“With the wind up here and all the leaves and needles between us and the ground, it’s safe. At least if they’re not nearby.”
Pyetar was watching her, his gaze tracing her jaw, across her nose, through her hair. The look almost felt like a touch, and Iryana shifted, scooting and turning awkwardly until she was sitting.
“We are lucky this was here,” she whispered back.
With a shrug, Pyetar admitted, “I have an entire network of these picked out. I travel between them, making sure I always know which one is closest for exactly this purpose. It isn’t always possible to get to one, but usually…” he trailed off.
“What’s the plan for tonight?”
“We didn’t quite make it to where I’d planned for us to sleep, but we will have to stay up here until dawn.” He looked awkwardly around their close quarters.
“Aren’t therefewerdakii out at night?”
“Exactly. Which means they’re easier to hear coming when the sun is up. One lone dakya is easier to miss. And with so many dakii out here, there will always be a sleeping pack nearby that would be alerted if a beast found us.”
“That makes sense,” she admitted. “Have you come across a sleeping pack before?”
“Unfortunately, yes.” He grimaced. “They sleep beneath trees and bushes, curled up on the leaves as if they are just huge wolves. I have never seen a dakya den though.”
Iryana thought about that. “I don’t know anyone who has.”
“By this time of year, wolves have had their pups, so they’re staying in dens right now with their young litters. Bears are just mating, though. I wonder which the dakii are like.”
“I have never seen a baby dakya,” she said slowly.
“Neither have I, but surely they keep them protected in dens, like other large predators.”
“I have seen wolf pups and bear cubs before, plenty of times.”
“What are you saying?” he looked at her curiously, seeming to be more relaxed. Like the conversation was a welcome distraction.
“The dakii definitely grow, get older. The older ones in the pack teach the younger ones, which start with the nubs of a first set of horns.”
Pyetar frowned. “Sure. What’s your point?”
“I don’t know if theyhavebabies.”
“But then how are they multiplying?”
Iryana shrugged. “It’s just a theory. But they came out of nowhere, and they aren’t animals. Not really. They’recreatures. And we’ve never seen a baby, never seen a den.”
“That’s an unsettling thought.”
“It is.”
Iryana couldn’t sleep once the sun slipped away and left them lying beneath the stars. Pyetar’s body beside hers was too warm, the sound of his breathing too loud. She couldn’t forget he was there, forget the way he had kissed her.
A crashing sound came from below, and Iryana tensed. But she could still hear the sounds of small critters moving around in the trees and on the ground.
She felt Pyetar jerk beside her; the noise had likely woken him.
Pyetar rose onto his elbows, turned toward her, a concerned look of confusion on his face. Twisting, he leaned over her so he could see more of the forest below.
His elbow pressed against her arm, his chest hovering over hers. His face was turned away, trained on the forest floor, but it was so close to hers. With the slightest shift, he would be on top of her.
Iryana shut her eyes tightly and tried to keep her breathing even. Still, her body was tense in anticipation. The slightest shifts of his body as he surveyed the forest around them sent waves of awareness through her.
She could hardly think, hardly breathe through the want inside her. Gods, she needed to get away from him.
