She was sitting at the low table, quiet and still, looking down at the half-eaten meal laid out before her.
“Thissie,” I called, ducking low into thevoliki, but remaining near the entrance. Startled, she looked over at me, her back straightening ever so slightly. “You have eaten?”
“Yes,” she replied.
I’d been gone since morning, meeting with mypujerakand the elders before checking the fence, checking in on the injured warriors—who’d suffered a few broken bones, but were on the mend—checking in on thepyrokis, on Lokkas, whose nests had miraculously avoided destruction last night. Then I’d helped with thevolikis’construction and repairs once the freezing rain had ceased. They would be finished by tomorrow afternoon, even Nelle’s promised one, and a part of me was tempted not to tell her quite yet.
“Then come,” I murmured. “The winds have stopped.”
She blinked, looking around thevolikias if she could discern the truth of my words with her eyes and not her ears. But after a moment of quiet, she said, rising, “So they have. I didn’t even realize.”
She was wearing a fresh pair of clothes and I saw a new pelt of white lying across the edge of the bed. One of the seamstresses must’ve come that day and I was pleased that she would have something warm to wear that night.
She approached me after looping the pelt around her shoulders and toeing on her boots.
“I’ve offered my services to the seamstress,” she informed me, slipping from the tent when I held the heavy flap open for her.
Following her, stepping back out into the icy air, I felt my lip quirk. Something had loosened in my chest at the sight of her, at the sound of her voice. I’d found myself thinking of her much too often that day. She was slowly becoming a distraction.
When I said nothing to her words, she looked back at me and raised her brow.
“What are you asking,rei thissie?” I murmured, amusement helping to unknot the tension I felt in my shoulders from the long day.
“Can I work for her?” she asked, falling into step beside me. “You said you would assign me a task through the cold season and I think I would like to help her with her work.”
“I was going to assign you to her father,” I informed her, glancing over to judge her reaction.
She blinked. “Her father?”
“He is a weapons master. Trained inDothik, one of the best,” I told her. “Since you are so fond of your arrows, I thought you could assist him in making more for the horde. Our hunting season begins after the thaw.”
The prospect intrigued her, I could see it plainly on her expressive features.
“I can do both,” she offered quickly. And with those wide eyes, I could deny her nothing. That should have made me wary, but I ignored the warning in my mind.
“If you wish to,” I told her. “You can work with her father in the mornings and with her in the afternoons,lysi?”
She nodded eagerly. “Now, with that out of the way, are you ready to negotiate for your name?”
A surprised chuckle escaped me. “I thought you would not miss again, so is there a need for negotiation?”
“I still want my ownvoliki,” she reminded me, her tone going a little low and quiet, “in addition to your name.”
I sobered slightly, reminded that her new home would be ready tomorrow.
“But perhaps I can negotiate a practice shot in?” she murmured, casting me a hopeful look. “Just one?”
“Now you are being greedy,kalles,” I rasped, the training grounds coming into view.
The encampment was mostly deserted that time of night. With the winds gone, it was the quiet before the storm. The frosts would come soon, perhaps tomorrow or even during the night—I couldn’t be certain.
“But since we are friends,” I murmured, that word bringing a flurry of amusement into my chest, even as a darker need and a wicked idea mingled with it, “I will give you the first shot for a price.”
“What is it?” she asked, her tone tinged with suspicion.
I hopped the barrier of the training grounds and reached out to pull her over easily, if only to get my hands on her again. She sucked in a surprised breath when her feet left the ground, but I resettled her close so that her breasts brushed my chest when she breathed.
Nelle blinked up at me and my eyes settled on her lips, desire beginning to pulse through me. I remembered my reaction to her when I’d seen her skill with the bow. I remembered her easy confidence, her intense, quiet focus that felt erotic to me. I remembered my need for her, even as I remembered her professing her immunity towards sexual desire and arousal.
