"Pretty," he repeats.
"Yes. I've never seen carvings this small. So no more chopping off hands, okay?"
"How do you know nothing of this world?" he demands, shaking me lightly.
"Because it's not mine." I open my hand and offer the offensive wood chips to him, not getting their importance or why he's so upset about them. "I'm sorry."
He drops the axe and snatches them. "This is the coin of Brown Sun Lake," he tells me grimly. "You say you found them with the Red Knight. Did he have many of these?"
I nod. "A couple bags full."
The Shadow Knight whirls away and strides to his weapons.
I release my breath and lean against the wall, my legs trembling from the intense interaction.
"He wishes to betray me." He begins replacing them around his body. I watch, intrigued by the way his muscles move beneath his skin - and grateful his penetrating attention is elsewhere.
"So . . . what's going on exactly?" I ask, not following his sudden mood swing.
"Brown Sun Lake has made an ally of the Red Knight. He guards my flank, or did." Hands on hips, the Shadow Knight's calculating gaze is on something outside the entrance of the tree trunk. "The coin was paid either to betray me or to obtain you before I did."
"Where have I heard of Brown Sun Lake?" I murmur, mind going to the first few chapters I read before being dropped into this world. The name rings a bell. I briefly go over the essential list of characters in every LF book. The Red Knight could be the Betrayer. But that would make the Shadow Knight the Hero, and I'm not buying that yet. Maybe meeting the leader of Brown Sun Lake would explain a few things. It's definitely much harder to know who is whom when inside a book. "You're betrothed to the Red Knight's sister. He's not going to betray you with her here. I'm sure there's some explanation."
"None I care to humor."
Movement draws my attention and I see words scrolling across my hand. "Oh, hey, I've got a text. I mean, message. Whatever you call it here."
"I had begun to think you were no battle-witch, as you claim," the Shadow Knight says.
"What if I really weren't one?" I ask. "What would you do then?"
His gaze sweeps down me deliberately enough that I blush. He appears to be considering his answer. "Sell you to the slave traders."
"You would sell me?" I echo. "Not . . . instead of . . ." I drift off, embarrassed that my thoughts are going in a different direction under his sizzling gaze. I'm not sure what I expected. He's got a fiancée and is more concerned with chopping off heads than anything else.