Then what on earth was he going on about?
He added, “If anyone here should accompany the shaman, it’s me.”
After the grub debacle, back when I’d told the chieftain that the honor guard was mourning their fallen shaman, I’d simply been uttering the sort of meaningless words men bandy about when they need to save face.It hadn’t occurred to me that some of the guards might actually be grieving.
Kof said, “I’ve been here ever since I can remember.Before this happened,” he gestured to his massive scar, “there’s nothing.Like I didn’t exist.I was young, but not that young.They say a wild animal….”He shuddered and stared off into the distance of his own murky past."But Taruut…him, I remember, clear and true.He didn't just heal me.Once my wounds scarred over, he kept me close.Taught me things.Promoted me to his honor guard, even though the others said I was nowhere near bloodthirsty enough to protect him.”
He fell into another of his strange silences.But when I stopped myself from interrupting it, I was rewarded with more.
“I never left these caves after that.I didn't need to.Taruut said everything was exactly as it should be.Made me his captain, even though nobody understood why.But Taruut...he always saw what others couldn't."
So it seemed.I wished I’d had the chance to meet the old man—although he probably would have seen right through my lies.“Taruut was a powerful shaman.He doesn’t need your help to navigate the afterlife.Continue to serve him by serving me.”
“You are the shaman,” Kof said automatically.But when he took a moment to consider my words, maybe he truly was convinced.“I suppose I can’t deny Taruut the chance to knock Gorgul down a peg.”
24
DROKO
The burning handprint on my chest had subsided to a dull ache by the time I finally headed back to my sleeping quarters to shed myself of feathers and paint, tie my hair up, and lay down my weary body.Taruut’s litter was gone now.But the broad cushion from the meditation room had been dragged in, taking up most of the space.And sprawled on that cushion…was Archie.
Not dead.Not even harmed.
Just sleeping.
He smelled of sulfur, as if he’d scrubbed off the violence of the day in the spout of the Great Whale.But the handprint that blazed on his pale cheek couldn’t be sloughed off so easily.I tossed my feathered cloak over a nearby chest and knelt on the floor beside him.When I ghosted my fingertips across the angry red mark, the matching print on my chest prickled…just as Archie’s eyes, the color of sky, fluttered open.
“Aren’t you worried about putting your scent on me?”he said with a sleepy smile.
I traced the thumb’s contour, which stretched across the crest of his cheekbone.“We bear the same mark.So, it’s common knowledge now that you are mine…and I am yours.”
He crooked an eyebrow.“Maybe orcs and humans aren’t so different after all.You can get away with pretty much anything…once you prove you’re a badass.Dare I ask—are you still bent on sending me away?Or now that we belong to each other, do I get a reprieve?”
“How much more plainly can I say it?”
“Humor me,” he said teasingly.
I’d never been much for pretty words, but I did my best.“A slave is his master’s property, but you’re not property to me.In fact, you’ve never been mine to command.I think of you like a hawk that perches by a man’s campsite, or a fox who deigns to accept a bit of meat…a wild, untamed thing who only stays with me because it pleases you to do so.Though I hope you’ll stick around.”
“Ofcourse,it pleases me to stay.It pleases me very much.”Archie grabbed my hand, then turned to brush his lips across my palm.My breath caught.When he spoke again, the light, bantering tone was gone.“But back there in the amber room….What came over you?”
“There’s old magic in these caves—”
“Maybe so.And yet, it didn’t send the other orcs to their knees.It drew no prophecy from anyone else.Only you.”
In my heart, I was still a soldier.But if the clan truly thought I was their shaman, then that would need to be enough.
Archie noticed my eyes raking the enticing curve of his hip.He smiled into my palm and said, “Should we adjourn to the private meditation room?One of the walls is missing now—but I don’t think we’ll be disturbed.”
“We can stay right where we are.If my scent is on you, and yours on me, no one would dare challenge it.Not after what happened in the crypt.”
Archie tugged at my wrist, encouraging me to join him on the cushion.It wasn’t quite big enough for both of us, but if I braced one foot on the floor, I could manage to spread out beside him.Archie prodded the handprint on my chest.“Does it hurt?”he asked as his fingers traced the outline of the hand.
“Some,” I admitted.
“Good.Because I want to make an impression.”Before I knew it, he’d flipped me onto my back and straddled my thighs, pinning my arms to my sides, with his mouth hovering just above my heart.“I want to make sure youfeelthis.”
Oh, I felt it, all right.But when his hot breath played across the handprint…it was anythingbutpainful.He gripped my wrists tight—for a human—and while I could shed him by simply standing up, I was intrigued by the deeper meaning.Archie wanted me.And he would take what he wanted.
