I smiled. He glared. I felt my smile widen. He glared harder.
Smothering a chuckle, I said, “Thank you.”
He ignored that, lifted my knapsack, and tossed it at me.
I caught it with anoof.“You’re lucky that your dick is worth all this constant brooding I have to put up with,” I teased.
He shot me a dark look that held a tiny glimmer of amusement. Though, to be fair, it could have been a trick of the light.
A short time later, we parted ways at the stables. Talon began tending to the horses as usual while I returned my sack of possessions to the tack room. I spent a few minutes playing with the dogs and then left for the food hall. Inside the building, I found my friends gathered near the end of a table, loading their pewters with food.
Spotting me, Nakoa smiled. “Well, good morning. I heard you made it through the labyrinth.”
“Told you that she would,” Khalida reminded her from the other side of the table. She then beamed at me. “Congrats on passing Xalbia.” As the others echoed the sentiment, she patted the empty spot beside her. “Park your butt here, cousin, we saved you a seat.”
I felt my brow crease as I accepted her invitation. “We’re cousins?”
“I’ve decided to adopt you,” Khalida informed me. “Just go with it.”
Snickering, I poured mead into my tankard.
“You’re planning to accept a place in the Black Tapestry, right?” Quillen asked.
“I am,” I verified, setting down the jug.
Khalida bumped her shoulder into his. “Told you that she would.”
He raised his shoulders. “The labyrinth has a way of making people reevaluate the worth of a position in the Order.”
Opposite me, Jelani dipped his chin. “I came close to choosing basic servitude instead. Some days, I wonder if I made the wrong decision,” he grimly admitted.
“We’ve all been there,” said Quillen.
“I almost quit once,” Soule confessed with a sigh. “I’m glad I didn’t. I think I would have later regretted it. And then I wouldn’t have Nakoa.”
Beside him, the female in question bristled. “You don’thaveme.”
Groaning, Khalida rolled her eyes. “He totally does. Stop fighting it.” Throwing a cube of cheese into her mouth, she turned back to me. “You should move to the floor where Nakoa and I sleep in the women’s barracks. There are a few spare beds there.”
Nakoa nodded, a teasing gleam blotting her gaze. “Not that I think you’ll sleep in it much, Anara. At least not for the foreseeable future.”
“Yeah, you see, we tried hunting you down to check on you after everyone got back from the caverns,” Khalida told me, her eyes smiling, “but you weren’t in the bathhouses. Or the stables. Or anywhere else we looked. And it quickly became clear that you were in Talon’s bedchamber.”
I tore off a chunk of bread. “How did it become clear?”
“We asked him when he was grabbing new boots that lookedwaytoo small for him from the supplies room,” Khalida replied. “He confirmed it. We also asked if we could go see you. He vetoed that, but we knew he would. He doesn’t like havingothers in his private space. Except for you, it would seem.” She smiled. “How intriguing.”
I sighed. “You’re intent on making a big deal out of this, aren’t you?”
“I don’t have to. His behavior makes a thing out of it.” She chomped down another cube of cheese. “I mean, let’s cover the facts here.”
“Let’s not,” I objected.
Ignoring that, she went on, “He never fucks candidates. He never takes women to his bedchamber. He never leaves marks of possession on their neck—yeah, I heard about your bite. And he never snatches them out of their seat and herds them out of the food hall.” Her face turned all dreamy. Seconds later, her brow furrowing, she looked at Quillen. “Why don’t you ever drag me out of here like that?”
He blinked. “I don’t need to. You follow me everywhere like a lost puppy. It’s sad.” Anoofflew out of him, so she’d presumably socked him in the gut or something.
“Ass.” Khalida again resettled her focus on me. “So, are you going to thank me?”
