She couldn't have been more grateful for him not treating her as though she were fragile.
"Did you use 'Ari'?" he asked, and she remembered that they had been talking about the name she used.
"I did," she replied.
He pushed at her, and their sticks clacked. "Hmm... Ravenspeak for a surname? Eagle?"
She stumbled and held up a hand to pause a moment, her breath shortening at being so out of practice. He simply whirled the stick while he waited for her to recover.
"Just Fyre? Ari Fyre could have been a good one, but I assume you were smarter than to use part of your full—“
"Storn," she interjected, swallowing the lump in her throat. "The name I used was Ari Storn." She straightened from her doubled-over stance, and the sight of the gaze she was met with made her stomach knot.
His jaw was clenched, and his head moved just slightly sideways. Pain stretched his eyes, hand tightening around the bamboo.
"Why... Why would you use my name?" he managed, and she could tell just by his tone that he was shaking.
Nyssa had to take an open-mouthed breath, glancing up at the sky. She thought of how the name had simply rolled off her tongue when the Noble had asked, and her lips moved with a nervous smile.
"I suppose I was hanging on to a life I thought I'd never see again," she admitted, voice cracking.
The stick dropped from Nadir's hand, and he pushed his hands behind his neck. "Fuck—you used my name?" he said, and she wasn't sure if it was even a question for her. He turned on the spot in a circle, his head lolling on his neck.
"Nadir?" she managed, unsure of what was happening. "I'm... I'm sorry if that wasn't okay, I—“
The way his head snapped to her direction made her words cease.
His eyes never left her as he crossed the space between them, gait determined and almost predatorial. His hands pressed to her cheeks before she could utter a word, and then he kissed her.
Nyssa's chest swelled at the taste of him again, at the need and passion exuding from his body and into hers. The surprise of him waned after a moment, and she sank into his embrace, kissing him back as though he were air and she was drowning. Reality went amiss.
This was the kiss she never thought she would feel again.
Her heart burst with the weight of his passion. He grabbed her up off the ground, her legs wrapping around him. Desperation poured through them. She didn't want him to stop. She ached to hold in that moment, her hands on his cheeks, his grasp around her bottom and her neck.
But after a few seconds, he pulled back, and his forehead rested against hers. "I'm sorry," he breathed as her feet hit the ground again. "I'm sorry—I know you need time to get back to normal, and I'm not pushing you—“ he straightened, hand resting on her cheek. "I don't care how long it takes. But I... When you said you used my name, I just couldn't help myself." His forehead leaned against hers again. "I like that name a lot more than I should."
Her lips quirked again, and she couldn't help her hands brushing against his cheeks. She breathed in the smell of him as they stood together, relishing the comfort of his heated body and the safety of his embrace. "I do too," she finally managed.
She surrendered into his arms in a hug that she never wanted to leave. One of safety and comfort. Of reality and grounding. Back in her own world again after a nightmare her mind was trying to hide from her by pulling that form to the surface.
He pulled back to kiss her forehead, lips resting softly against her skin a moment before he lifted her chin to see her. "Do you want to go back?" he asked.
"Yeah," she sighed.
Nadir left the sticks in the sand as he took her hand and led her back to his home. He stayed with her again, and that night she didn't feel as much of a burden as she had in the nights before. She wondered if he needed to stay with her as much as she needed him. Wondering if he was as afraid to let her go as she was he.
He told her about the fruits that would be ready for harvest after the end of the Dead Moons. He told her of the meeting they were holding the next day to discuss what Nyssa had found out while she was there. They determined a need to stay on alert since she had taken down the one camp. She wasn't sure what the Noble would think when he found his home burned to the ground. She'd left no one there to say what had happened. The thought had made her stomach knot. Especially after the wife had said they'd found a village in the east, and she assumed she meant the Umber.
"There's something you should know before the meeting tomorrow," he said as he held her, his thumb rubbing the back of her arm. "And I am only telling you because I do not want you to be blindsided by her tomorrow."
Nyssa frowned up at him. "By who?"
"Soli," he answered simply.
Soli...The name sounded familiar, and then she sat up. "Soli—as in the warrior?"
Nadir nodded.
