Bane makes a rough sound that sounds like frustration. “Mine scared.”
“Yes, Bane. You scare me.”
His frown deepens, but he looks tortured more than angry. “Safe with Bane.”
Realizing I’m getting nowhere with him, I suck in a resolving breath meant to give me courage and then I place my hand onhis cheek. “I don’t feel very safe right now,” I say as I caress the rough stubble gathering there. “And that’s not your fault. It’s mine. I shouldn’t have left the cabin. I know that now, so can you help me out? Please?”
Bane tilts his head closer, and I force myself not to make a sound even though he can probably hear my heart pounding. For an insane moment I wonder if he’s going to kiss me, but then he stops just short of his split lip touching mine and then he inhales and a rumbling sound vibrates from his chest. “Not safe…at cabin. We stay.”
I don’t even realize my hand is moving until I feel the soft, damp strands of his dark hair slipping through my fingers. It’s shorter now that Zeke is awake. Bane practically purrs when I dig the pads of my fingers into his scalp, but I pause when I feel something warm and more viscous than simple rain. When I pull back my hand, I see red coating my fingers and I gasp. Bane surprisingly lets me sit up, and even more surprisingly, lets me touch him as I practically crawl into his lap to inspect his head for the wound.
It’s impossible to forget that it’s Bane though, so when I feel his hands circle my waist, I suck in a fearful breath and force myself to keep going. I let him explore me while I search his hair. He seems particularly fascinated with my belly button as he pushes a thumb inside. I finally find the source of the blood near the back of his skull, but I can’t see more than that, so I stand and limp over to the mouth of the cave. My feet are fucked. I don’t think about it as I let the rain soak the hem of my shirt.
“Ah!” I yelp when I turn back to find Bane standing over me like a shadow. “Bane,” I say, exhaling his name wearily with a hand over my heart. “What are you doing?”
He’s frowning now, and oddly, it scares me less than the stillness. “Mine can’t leave.”
“I’m not leaving you.” I punctuate my promise by tentatively claiming his hand and walking him back over to the slab. “I need you to sit down,” I say, and to my surprise, he lowers himself onto the slab without taking his gaze from me. My teeth dig into my bottom lip as I move between his legs, and then I stretch a corner of my long loose shirt toward the cut on his head, dabbing away at the blood until I can see the wound.
Thankfully, the cut is small and isn’t serious.
But it is one more reason we need to get back to the cabin. We’re both injured, lost, and unarmed. Although, it just occurred to me that I might be the only one lost.
“Bane?” He doesn’t respond, but I know he’s listening. “Do you know where we are?” I let go of my now-bloodied shirt but keep my hand on his shoulder. His muscles are relaxed, telling me he’s not coiled to strike when I least expect it. I just wish I could convince my anxious mind of that.
“Safe.”
“Yes. Butwhereis safe?”
“Cave.”
“Bane,” I force through gritted teeth.
“Mine?”
“Yes,” I say with a defeated sigh. “Yours.” At least until I figure out how to get back to Khalil and Thorin and wake Zeke up. God, Thorin… I hope he’s okay. “If we’re going to stay here,” I say to Bane, who is watching me like he knows my thoughts betray him, “we need to find food. We need to hunt.”
I glance at the mouth of the cave and see that the rain has slowed, so I kneel in front of Bane who doesn’t move and pull up his mud-stained pant leg before retrieving the hunting knife sheathed inside his boot and stand again. I’m not so good with knives yet, but I’m sure it’s on Thorin’s survival syllabus. Would he be proud of me now? It’s been a day since the river and I’m still alive, though much of that is thanks to Bane. Knife in hand,I ignore the pain from the bottoms of my bare feet as I walk over the damp rock and soil toward the cave entrance.
I don’t hear Bane follow, but I know he does.
What he doesn’t do is stop me when I step outside and into the rain. He just follows silently like a protective shadow while I make my way down the path. I don’t look back because I’m a coward.
The air outside is damp, unlike the cave, but not as much as it would have been if we were on the windward side of Maia. Just like before, I find the gap in the mountain face and squeeze through it until I’m standing inside the dense forest, being soaked. I stop to wait for Bane who has a harder time than I do since he’s larger and his shoulders are broader. His bare chest and back are wedged between the walls as he scoots sideways. When he’s finally free, the skin on his chest is scraped, the olive tones blooming red but Bane doesn’t seem to notice or give me the chance to fuss over him as he walks past me, taking the lead.
“If we’re safe here, why hasn’t Zeke woken up yet?” I ask Bane just because his silence makes me nervous. It’s impossible to tell what he’s thinking, and I want to know more than I want my next breath.
“I sleep, Mine leave.”
Fuck.So much for staying calm and waiting him out. Bane already knows that once he goes, I’ll take Zeke and head straight back to the cabin.
He’s cunning. I hadn’t expected that. Mostly because the others only ever warned me about how dangerous he is. They’ve never seen this side of him, but all it makes me wonder is, why me? What makes me different? Why doesn’t he want to kill me?
“Do you still want to hurt Khalil and Thorin?”
“Yes.”
Thorin once told me that Seth and Bane are how Zeke sorts and deals with his emotions. What if… My stomach sinks and Irun forward to cut off Bane, grabbing his arms like a bitch with a death wish. “Does Zeke want to hurt Khalil and Thor?”
