“She was,” I croaked. “How did you know?”
He lifted one shoulder—the one without the weeping wound—in what might have been a shrug. “Because that’s where Nan is from.”
I stared. “Your grandmother is…”
His lips twitched ruefully.
“A human? Aye. She was Mated to my grandfather for many years, ruled as his partner, until his death. The clan still looks to her for guidance until I take a Mate.”
I dropped the tea.
CHAPTER THREE
Kragorn
Sadly,I watched the steaming liquid seep into the filth of the dungeon floor. The filth I knew too well, since I’d added to it these last few months. Since my ill-fated escape plan, since the thorough thrashing my body had taken, I’d been chained and forced to kneel in the muck.
And each drop of fresh water was precious down here.
I shouldn’t have startled her. I shouldn’t havespokento her, done anything which would distract her from this unexplained mission of mercy she’d taken upon herself, despite her fears of me.
Mayhap I’d wanted her to see me as an equal, someone who didn’t deserve this treatment. Mayhap I’d wanted her to see me as amale.
Telling her about Nan was stupid.
Except…Lillian stared at me as she poured more of the tea. Her hands didn’t shake, her gaze was direct. Disbelieving.
“Your grandmother…” she whispered. “She is a human?”
“Aye, and a chief’s Mate,” I drawled slowly, praying to all the gods she wouldn’t dropthiscup. My stomach was full for the first time in months, but my throat still ached for water. “My grandfather stole her when her father objected, but ‘twas a love match.”
I saw her lips form the wordsA love matchbut no sound emerged. Instead, she stepped up to hold the cup to my lips, her wide-eyed stare locked on the stones above my head.
She wasn’t thinking of me at that moment, I was certain.
A part of me, the part of me which had led my men into battle many times, the part of me which rebelled at the thought of this captivity, calculated how much force would be necessary to pull her to me, to throw her over my shoulder, to fight my way past the guard and gain my freedom.
MyKteer, meanwhile, urged me to grab her, aye, but not to bother with the freedom, not when there was a female body so close. It growledtaste plunge kiss lick joy claim claim claim.
And the rest of me, the apparent onlylogicalpart of me, remembered I was in gods-damnedchains, half-dead and beyond weak.
Holding Lillian would have to wait.
MyKteersulked, and the fact I could realize that made me want to smirk.
But I was too busy savoring the warm silken slide of the tea down my throat. Nan made yarrow tea to bring down fevers and to help knit bones. Would Lillian’s brew be enough? Good food in my belly and yarrow tea in my veins? Would that push the fever-madness away, help me grow stronger by…when had she said?
“What’s Hogmanay?” I asked as I finished the last of the liquid.
Ifelther startle, since she was so close to me, and she flushed as she glanced down.
“Um…’tis the start of the new year. Father is hosting his allies. Laird McDonald was supposed to marry Sorcha, but when she was stolen by Bladesedge, he accepted Elspeth in her place. And Father says there is going to be a new potential ally?—”
She bit down on her words and, flustered, turned back to the tray she’d brought down to this hellhole. Was she embarrassed at her chatter, or upset that she’d revealed more than intended?
I had aneedto keep her talking. Not because I was desperate for information—although that couldn’t hurt—but because the thought of her walking out of here, taking her food and drink and sunshine with her… I winced.
“My people celebrate Midwinter’s Festival,” I confessed, my throat tight as I thought of home. “We burn the largest tree we can find, extinguish our own fires, then bring home a spark from the communal blaze. Good food, friends…”
