It was true that he needed the time. Though he was alive, he felt barely able to stay upright as he was, on his knees at Nina’s bedside. At the very least, another day would give him the time to figure out where they were, who these people in green belonged to, and if they were enemies of the empire. Gathering information would be a good excuse should he need to explain their stay to Emperor Maicu.
“Kasik.” Nina said his name so softly that he felt it like a caress, the scent of her washing over him as she leaned even closer.
It struck him suddenly, the positions they were in. Her unbound and hovering over him, hair falling to create a privacy that felt intimate in a way he had never experienced before. Him on his knees looking up at her, throat and chest exposed, wanting so badly to tear the binds away so that he could use his hands to—
“Good, you’re awake.”
They quickly moved apart as if caught, Kasik spinning around to place himself face-to-face with the man who hadinterrogatedhim only hours—or days?—before. He had lost all sense of time, but he knew that voice and that face no matter how many hours had passed.
The man pulled out a knife and stepped closer. Kasik’s entire body buzzed with anticipation. Nina’s small gasp set his fury alight. He would rip this man apart limb from limb, somehow. In this life or the next.
“Easy.” The man held up his hands. “I’m just going to cut your ties. Unless you’d prefer to stay bound. We can arrange that.”
Kasik eyed him warily. “I don’t trust you,” he spoke through gritted teeth.
The man smiled. “Likewise. But this isn’t about us.” He glanced at Nina, who stiffened behind him. “Shayim wants to speak with you again.”
Again?Kasik wondered, but he felt Nina’s hand on his shoulder quieting his thoughts. “It’s okay,” she murmured to him. “They won’t hurt us.”
How do you know?he wanted to ask, but he kept quiet long enough to consider what it would mean to have his hands freed. Whatever their intentions, this worked in his favor as well. With a sigh, he shifted his hands as far to the side as possible. The man approached and crouched before him. Kasik could see a muscle in his jaw jump and knew the feeling well.
Frustration. This man wasn’t in control any more than he was.
Once Kasik’s hands were free, the man stepped away and watched as Kasik shakily pushed to his feet. Nina’s arm wrapped around his waist, and it was with her strength that he managed to stay upright.
“There are clothes over there to change into.” The man nodded toward a bundle at the foot of the bed. “Come outside once you’ve changed.”
Nina and Kasik stayed where they were until he was gone, and then Nina was guiding him to sit on the bed. Her hands left him, and though he felt stronger than before, the loss of her touch was almost a physical ache. His body yearned for its return.
Kasik took a deep breath. He had to pull himself together.
“Where are we?” he asked. Nina shook out the clothes and handed him the larger tunic.
“It’s a camp of sorts. I’m not entirely sure, but I know they won’t hurt us.” Nina’s movements paused. Kasik watched her and waited for the rest of her thoughts. How strange that he knew her well enough to know there was more. “Shayim helped me.Us.In exchange, I told her I would hear what she has to say.”
“And you believe her?”
Nina slid on a pair of dark green pants underneath her robes andreached for the hem to lift over her head. Kasik pulled the tunic she had handed him over his head just in time, heart thumping with something he wasn’t quite familiar with. “I know it sounds crazy,” she said. “But I trust her. And I need you to trust me.”
The thing was, he did. She had come back for him and saved his life as many times as he had saved hers. There was a balance between them that he couldn’t describe, and he knew that no amount of persuasion would change her mind. He also knew that he did not have it in him to force her hand.
“At the very least, you can see the camp and plot our escape,” she added.
Kasik looked up to find her dressed in a bold green tunic, the color a compliment to her burnished gold skin. Her eyes trailed over him, taking in his face and hair that hung loose around his shoulders, lingering on his chest where his heart raced beneath his bones. There was something like pride in her eyes, as if he were a piece of art and she the artist, and also a spark of hunger that set Kasik’s skin on fire.
Nina cleared her throat and looked away. Kasik took the opportunity to tug his pants off over his boots, grateful that he was sitting. Once dressed, he pushed himself up again. Nina rushed to brace him, but he found that he felt stronger than before.
“I’m all right,” he told her gently.
She nodded, their faces close, and smiled. “Ready?”
Kasik nodded, even though he felt anything but.
19
Nina didn’t understand how, exactly, she had healed Kasik. The memory of it felt like a dream that faded the longer she was awake.
The attay was there, simmering in her veins, and though she felt as if she had only just peered beneath the surface, she knew the implications of this power would change the course of her life all the same.
