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I followed the radiating discomfort, grateful as both injuries began to fade as quickly as they’d hurt me. They vanished with every beat of my awakening heart, almost as if every pump deleted past pain and renewed whoever I was.
“If you can’t remember what happened, you were struck in the head with a pebble and then hit with a staff. I saw it happen,” a male said quietly, ripping my head up. “We all thought you were dead. But...you’ll live. Olish made sure of that.”
I scanned the odd space, drinking in the circular shape, the hole in the middle of the roof that allowed sunlight to pour through, and the stone-ringed fireplace beneath.
I’d never been inside anything like this before, but I knew what it was, without being told.
This was a Nhil home.
Which meant the male who spoke was—
“My name is Leca.” A man studied me from the other side of the dwelling where he sat cross-legged on rich brown fur. A pile of wood shavings stuck to his legs, his hands busily carving something with a sharp stone blade. “You’re safe here.” His hands stilled from whittling. “You’re in my lupic. You’ve been here since we carried you from the grasslands.” He arched his chin at a large pelvis bone of an animal that’d been turned into a platter. Food rested on top, waiting by the ash-filled fireplace to be eaten. “There’s roasted cattail shoots if you’re hungry.”
Pushing Zetas off my legs, I shook away the rapidly fading pain in my temple and jaw and focused on the male. He seemed about my age (if I knew my age), and seemed very proficient with that knife. His chest held tight furrows of muscles, his honey-brown shoulders lean and strong, and dark eyes shrewd and calculating. The same ashy mark I’d seen on other Nhil people glinted on his bicep, etched with sunlight.
A kingfisher.
He followed my stare before returning to his carving. “If you’re curious about my tattoo, I was gifted it by the fire. It’s granted me luck, and I wear one of my spirit guardian’s feathers—” He grabbed one of the brown braids draped down his back, pulling it forward and showing me an iridescent purple-blue feather of a kingfisher. “My guardian has allowed me to become one of the best fishermen of my clan.”
Zetas yawned, showing her sharp, sharp teeth.
Leca paused his whittling, shooting the wolf a wary look.
I narrowed my eyes as questions filled my head. Why had a Nhil hunter permitted a feral wolf to enter his home? Why had he allowed a stranger to rest on a comfy mat of dried grass? Why offer me food?
It didn’t make sense.
Clearing my throat from dryness, I asked, “Are you not afraid of the wolf?”
He shook his head. “Girl...I mean, Runa, advised the clan that the she-wolf will not harm us.” His eyes darkened with awe. “And after what I saw last night, I trust her.”
I scowled. “What did you see last night?”
“Our next Spirit Master coming into her gifts.” His lips curled with wonder. “She glowed and spoke to the wolves. She stopped a bloodbath with a simple silent urge.” He shook his head as if he couldn’t believe what he’d seen. “She will be the most powerful Fire Reader Quelis has ever seen.”
His words triggered a memory.
A memory that wrenched me backward, drowning me beneath fires and burnings, of moons and celestial webs, of a kiss and desperate desire, followed by—
My hands balled. “You came for her. You took her against her will.”
He stilled, his carving resting on his crossed legs. “She came back with us willingly.”
“After your hunters killed me.”
He snorted. “If they killed you, you would be dead.”
A chill scattered down my spine, but I ignored it and stood. Zetas immediately sprang to her paws. “Where is she?”
The male returned to carving as if my gathering anger didn’t bother him. “She’s with Solin. They’ve been in a trance together since dawn.”
Horror filled me.
She’d returned to the fire?
After it incinerated us? After it’d mocked and refused to help me?
She’s in danger.
“Take me to her.” I marched toward him, swaying with the same sickly sensation I had when I’d first woken in the den. My body shifted but awkwardly, as if struggling to remember how to walk again.
Leca didn’t move.
“Did you not hear me? Take me to her. Now.”
He unfolded his legs and brushed away wood shavings, not caring they scattered the brown furs below. “No one is to disturb them. Tral has positioned two guards outside Solin’s lupic, and the lynx watches over them from inside.” He moved around me, keeping a careful eye on Zetas. “If you try to interfere, you’ll be put in ropes.”
Zetas growled.
Placing my hand on her bristled shoulder, I bared my teeth. “If you’re so eager to imprison me, why am I not in ropes already?”
