Praetorian Rising, стр. 32
"Possible?" Vesyon asked with a smirk. "Many things are possible."
She waited in silence, staring at one and then the other, hoping their mouths would split into a smile, bursting into laughter at the joke they were playing on her. They didn't speak, nor did they laugh.
"And in being a Praetorian, you're a protector of what,exactly? The crown?" Camille blurted out, desperate to learn more about this strange new world she was apparently a part of.
Vesyon seemed bothered by Camille's question, based on the way he squinted as he cleaned and sheathed each of his daggers. "We aren't here to protect the High Court—we're here to protect the people of Aspera. We were never created to protect the High King, Camille. You should know that first and foremost."
"And you're a Praetorian as well?" Camille accused Theo. There was something about him that put her on edge, but she couldn't place what. It might've been his cocky air, or the way he walked, fierce confidence and surety that she had never seen someone carry quite as well as he did. Perhaps it was the fact that even though the fighting had stopped, Camille's pulse kept kicking into overdrive whenever he looked at her.
"Yep. I'm the Praetorian protecting Romeo Village now," Theo said quickly, lifting a small silver medallion from under his shirt that held a single dark sapphire in the middle. He casually dropped the silver piece back under his shirt before glancing back at Vesyon and picking up a long skinny stick to poke the fire aimlessly. "I thought you were lying to me. Playing a trick on my soft emotions," he said, blinking rapidly and clearing his throat as he jabbed one of the larger logs sending loose a spray of sparks into the darkening lavender sky. "She really doesn't remember a thing."
"Don't talk about me like I'm not here, Theo. I don't take kindly to rudeness," Camille snapped.
Vesyon laughed softly at her retort, arranging the additional kindling near the fire pit. "Just because she can’t remember you doesn’t mean her intuition doesn’t. I guarantee Camille will be just as sweet toward you as she always was."
"Great," Theo mumbled.
Camille ignored his response and pulled out some hunting gear from her pack. "Can I go?"
Vesyon nodded wryly, while Theo simply glared at the dancing flames.
She hastened away, needing distance and a silent moment alone. Her entire world had been dumped upside down in a matter of days, and she needed to understand what was left of it.
***
Stomping through the underbrush, Camille made a show of her irritation by kicking every fallen stump and punching as many low-hanging leaves and branches as she could. Despite the torrent of things to be frustrated with, her buzzing anger seemed to zero in on Theo.
How dare that man point his sword at her back and then battle alongside her, expecting them to be chummy friends afterward! He was the most arrogant and overly confident man she had ever met.
The worst part was he was right. Camille couldn't remember a single thing about him; there was nothing but a fleeting sense of familiarity floating in the deepest narrows of her past. It irked her. How could she possibly not remember him? Who was she? More importantly, what was she? Where had she come from?
It hadn't escaped her that these two strangers had all the answers to her questions, and it made sense to remain at their sides for now. They not only knew about her past, they knew and understood what she was.
She raised her bow just as the first tasty option crossed her path, letting fly the sturdy arrow directly through the rabbit's eye: a direct kill shot. Camille shook her head in bewilderment—even after everything she'd been through, her instincts were still spot on. It was a little eerie.
Why had Vesyon come for her just after the Chimera attacked Lunci? Why not sooner? She stopped dead in her tracks at the thought of Lunci running free through the woods, a smile shining on his jubilant face. It didn't fit the image of that same little boy she'd seen on the table, ashen-faced and dying. I should've protected him.
She kicked at another pile of dead leaves as guilt washed over her, which sent several squirrels scampering across the damp ground. Her arrows flew straight and true, downing two meaty squirrels. It was strangely comforting to methodically yank the arrows free, clean them, and shove them back in their holster; it was a small moment of understanding in a world blown severely off course.
It took everything Camille had not to turn tail and head back to Sierra Village. If the threat had been neutralized, was there any reason not to go home? It made no sense to keep running from home unless it was safer for her to keep her distance, but why? Sierra Village held no danger to her, did it?
Strangely enough, the notion of returning to Peter's home rubbed Camille the wrong way. It wasn't just that she’d left, Peter had made it very clear she was no longer welcome to stay. Perhaps the deal between Peter and Vesyon had run its course, or worse —she’d run out her welcome. She knew her part in Vesyon's plan, whatever it had be originally, was now far off course. She wouldn’t be returning to Sierra Village, there was more to it all than the Chimera, more to it than her lost history as a Praetorian.
After an hour of hunting, she made her way back with one rabbit and three squirrels, annoyed with such a small takeaway. The soft leaves and grass beneath her feet muffled her steps, and she crept silently over to the camp, listening in on Vesyon's and Theo's conversation as their voices floated through the open space between the bare frigid trees.
"It's good to see you Theo, but I gave you strict orders to stay in the