Warrior:. Zoe Archer
women members, but…me, no. Not yet. You have to…prove yourself before you are made a member. My father is, but he is injured. So it fell to me. I wanted to go,” she added with a sudden ferocity, no longer embarrassed.
Interesting. Thalia Burgess, a young woman who burned with need to prove herself to this group. If Franklin Burgess hadn’t been hurt, would Burgess have let his daughter accompany him on this dangerous journey? Perhaps the old man had been trying to protect his child more than she would have liked for longer than she wanted. But the needs of the many outweighed his own fatherly instinct, and he’d had to let her go. What was Burgess feeling right now? Probably an agony of worry. Huntley wished he could write Burgess and let him know. Huntley wasn’t going anywhere. He would stay and ensure the mission was completed, but, more importantly, protect Thalia. That had become Huntley’s purpose. She was a brave woman, he wouldn’t deny that, seeing courage and determination shining in her glittering emerald eyes. She’d fought that supernatural storm without once backing down or showing fear, and she’d pushed through her own guilt and doubt that had threatened to swamp her after she’d killed. Huntley could count on one hand the number of men he knew who could withstand as much.
But, with the exception of Batu, who was no fighter, she had started her journey alone against a very powerful, ruthless enemy. Her solitude made her vulnerable. She wasn’t alone in her fight anymore.
“So, Captain Huntley,” Thalia said, breaking the silence, “what I’ve told you has been kept a secret for generations, but you’ve proven yourself more than trustworthy. Now that you know everything, what do you intend to do?” She stared at him, intent and slightly afraid of what he might say.
He held her gaze. “I’ll say this one last time. I’m with you until the end. Whoever and whatever comes our way.”
As he said this, he felt the oddest surge of happiness—a feeling with which he hadn’t much experience, not since he’d resigned from the army. At that point, Huntley had settled on his makeshift plan to return to England, get an ordinary job, find a sweet wife, and install her in some snug home while they made armfuls of babies, but, strangely, the plan hadn’t raised his spirits as he thought it would. But throwing himself headlong into a cause he hadn’t known about a week earlier, a cause in which he’d face unknown, supernatural dangers…somehow that had done the trick. Huntley felt the blood moving in him, the old excitement of a campaign.
It was made all the better knowing that Thalia Burgess would be by his side.
Hearing his vow, she let out a breath she probably hadn’t known she was holding and smiled at him again. Seeing her smile, something hot and animal slid through him. But this wasn’t the time, and it wasn’t the place; he had his cause and his duty, so he tried to push that roused beast aside. It was a fight, though.
Instead of reaching for her, as he wanted to do, he asked, “And what are these paragons called, who safeguard the world, and save England from herself?”
Before she even spoke, he knew everything was about to change. And change forever.
“The Blades of the Rose.”
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