“Are you…are you all right?” Vienne whispered to me when I knelt at the side of the bed.
I leaned forward, capturing her lips with my own, threading my palm around the nape of her neck. The kiss was a desperate, frantic thing…my own way of ensuring thatshewas all right. That Kakkari had spared her life, that she was pink-cheeked and wide-eyed, warm and alive andhereagainst me.
“Not yet,” I murmured against her lips, my voice ragged with the truth of it.
The past week had been hell. One I never wanted to revisit. AsVorakkar, I always had to be strong. My horde could never see weakness. But this week…I was certain Vienne saw the strain of it in my eyes. Up until today, I wasn’t certain I’d ever be able to look into her eyes again…and now that I could, I found myself never wanting to look away.
“I’m here, Davik,” she whispered, pressing her forehead against me. “And I can barely believe that I am.”
That washertruth.
She pulled back. Her eyes were glassy with tears. She held her arms out and I helped her from the bed, holding onto her waist as she got her footing. She’d bathed earlier—her mother and sister had been alone with her then—but she was still weakened.
She wore a simple shift and I bundled her in furs so she wouldn’t chill. Once I’d laced her boots, I guided her from the tent and out into the open night air.
Vienne’s face was one of relief as she stepped outside, her face immediately tilting back to look at the moon, only to blink in surprise.
It was the black moon tonight.
“Is it really over?” she whispered, staying close to my side. Her hand was warm against my forearm.
“With the Ghertun?” I asked, leading her towards thepyrokienclosure. It was a short distance away so it wouldn’t exert her too much and I knew she enjoyed watching them. She’d watched them with Lokkaru for hours. “For now.”
“You don’t expect peace?”
“Nik,” I told her. The encampment was quiet. Vienne’s family were nowhere in sight. I figured they were already settled into theirvolikifor the night. They’d chosen to stay in one, though I’d offered for all of them to have their own. “For a short while, perhaps. Maybe even years. But war always comes. If I have learned anything asVorakkar, it is that.”
There was a large part of me—a part I wouldn’t tell her about—that craved returning to the Dead Mountain. That craved slaughtering all that had harmed her and her family. Thesibi, the Ghertun who had burned the brand into their flesh, the Ghertun who had given them the first dose ofvovic, and Lozza most of all. That bloodlust might never leave me.
“But for now,” I said quietly, as we stopped in front of the enclosure, “there is peace. And because of you, there are no more slaves under the Dead Mountain. Because of you, Lozza knows fear, knows that you alone spared his life though you wielded the heartstone’s power.”
She glanced up at me, leaning against the enclosure. I noticed the short walk had exhausted her.
“Are you angry with me for that?” she whispered, her eyes luminous, even in darkness. Under the Dead Mountain, they’d glowed blue, eerie and beautiful. I would never be able to forget that.
“Lysi,” I told her, my tone bordering on anguished. “I wasvokkingfurious with you. And scared. So scared. Frightened out of my mind!”
“Davik…” she said, her expression softening, her brows furrowing.
“If you—” I cut myself off, feeling that familiar panic rise in my chest. I thought the last week might have taken years off my life, years I’d wanted to spend happily withher.
My fists clenched at my sides.
“If you had died because of it…” I continued. “I—I cannot bear to think of losing you, Vienne. When I saw you wielding the heartstone’s power…I did not think I would survive if you were gone from this world.”
She leaned into me, burrowing her face into the furs that draped over my chest.
I wrapped my arms around her, wanting to squeeze her as tightly as possible to me, but I didn’t want to hurt her while she still recovered.
“You have my heart, Vienne,” I rasped down to her, tilting her chin up so I had her gaze. “You know that. And it is terrifying to know that I am no longer my own.”
Her eyes softened though her features were serious, almost somber.
“And I know that I have very little right to be furious with you,” I added softly, stroking my hand through her hair. “I lied to you about the heartstone. Deceived you knowingly. It was I that was pushing you towards that decision to leave…because I had given you no other choice. You’d been right to not make that promise to me…to never alter my mind again. Because if you had stayed, I might have forced you to. I would’ve given you no other choice.”
“Why did you lie about the heartstone?” she asked.
My jaw tightened, shame lingering in my mind.
