Lokkaru’s head ducked. “My apologies,Vorakkar.”
“And no stealing,” he said, his voice a little gruffer after our exchanged glances.
He stood. As Lokkaru shuffled over to her candles, he leaned over me, his long, unbound hair brushing my cheek. I tensed, sucking in a small breath as he rasped in my ear, “You will stay with her?”
“Yes,” I whispered, tilting my head to look back at him.
His gazeburned. His nostrils flared when his eyes trailed to my lips, to the little cut in the corner where his teeth had accidentally cut me. I knew what he was remembering…the metallic taste of my blood that he’d licked.
Tension thrummed between us as Lokkaru hummed to herself.
“You have much to tell me tonight,leikavi,” he murmured, reaching down to brush the back of his claw over the cut on my lip.
I inhaled a sharp breath. About my gift, I knew.
“Do not let her light the candles you make,” he told me. His gaze traced up to Lokkaru’s figure. “She forgets them.”
I frowned but nodded.
He leaned forward, his teeth scraping across the side of my neck, and heat curled in my belly.
“I will return for you later.”
He made those words sound like both a threat and a heated promise.
Then he was gone, pulling away, and ducking under thevoliki’sentrance before he disappeared from sight. Outside, I heard his heavy footsteps retreat, heading towards the front of the encampment.
All the while, I brushed my fingers over the small bite he’d given me.
From the other side of thevoliki, Lokkaru sighed, “Finally, he has been conquered. Now you must nourish him.”
Before I could question her words, she turned around, her movement slow, shaky, but determined.
“Now, shall we go steal thosekuveri?”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Hedna’s stare was discomforting. The set of mypujerak’sjaw told me he was deep in thought.
It was just us on the training grounds. I sat with my back to the fence, cleaning his blood off my sword where it had cut him during sparring. The night was growing darker and darker. When I tipped my face back, I saw the moon, filling more each night.
Nothing had come fromDothik, no word from theVorakkarof Rath Tuviri about his research into the heartstone at the archives. I had sent word through the solethesperI kept among my horde. The winged creature had set off towards the city early this morning and would arrive soon, I imagined. If the winds were in their favor,thespercould travel at incredible speeds.
“And thekalles?” Hedna asked me. I had told him everything that had transpired inDothik, our first moment alone after our sparring session, one I’d desperately needed. Well, I hadn’t told himeverything. “Do you think she can be trusted?”
I thought back to last night.
Davik!
My name rang like an echo in my mind. I hadn’t heard it since…
I growled, turning my mind immediately away from that memory. Not even Hedna knew my given name. No one alive did…except forher.
“I intend to find out,” I told him.
“How?”
All I did was give him a grin that flashed my teeth in the moonlight.
