Rasho had no problem spilling names, though, but he knew as well as I did that there was nothing I could do. Most of Nisha’s attackers hadn’t been much older than her themselves; I wasn’t in the habit of hurting children, no matter how deserved. Nobody but me would think it was deserved, though. They thought this was part of growing up for a Naga female, they believed it was Nisha’s fault for not fighting back.
“You didn’t care for her?” I demanded of Arosha, fury boiling through my veins with no outlet. He shrugged helplessly, and I sighed, pushing the rage down because it wasn’t his fault. Unlike me, Rosh was no fighter—he didn’t have a mean bone in his body—but he always followed the rules, especially if those rules came from his mate, Fessi. So that’s why she’d been here: to warn her male not to treat Nisha’s injuries. Well, I didn’t give a damn.
Picking the tiny girl up, she eagerly clung to me with her tail. Daois was at my hip, hands on my belt as he sought reassurance of his own, while Rasho rushed to get Arosha’s medicine kit. There would be no healing relic like the Shaman wielded, but I could rub ointment on her cuts and bandage the worst ones.
Chapter 12
Jolene
It was definitely heading toward night now, and still no sign of my Naga protector. I was certain that meant something had gone wrong, because if there was one thing I believed, it was that Khawla kept his word. He’d been good to me, and I was certain that he genuinely cared about my well-being. Nobody who paid that much attention to seeing me wrapped up warmly could follow that up by callously abandoning me. No way.
If there was ever a moment I needed to leap into action, now was it, but how? The heater still worked to keep me warm, but it wasn’t working as well as before, struggling to combat the cold seeping in through the branches partially covering the opening to my hollow. This wasn’t a proper hideout that blocked out the wind unlike the one we’d slept in last night; this place had no extra supplies. It was just a good hiding spot—nothing more.
Could I sneak to town under the cover of darkness and find out where they’d taken Khawla? For him to not show up, he had to be trapped, captured, or injured. I did not want to contemplate another, much more final, option. I was not the best at sneaking, but surely making snowshoes was not nearly as hard as it seemed. If I had those, I could move faster, perhaps fast enough to make it to town to offer help. Or should I try to head into the mountains to find Nala and her guy, Artek, instead?
A sound came just as I stuck my head out of the hiding place so I could at least look for things to attempt making snowshoes with. I froze, then began to retreat in a rush, but it was already too late. I’d seen him, and he’d definitely seen me. It wasn’t Khawla; this guy was far too brightly blue.
His eyes were also blue, glowing brightly in his regal face. He wore a tunic just like the one Khawla had tucked me into, the purple fur open at his neck and long, pale blue hair draped around his wide shoulders. A pretty one, and somehow younger-looking than Khawla. My guy, he’d seen things, been through it and back; this guy was still fresh as a daisy. I knew what I preferred. Definitely also preferred to keep my head.
“A human,” he drawled, then cast a look over his shoulders—left, then right—as if to make sure we were alone in the clearing. “What are you doing here, female? This is not a good place to hide.” His tone was surprisingly kind, which did not match what Khawla had warned me about: kill on sight; all blue Naga want humans dead. This guy didn’t appear to want that, though, he was hunkering down and holding his hands out at his sides to show me he was unarmed.
“I’m fine,” I told him firmly. “You can go, and I’ll get out of your hair.” I waved my hand at him to indicate I wanted him to leave, while digging my other hand beneath the furs covering me to find my sling. I didn’t have any rocks, but perhaps I could toss a snowball. It wouldn’t really have muchimpact, but maybe it would be enough of a surprise for me to run for it.
“You can understand what I say, human?” the Naga asked. He cocked his head, every line of his body indicating his curiosity. In the dying evening light, he was a glittering line of blue against the purple-tinted snow—clearly visible, and so very different from my Khawla.
I shrugged a shoulder, my fingers closing around the sling and pulling it free. “Sure, I can understand. I figure your language is in my translator database somehow.” Just because I understood him didn’t mean he understood me, though. His expression turned confused, either from my use of strange words or because he really didn’t understand them.
“Who is your mate? Tell me, human! If you can understand me, you must have a Naga mate! Who is it? Someone from Haven? Or is it a Thunder Rock male?” He was demanding answers now and approaching, no longer looking quite so friendly. He was still not pulling out any weapons, though there were several strapped to his body. Closer, he looked much bigger than before, too, and I found myself scooting back instinctively. That has him back down, though, as if he catches on to how threatening he seems.
“Why?” I ask simply, trying to recapture some of my earlier boldness. I was about to go out to rescue Khawla, damn it. I didn’t need to let myself get cowed by my first hiccup, even if this Naga guy was oneverybig hiccup. I had to be clever and find a way around him.
Why was, apparently, clearly not a name to him, and very clearly a question instead. To my surprise, he huffed out a surprised laugh. “Oh, that’s rich. He didn’t tell you, human? Humans and Naga can only understand one another if they are mates. You’ll know it’s true by his mating sigils. They only glow for a true mate, and once you’ve properly mated, you don’t even need to touch one another, the bond is permanent.”
His expression shifted from amused to shrewd as I tried to untangle his words and make sense of them. Glowing sigils were mating marks, and only true mates could understand one another? My mind flashed brightly with Khawla’s first-ever words to me:You are not my mate.I thought all Naga glowed with those pretty, slashing marks whenever they felt like it. Mating marks? He’d fucking lied to me, and I was pretty sure “properly mated” was just a euphemism for having sex. We’d done that. So I was as good as married to the big guy, was I? That was… I was so stinking mad about this discovery that I had no words. I even forgot I was supposed to be scared of the guy in front of me.
“What the hell?” I snapped, rising to my feet and wagging my finger in his face. “Are you telling me Khawla mated me without telling me? You’ve got to be kidding!” His shrewd eyes narrowed, and I realized too late that I shouldn’t have said Khawla’s name out loud. I might be mad at the guy, but I didn’t need to make this guy suspicious of him, that would definitely get him in trouble.
“So it’s Khawla,” he muttered. “You can’t stay here; someone other than me will find you. Go to Artek. I’ll send Khawla after you.” He moved fast, I blinked, and suddenly he was right next to me. His hand folded around my wagging finger, then slid down to grasp my wrist. I started to pull back, but there was no point in struggling; his grip was like iron. “Pity,” he drawled. “I really would have liked a human of my own. Now hurry, this way!”
It was happening so fast, and this guy was behaving completely contrary to how he should. Now he was dragging me through the snow, one hand on my wrist, the other on my back. I had enough of a sense of direction to know that he was urging me away from town, toward the mountain peaks. He reallywastrying to get me away from here, to safety. It made no sense, and I didn’t want to go. I opened my mouth to protest, but he spoke before I could. “Hurry! I hear others.” He wasn’t joking; he looked worried.
Then I heard them—the sound of voices in the distance, far enough away that I could not make out what they said, but close enough to know they were Naga voices. “Why are you helping me?” I whispered as I picked up my pace and stopped struggling. It wasn’t graceful or fast, and I was leaving a massive furrow of a trail in the snow. He saw it and winced, his expression growing grim, then resigned.
“Silence,” he told me. “Do as I say, and you might live through the night, somehow.” Then his posture straightened, and his grip on my arm went from forceful assistance to terrifyingly restraining—right as several others burst through the trees and saw us. I blinked at the Naga, struggling to make them out in the late evening light. I didn’t need to see their expressions to know that these guys were hostile, just like Khawla had warned.
***
Khawla
Dabbing ointment on the biggest cut on Nisha’s cheek made me struggle anew with the rage simmering in my veins. This was… wrong. I didn’t care that it was how females acted, or what they were expected to do. Nobody got to hurt my little girl—it was barbaric, and it had to stop. How many females died before they ever reached adulthood, thanks to all the fighting? It wasn’tright.
“You’re going to be okay, Nisha. I’ve got you now,” I told her quietly. There were a dozen curious eyes on us, play paused as they watched me go against the word of a female Naga. Most of those present were boys, but all three of Arosha’s daughters were here too, and they were staring with blatant judgment. It made my youngling squirm and avert her eyes, ashamed, but she was in too much pain not to want my help—her tears silent and her sobs muffled.
My finger swirled through the jar again to attend to the next cut when the door to Arosha’s home slammed open, and cold and snow swirled inside. Instinctively, I moved to block Nisha from sight, and she immediately clung to my back. Daois did the same, but Rasho, brave as he was, squared up at my side, his knife in hand.
“Khawla, you’re under arrest for treason. Come with us.” Mserad drawled the words at me with such obvious satisfaction that it sent a chill down my spine. If I turned my back on him, it would not surprise me to find a knife in it. So I had not fooled the Queen, or perhaps she’d decided my one protest was enough. Then another thought struck: what if they’d found Jolene? What if they’d put two and two together and figured out she was my mate?
“Where are you taking me?” I asked, my hand folding around Rasho’s shoulder to nudge him behind me. I would not fight in front of them, but I would also not go down quietly. Msera was accompanied by at least a dozen males, though they’d remained outside. It was a little satisfying to know they thought they’d need such a show of force to keep me in line.
