“How long have you been fighting like that?” I found myself asking, trying to distance myself from my body’s treacherous demands.
“Since I was strong enough to hold a blade,” he answered, cocking his head to the side. “I was trained from a young age.”
It showed. I wondered if his father had taught him. If his mother had been aMorakkari, it meant that his father had been aVorakkar.
“What is it that you need,kalles?” he murmured. That scent of him, his sweat, his musk fogged my brain, made my mouth water.
Blinking, I managed to remember why I’d sought him out.
“Is there anything I can do around camp?” I asked.
He wiped his forearm across his forehead, his fresh gold markings from that morning flashing. Unlike mine, they didn’t look reddened or irritated.
“There is no need.”
“Iwantto do something,” I amended.
He turned the full-force of his gaze onto me. “Why?”
I inhaled a short breath and said, “Look, I know how it works. I know that my life, at least for the immediate future is with you, here.” He frowned at that. “Maybe that will change in time, but for now, it would benefit me to learn about this place, about your people. Aboutyou. And I can’t do any of that sitting on my ass in a tent all day.”
Something rose from him, wild and quick. He advanced on me, lowered his head ever so slightly, and growled, “Your future isalwayswith me,kalles. Do noteversay otherwise.”
My lips parted, not expecting that reaction. “Arokan.”
A sharp exhale whistled through his nostrils and he bit out a curse in Dakkari, looking away, past me to his camp.
“That’s…” I swallowed, trailing off. “All I meant was that we don’t know what the future brings. All I meant was that I’m here now. I’m not going to fight you at every turn anymore. I’ve accepted that this is the path my life has taken and if that’s so, I want tobuilda life here. I need a purpose.”
“Your purpose is to stand beside me,” he growled, “as my queen.”
“As your ornament?” I rasped, frustrated. “As yourtrophy? I’m not going to spend my life like that, Arokan. I can’t. It would kill me.”
His gaze flashed, his yellow irises contracted.
“I just want a job,” I said softly, hesitantly reached out to touch his forearm. His skin was hot from the sun, from his exertion. “However small it might be.Anything.”
His gaze went down to my hand resting against him and when he didn’t reply, I bit my lip and pulled it away.
In a flash, he caught my hand, keeping that connection.
“Anything?” he repeated, running his calloused thumb across the back of my hand. I’d never known such a simple touch could feel so…arousing. So intimate.
“Y-yes,” I replied, my head going a little fuzzy again.
He leaned close, those rapt eyes freezing me into place. Softly, he said, “Then you will aid with thepyrokis’ care.”
My eyes widened and I snatched my hand back, taking a whole step away from him, as if to distance myself from his words. “Arokan,no. I can’t do that.”
“You said anything. You wanted a job, this is the one I task to you,” he replied simply.
My breath hitched, my mind flashing to those red-eyed beasts, the same kind of beast that had mauled my mother, that had forced me to end her suffering.
“Please, I’ll do anything else but—”
“Do you think I have not noticed your aversion to them?” Arokan asked softly.
“I…I…”
