When I met Valavik’s eyes, I saw they were wary. He was studying me.Carefully. And I hated when he did that, like I was something to be picked apart and analyzed. Like I was a stranger to him.
“Get her out of my sight,” I growled to him.
He inclined his head.
“Lysi, Vorakkar.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Iwas grateful it was dark when I slipped through my horde, keeping to the outskirts as I made my way to myvoliki.
Grateful not only because I needed to recharge and recompose myself before addressing the members of my horde, but also because I was in a foul mood. I didn’t want to see anyone. I didn’t want to speak to anyone.
What I needed now was to eat, bathe, and sleep.
In the morning, I thought.
In the morning, I would take care of everything that needed to be done. I would speak with Valavik, see to permanently securing the edge of the fog in case the humans came, send a new pack of hunters to the north, and form a new group of scouts to patrol our land.
Then I would deal with Mina.
But the horde came first. And always would. Which was why I’d taken her in the first place.
When I reached myvoliki, I ducked underneath the flap and breathed in the familiar scent of my furs, of the rugs lining the floor. The sight of my daggers shining against the far wall and the wooden gleam of my chests.
A knot loosened in my throat.
Home, I thought, seeing the fire basin was already lit, banishing the chill that had crept in in my absence.
I saw that Valavik had already had a bath sent in, steam curling from its surface. A loaded tray of food sat at my table, piled high with braised meats, driedhjifruits, and creamy bone broth. A goblet of black wine sat next to it.
Ravenous, I ate first as I waited for the healer to arrive. As I drank the broth and plucked at the rich fruits, discomfort swam in my filling belly when I thought of Mina. When I thought of her tears when she’d dropped that lump ofwrissanmeat onto the floor of my cell. She’d offered it to me though she couldn’t hide the hunger in her own gaze.
My nostrils flared. I steeled myself. I would not be swayed by her again. I could not be soft when it came to her. I’d seen how disastrous that had turned out to be. I remembered thinking that all my life’s work had been destroyed in a single moment because of afemale. Because ofmere momentswith her.
I would not feel that way again.Ever.
My father had often said that my mother had ruined him. Love to him had equaled ruin, however, and I was in no danger of loving that little witch.
But I would heed my father’s warnings and keep her at a distance, regardless.
The healer entered myvolikijust as I finished eating.
“Vorakkar,” Jrisanna murmured, inclining his head. “I am relieved to see you home.”
“Kakkira vor. I have a shoulder wound that concerns me,” I told him, watching his approach. “And a wound through my tail.”
Jrisanna nodded, calm and collected as always.
At his beckoning, I shrugged off my tunic and he inspected my wounds. The cuts on my face would heal. My tail would as well, eventually, but my shoulder needed treatment before infection took root.
Jrisanna worked quickly and quietly as I drank down the wine, feeling it work its way down my throat and burn in my belly. The thick, cool sensation of the greenuudunsalve touched my skin. Jrisanna packed it into the wound and did the same for my tail.
Once I was bandaged and Jrisanna rinsed his hands in the basin he’d brought with him—the sight of which only reminded me of Mina,again—the healer rose.
“Wash but try to keep the bandages dry,” he told me. “I’ll return in the morning to change them.”
“Kakkira vor, mokkira,” I murmured.Thank you, healer.
