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I liked the weight of it there.

Pam passed me a plate piled high with meat and roasted tubers. “Joseph is going to drive back to the inn after dinner. Do you need anything else from the car?”

“No.”

It wasn’t as if I had any possessions. They’d all been on the ship.

“Clothes,” Robyn said. “He needs clothes.”

I looked down at my battle wrap. “I am wearing clothes.”

“You’re wearing a leather skirt.”

“It is not a skirt.”

“What would you call it? A kilt?”

“A battle wrap.”

She looked beneath the table. “It doesn’t cover very much.”

Heat gathered beneath it again.

“It covers everything necessary.”

Her cheeks coloured. This was happening a lot. Was that a human thing or a Robyn thing?

I could smell the renewed warmth of her desire, but this time I showed enough restraint not to stare.

Cairn was less considerate. He grinned at me across the table, fangs flashing.

I focused on the food.

The meat was tender and covered in a dark sauce. It tasted different from anything on Spiris, but after so long without food, it might have been the finest meal I had ever eaten.

I ate too quickly. Robyn noticed and pushed a bowl of vegetables towards me.

“Slow down. Your stomach hasn’t had to digest anything for almost five hundred years.”

“It feels capable.”

“You’ll regret it later if it isn’t.”

I slowed down.

Being ordered around by a human should have annoyed me. It did annoy me. But I also liked that she watched me closely enough to notice.

“What kind of healer are you?” I asked.

“A nurse. I work in intensive care.”

“What does that mean?”

“I look after the sickest patients in the hospital. People who need help breathing, medication to keep their hearts working, constant monitoring. A lot of them are unconscious.”

The meat turned heavy in my stomach. “They cannot tell you what they need.”

“Not always.”