There was food on the large table near the center of thevoliki, a high table more suited to battle plans and horde movements than eating. A tray was perched on the edge and I saw it had the same fare as mine, though it had grown cold.
I put the water down next to her and she turned her head away, staring at the unlit fire basin. The only sources of light were a small lantern next to the food tray and the sliver of moonlight pouring in from the venting hole at the top of the tent. Otherwise, she’d been in darkness.
She was doing her best not to comment on my sudden presence. I wondered if it was as strange to her as it was to me. ThatIwas the one bringing her water and food now, and not the other way around. Thatshewas the one restrained in my possession.
Her face was dirty. The tracks of her dried tears were highlighted against her skin. I dragged the tray of food off the table and crouched in front of her, the hide of my trews creaking behind my knees.
Her breath hitched when I touched her face, when I grasped her chin and turned it so she would meet my eyes.
When she did, she said, “Tess was right. I should not have trusted you.”
Setting the tray down beside her, I scooped up the bowl of bone broth.
“Drink,” I murmured.
She turned her head away but I simply turned it back, pressing the bowl to her lips and slowly tipping it back before she could move again. She made a muffled sound in the back of her throat, a sound of protest.
And when I lowered the bowl, thinking that I had succeeded, she glared at me.
Then she spit the broth right at me.
Shock rushed through me. My nostrils flared as I wiped the liquid from my eyes. My chest was already damp from my wet, washed hair and now I had bone broth streaking down it towards my trews.
The witch needed to be taught a lesson. And I needed to test my own restraint. The anger was rising but so was something else. Frustration mingled with…need.
I grabbed her around the back of the neck, my hand flashing out so quickly that it was a blur.
She flinched. But if she was expecting me to strike her in retaliation, she was wrong.
I would do something worse.
I kissed her.
A startled, outraged sound drew up from her throat and I bit at her lip to quiet it. The kiss was hard and rough, meant to punish, meant to remind her justwhomshe was dealing with.
Only…her scent dragged deeper into my lungs, her angry gasps threading down my throat. She was warm though her lips were cold and dry. And I tasted salt on them. Tears from earlier.
The kiss had an unintended effect. It made medesireher. It made dizzying need swarm in my mind and thicken my cock and Ihatedher for it. It reminded me of that pivotal moment in the fog, in that early morning light. Whenshe’dkissedme. That treacherous kiss that had nearly cost me everything.
I’d meant to repay her for it…only it felt likeIwas the one losing something. Again.
She bit my lip, just as I’d bit her neck earlier.
Hard enough to be a warning but not hard enough to make me bleed.
Her dull little teeth squeezed the flesh and her green eyespouredinto me, shooting daggers all her own.
I pulled back, huffing out short, quick breaths, and she released me. Her lips were wet and reddened. And her chest was heaving.
“Your claws return,rei sarkia,” I murmured, wiping at my bottom lip with my thumb.
A part of me was glad to see them.
Perhaps she was a fighter. Perhaps I’d misjudged her.
“And I will continue to cut you with them if you do not let me go, Rowin,” she warned.
Kakkari. Her voice. It was husky and soft and I felt it prick the back of my neck and race down my spine. My family’s name on her lips didn’t fill me with anger this time. I wanted to hear it again. I wanted to hear my given name fall from her lips, the name only my father knew.
