight as she remembered. “I didn’t realize my danger—I was ready to hurl them out of my way and continue my walk. Then one of them poked a tiny barb into my arm. It didn’t hurt, but suddenly, I couldn’t walk, and I fell unconscious. When I woke, I was in Walther’s keep.”

She’d been disoriented, afraid, confused. His men had searched her, pulling out and taking away all her weapons down to her hairpins. Walther had watched, and smiled.

“This is bad.” Ben’s face darkened as he stabbed at his eggs. “What kind of tranq can take out a Tuil Erdannan?”

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