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KAIO
Iawoke the next morning, my fervent prayers for peace the night before having gone unanswered. I had wrestled with nightmares all night—but every time I began thrashing, Gwen reached out and touched me, bringing a calm that I could not find within myself.
At one point, I awoke and looked at her, only to realize that she was comforting me in her sleep, unaware that she was even doing it.
My proposal to her the night before that she become my mate had been genuine, but I knew it had also been made from desperation. I had wanted something real, something good, so badly because I needed to wipe away the shame of having used the olde magick to destroy Trumble.
In the bright sunlight of the morning, I knew Gwen’s decision not to accept my proposal had been the right one.
When I made her mine—and now more than ever, I was determined to ensure that happened—it would be under better circumstances.
A rustling in the brush nearby made me stand, scanning the area around us. There was nothing to be seen, but I couldn’t quite shake the feeling that something was out there in the shadows, watching us. I was beginning to get paranoid. Even so, I wanted to get moving again.
I had left the remaining fladi lizard strips to cook over the embers of our fire, so they were ready to eat this morning—and we had plenty left to take with us.
The cloak I had carried them in the day before was bloodstained, though, so I rolled it into a tight ball and shoved it to the bottom of my pack, hoping that would keep the predators from scenting it.
As I began packing up our makeshift camp, Gwen awoke with her beautiful golden-brown hair tangled, her eyes sleepy. “Dear God, I need coffee,” she muttered.
“Coffee? What is that?”
“It’s a drink—wait. You know what? I bet Bloodworm has some. But of course he wouldn’t share it with his human abductees.”
I managed to smile at her, but my stomach felt as if it were full of lead. Bloodworm. He’d certainly had yesterday’s incident broadcast.
How could I ever return to my people?
Maybe you don’t have to, that internal voice whispered. You could stay with Gwen forever.
A disturbed expression flickered across her face, and she glanced at me, then looked away. She had almost certainly heard that thought.
I needed to get my emotions under control. That was what had put me in this position in the first place—being unable to control my anger at Trumble’s attack on Gwen.
I moved around the camp, packing our meager belongings while Gwen retreated behind a nearby bush to “take care of business,” as she put it.
“So where are we going next?” she asked.
I turned around in a slow circle, considering our options. “I think we should keep heading the direction we were going yesterday—no one has attempted to stop us, so I assume we’re still moving in the right direction, at least generally.”
Gwen nodded, and I tried to listen in on her thoughts, but all I picked up were more lamentations over the lack of coffee.
Perhaps she wasn’t as horrified by my use of magick the day before as I was.
I can hope.
Unlike either the valley with its vicious plants or the desert town, this new environment was pleasant, despite its tropical nature—nothing in the flora tried to kill us, at least, and by the time we stopped for a midday break, I was beginning to believe we would make it all the way through this segment of the course without running into trouble.
I should have known better than to get too complacent.
We had continued moving toward the water I had scented the day before—and we were getting closer and closer to it as the afternoon wore on.
I let my guard down. I had been using my Qualtl’eth blade to cut a path, though it was much easier than trekking through the valley had been, and we eventually stepped out into a small clearing. I should have scouted ahead first, but I hadn’t, and the gladiator and his human partner were almost as surprised to see us as we were to see them.
Unlike Sandy and Trumble, however, neither of them gave us time to speak.
They simply attacked.
The male was a fur-covered Lonki, and he lashed out at me with his sharp claws extended.
