“No,” he said, brusque as ever.
Probably a good thing, to be honest. If he came in, he might ask to see what I’d been working on this morning. And then I’d have to hold up the silky purple undies I’d made and tell him what they were for. Then again, I likely wouldn’t need to tell him. He would obviously be able to ascertain by the shape that they were like a tight, form-fitting sort of loincloth. That the silky centre bit would fit flush against my pussy.
Would he stare at them in that impassive, silent way of his?
Or would I see it again?
That tiny, blink-and-you’d-miss-it pulse of his sight stars.
It didn’t matter, and it was fucked up I even cared to find out. Gahn Thaleo remained in place, watching me, and it occurred to me that he was waiting for me to go ahead and enter the cave before he departed. It felt absurdly like a man making sure his date got safe inside her door, locking it for the night, before he drove away.
That, or he didn’t want me slipping away and wandering through his mountain without him.
Without another word, I turned and left him there.
9
NASRIN
Ididn’t see Gahn Thaleo again until that evening at dinner in the hall. By then, Fiona had roused herself enough to come with us, though she was nothing like her usual chipper self. There was a lot of sighing happening, along with pushing her food around on her little tray. But she was up, at least, and I counted that as a win after this morning. She really did have it bad for Dalk, and I sympathized with her, even if I’d never felt that strongly towards anyone I’d ever dated before.
Tilly was pleased, too, and was currently heaping more food onto Fiona’s plate, despite the fact that our friend had barely touched what she’d started with.
“You need protein,” Tilly insisted, and Oxriel and Zoren piped up in earnest agreement with this.
“I swear,” Oxriel said, grasping a felkora leg for himself from the roasting pit, “no matter how low I am feeling, a good meal always seems to do me good!”
“I didn’t know protein could cure a broken heart,” Fiona sighed. Oxriel looked thunderstruck.
“Dalk has broken your what?!”
“It’s not broken. I’m being dramatic,” Fiona said, finally shoving a piece of meat into her mouth and chewing.
“Well…Good,” Oxriel sputtered. “Imagine, a muscled organ like a heart breaking! Who has ever heard of such a thing!” He turned a slightly-terrified gaze my way. “Is this actually possible among your kind?”
“It’s a figure of speech,” I said. “It just means someone’s feeling hurt, usually because of something to do with love.”
I blinked, hoping Oxriel wouldn’t notice the tears that now burned in my eyes at the intrusion of an unexpected memory. After my mother died when I was in high school, Baba stopped writing poetry. He stopped reading it, too, and took a long sabbatical from the university position where he’d taught Persian literature all my life. I’d asked him once if he’d stopped writing because his heart was broken.
It’s not broken, khoshgelam,he’d told me.My heart is gone.
I stared down at my plate for long seconds, willing the tears not to seep out of my eyes or drip anywhere inconvenient. The Zaphrinax people, especially the men, tended to fling themselves into a bit of a panic at the sight of human tears. When I felt sure that no one had noticed, I sniffed, then looked up.
My gaze collided with Gahn Thaleo’s.
He was standing on the other side of the fire pit, directly across from the place that I was currently seated. His sight stars were trained on my face. His expression was formed into its usual indecipherable collection of hard angles and lines. But there was tension in his jaw. A tension that I sensed echoing throughout his body. Like he was primed to leap right across the firepit should some secret impulse or signal compel him to.
Had he seen my tears, the expression on my face? Of all the Gahns, Thaleo had the least amount of experience with human women. He was the only one without a human mate. Did he even know about tears? Maybe he’d seen Priya cry them. He’dheld her prisoner here, just as he’d held Oxriel and the others. Though he’d given her much more comfortable quarters than the guys.
I held his gaze without blinking, trying to radiate calm, don’t-jump-across-the-fire energy. Not that I thought of him as the leaping-without-looking sort. I doubted the man had ever made a rash or impulsive choice in his entire life.
My eyes burned all over again, now for a different reason altogether. Gahn Thaleo could win a staring contest with a fucking statue made of marble. I blinked, then lowered my gaze first, focusing once more on my plate. Then, he spoke, plunging right into his subject without any sort of preamble or warning.
“Before dawn, Arton and Jael found evidence of a borog’s burrow near the neutral territory of the Vrika’s peak,” he said.
A hush fell over the hall. Even the children were silent, sobered by their parents’ rapt attention and Gahn Thaleo’s commanding voice.
“Warrek and I flew to that place, and confirmed it with our own eyes,” he continued. “The scent was fresh. There is indeed a borog that has moved into our lands, or has otherwise awakened from an unknown slumber. It is far from here, and even if it were to burrow directly towards our mountain without ceasing, it would take many days to reach us. For now, nothing here will change. But I will inform Valeria, commander of the new women, that this area is not currently safe for any of their work. We will monitor the borog’s position with twice daily patrols. Anyone travelling in the direction of the Vrika’s peak will need to do so on braxilk-back or not at all. There will be no travelling on foot beyond the areas directly surrounding this mountain.”
