Arokan swung us both up on Kailon. Exhaustion was starting to weigh on me. Now that I was safe, all I wanted to do was sleep. I was still cradled in his arms and I rested my head on his chest, listening to his heart race.
My horde king looked down at my face, his expression tightening at whatever he saw. Rage entered his gaze, hot and furious. I realized he was doing everything he could not to explode.
I reached out to touch his cheek and he closed his eyes, his nostrils flaring, cupping my hand with his. He brought his forehead down to mine, gently.
Rasping, he said, “I feared…vok!”
He stopped with a curse and I could still feel him tremble against me at whatever he thought.
“Take me home, Arokan,” I whispered.
Beyond words, my horde king nodded and he spurred Kailon into a sprint back towards camp.
Chapter Thirty-Five
“You’re sure I can’t do anything, Luna?” Kivan asked quietly, squeezing my hand.
“No,” I said, giving him a small smile that I hoped reassured him. I was laying in bed, propped up by a plethora of cushions. It was early morning, not even a few hours after Arokan had found me. Dawn was just beginning to break over the sky and already, I’d been patched up by the healer, my arm popped back into place, and I’d had some tea for the pain. “I just need rest.”
Kivan nodded. He looked tired. He’d been up all night too. I’d learned that it had beenhimwho’d alerted Arokan that something was wrong. He’d seen me go into the black vine forest with Hukan, though he hadn’t thought anything of it at the time. However, once he saw Hukan exit alone, without me or my guards, he went to find Arokan immediately.
“I’m glad you’re safe, Luna,” Kivan whispered down to me. He squeezed my hand and then rose from the bed. “I’ll see you later.”
I nodded and watched him go. Mypiki, Mirari and Lavi, had already come by and I knew they were outside waiting for my brother, to ask him about me. Both, apparently, were overcome with guilt, though I couldn’t understand why. I’d dismissed them yesterday evening, to go let them prepare for the grand meal.
The moment my brother exited the tent, Arokan stepped inside, as if my husband knew I’d needed that time with my brother.
Arokan was still quiet. Even though the last of the Ghertun had been hunted down, he was still furious. I could tell. I’d never seen him this way before and it worried me.
“Come here,” I ordered. Silently, Arokan walked to his side of the bed and slid in beside me. He drew close, careful of my injured shoulder, of the burn, and positioned me so I laid my head in the crook of his elbow.
We hadn’t had time to talk. I almost feared what to say, considering how the circumstance had come about.
“Arokan,” I whispered, turning my head to look at him. “Did you…did you find the guards? Their bodies?”
I couldn’t stop thinking about them. If I’d never gone into the forest with Hukan…they would still be alive.
“Lysi,” he said. “They will be given a proper burial. A warrior’s burial.”
I nodded, trying to meet his gaze, but he was looking down at my burn. At the Ghertun marking. His eyes were frozen on it, though I knew he’d seen it when the healer put healing salve on it.
Suddenly, he said, “Hukan did not try to flee when I put her under guard watch.”
My breath hitched. I hadn’t told him it was Hukan, not directly. But judging from what my brother had said, my husband had put together the fragmented pieces. He knew that his only blood relation, his mother’s sister, the female that had once saved his life, had betrayed him.
My fingers sought his hand. His palm was warm and he gripped my hand tightly, as if afraid I would let go.
“I’m sorry, Arokan,” I said.
“She will face her punishment,” Arokan said, his voice strange. “She will face Kakkari.”
I didn’t know what that meant, but I wasn’t certain I wanted to know right then.
“I know you love her,” I said, looking down at our entwined hands. “I know this is hard for you.”
“For me,” he repeated slowly, turning my face to look at me, his brow furrowed in an expression that looked anguished. “Kalles,youwere betrayed, taken, beaten,burned…your—your pant lacings were…were ripped—”
My sucked in a harsh breath, realizing what he was saying, and I turned in his arms, ignoring the twinge in my shoulder. Taking his face in my hands, I whispered, “They didn’t touch me, Arokan. Not that way.”
