I almost gasped when I felt something pressing back. Alightnessspeared through me and the tight muscles in my body relaxed. My fear melted away. Whatever was there…it wasn’t an evil thing. Whatever was there felt wonderful. It felt safe and peaceful. The emotions changed abruptly and I felt my eyes well up when intense sorrow covered me like a shroud, making it hard to breathe. Suffocating.
Then the connection broke. My breath left me as if pulled from my lungs…and then whatever had been there was gone.
I was alone again. The chills on my arms faded and I realized I was crying, tears tracking down my cheeks.
Swallowing, I wiped them away, never taking my eyes off the shadowy place of thevoliki.
My chest squeezed when my thoughts returned to Davik. To what had occurred between us…and then what had occurred in the aftermath.
“If you think me such a monster, Vivi, if you think it was me that killed your father then why did you beg me to fuck you? What does that makeyou?”
I flinched. Just remembering his words and the malice in them made my gut churn. I stole a fur throw off the bed and wrapped it tight around my shoulders. When I walked towards the fire basin, suddenly chilled, the space between my legs twinged. Muscles I never knew I had ached.
I’d finally discovered something I’d wanted to experience for a long time. So why did it make me feel so empty? Why did the place where my heart thudded in my chest ache?
Was it because of Davik’s words? Was it because I knew I’d cut him with my own unspoken accusation? Or was it because I was alone—again—and I remembered theutter despairandgriefthat had contorted Davik’s expression, an expression I didn’t think I wouldeverforget?
I chanced another look behind me at the empty space beyond his bed of furs. How often had that happened to him? And who was it that he saw?
I feared I knew.
Shivering underneath the furs, I looked towards thevoliki’sentrance.
I wondered if he would come back.
I realized Iwantedhim to.
* * *
My dreams werepeaceful that night. I didn’t dream stolen memories but when I woke it was still dark.
The fire was smoldering in the basin and I saw a dark shadow beside the bed. For a moment, I thought it was the unseen being I’d encountered earlier, the being that had been haunting Davik.
Instead, itwasDavik. His red eyes were glowing down at me as I shifted up in his bed. As my eyes adjusted, I saw his expression more clearly. Andagain, he looked exhausted. Last night, he’d only gotten a little sleep, since I’d woken him with his name on my lips.
I was still in that soft place between reality and dreams. I reached out for his hand and pulled gently. His knee found the furs.
“Come sleep,” I whispered. “You need rest.”
A rough exhalation escaped him. I could sense the way his muscles loosened, how something seemed to release from him.
He joined me on the furs. I wasn’t used to sleeping beside someone anymore. In my village, Viola and I had shared a bed, but I’d never slept beside a male before Davik.
His scent was different. More earthy and musky, like he’d been sweating. I found I didn’t mind, that I liked it.
It didn’t surprise me when he clasped me to him. I’d put on a tunic once I went to bed. I’d waited up for hours, waiting for him to return, but finally I’d given in to sleep. His arm came around me and I had no alternative but to rest my cheek on his chest. My palm flattened hesitantly against his bare chest. He was radiating heat like a flame.
A mere moment later, his breathing evened out. My hand rose and fell steadily on his chest. When I peeked up, his eyes were shut, his expression slack.
My heart gave that little foreign twinge again.
Then I joined him in sleep.
* * *
The horde kingslept like the dead.
I was actually worried as I gazed down at him, nibbling my lip with indecision. The sun had begun to set in the sky the following day and still he hadn’t woken. He’d barely evenmoved.
