Page 101

“Draven,” she breathed.

“What’s wrong?”

She twisted around to find only night. Words formed and died on her tongue as she tried to make sense of what was going on. When she turned back to him, he was inspecting the forest.

This looks bad. “I wasn’t running away.”

“That’s not what I asked.” He dropped his attention to her with a hint of emotion that wasn’t irritation, anger, or humor at her expense. Concern maybe?

Gods, do I look that deranged?

“Nothing’s wrong. I was only…” she trailed off, looking one way then the other. Where did it go? It couldn’t just vanish.

“You’re not cold?”

“Why would I be?”

“Let’s start with the fact that you’re only half dressed.”

That was enough to return her focus to him. He pointedly glanced down and back up. Lily followed his gaze past her oversized tunic to her bare legs and feet. “Oh… I didn’t even notice.”

He cocked his head. “You’re making me nervous.”

She huffed. “Good. It’s a nice change of pace.”

Draven graced her with a small smile—something that shouldn’t look as charming as it did on his face. He lifted her hand—thumb carefully pressed into her wrist and not her palm—and gave her a gentle shake. “Does your delirium have a taste for decay?”

Lily’s lips parted while her eyes adjusted to the dark; the entirety of her hand was completely coated in the borrowed, sickly aura.

Heat rushed to her face, and she snatched it away. “That was stupid! I could’ve—”

“Killed me?” He made a noise that was almost laughter. “You can remind me how that’s a bad thing for you on the way back to camp.”

Lily clutched her hand tight to her chest and whipped around. “I can find my way back on my own.”

“I can’t let you do that.”

“I’d say the concern is appreciated, but you already know I’d be lying.”

“And I’d be lying if I insisted that accompanying you wasn’t any trouble, and yet, here we are. Let’s get it over with.”

Lily ground her tongue between her teeth. Of course she couldn’t ditch him that easily. She glanced to her hand, then the tree line.

I should get rid of this first.

She picked a healthy-looking tree to dispose of the aura, simply because it wasn’t a large amount of necro aura and shouldn’t disintegrate it.

“What are you doing here anyway?” Lily asked, traipsing through the dark. “I thought you were supposed to finish gathering the last of the supplies from Berkton?”

“I returned this afternoon.”

“But you weren’t due back until tomorrow,” Lily pointed out. Something was going on that they weren’t telling her. Killing the Lithance trees was reckless, which Kyer was, but he was also calculating. “Why’d you come back early?”

There was a long pause. “The general who took over Markoth requested new arrivals since Mia went missing.”

Lily quickly purged the aura, not bothering to check how it reacted. “What did they bring?”

“Nothing I expected. Sterling tells me they’re part ghostsoil, part human. I sensed your panic and thought you came across one.”