Dragana’s sharp gaze moves between us. “You are fortunate I found you and not the younger villagers. They would talk. Andtalk leads to questions.” She focuses on me. “Questions you are not ready to answer.”
“What questions?” I manage to ask.
She looks at me like I’m particularly slow. “About what walks beside you. What sleeps under your roof. What you allow to touch you.” Her attention shifts to K, and something almost like respect crosses her weathered face.
K goes very still. “What do you mean?”
“You will know when you are ready.” She pauses, then her gaze returns to me. “You. Come. We will talk.”
“About what?”
“About what you know. What you hide. What you fear.” She turns and starts walking back toward the village. “The fire-blood may join us when he is finished bathing. Properly this time.”
Fire-blood.
That word again. It rolls through my mind, connecting to half-formed thoughts. K runs impossibly hot. The flames that protected me in the crash moved like they were alive.
Fire-blood.
Shit. What the hell is going on here?
She disappears around the bend.
I stand there, face burning, trying to process what just happened.
K steps closer. His hand finds mine, and even that simple contact radiates heat up my arm. “I am sorry. Again. I should not have—”
“Don’t.” I squeeze his fingers, feeling the pulse of warmth beneath his skin. “Don’t apologize for that. Please.”
He looks down at me, and for just a second, I see gold swimming in his eyes. Not brown-gold. Not hazel. Pure molten gold, bright and inhuman.
Then he blinks, and it’s gone.
“I do not understand what is happening between us,” he says quietly.
“Yeah.” I laugh, sharp and awkward. “Me neither.”
“But I do not regret it.”
The words hit me sideways. Warmth floods my chest—different from the physical heat he radiates, but no less powerful.
“Good,” I whisper. “Because I don’t either.”
For a moment, we just stand there. Hands linked. The mountain stream rushing past. Air crisp enough to fog when I exhale.
Yet when he exhales, the air shimmers with heat.
K releases my hand. “You should go. The elder is waiting.”
“What about you?”
“I will follow.” He glances toward the water. “After I finish. Properly.”
The corner of his mouth twitches. Almost a smile.
It transforms his face. Makes him look younger. Less burdened.
I want to kiss him again.
