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After slamming the metal door closed, I slid the thick bar across it. Backing away, I clutched my trembling hands to my throat.
I didn’t care if something happened to him—so I told myself.
If he was dead, I might be allowed to return to my beloved sister.
When I slumped against the cold stone wall, I wasn’t giving into the conflicted emotions churning inside me.
I didn’tlikeJaus. He irritated me. Taunted me.
He stirred emotions inside me I’d never felt before.
“You just met him a few days ago,” I told myself, my whisper as harsh as the cries of death echoing outside. “Remain pleasant and maybe he’ll release you from this farce of a mating.”
The shrieks grew in volume, and my heart stopped. Was he injured already?
I kept picturing how Jaus had killed the shayde so quickly. He was a commander. Surely that meant he’d return to me safely.
Returnto me? Thoughts like that sounded too close to caring, and I didn’t like it one bit.
“He’s not going to be a true mate to me.” Jeez, I didn’t evenwantto lie beneath him while he rutted. He was snarly and gruff. How could I ever find that attractive?
My throbbing body told me I just might.
“Forget about him.” Stiffening my spine, I bumped off the wall. With my bag in hand, I pivoted and walked farther into the darkness. A light bloomed ahead at the end of the hall, outlined by a whisp lantern hanging beside yet another metal panel. Since the whisp’s pace had slowed, I opened the clear front panel and blew on the mechanism inside. It spun faster, and the light brightened.
“Why a second door?” I asked myself. Did Jaus expect the dresalods to breach the outer one?
The shiver tracking through me told me he might.
“Why haven’t we heard of the dresalods?” I asked no one.
Perhaps because we were too busy fighting off shaydes to expect anything else. Or they didn’t leave this area. Jaus said they came from the sea to attack. They may not be able to remain out of the water for long to cross the forest, though the thought was purely speculation on my part. I’d ask him about them later, when he returned.
Ifhe returned.
“Don’t tangle yourself up in fear for him. If he doesn’t come back, if he’s . . . killed, you can beg whoever’s in charge to take you back to the village.” With a slight plan in place, my tension eased a fraction.
I released the latch on the door and swung it open, heavy thing that it was. Light for an orc, I bet.
Inside, I shut and barred the second door. How would Jaus get inside?
He could knock.
Ha. If he did so, I might let him in, or maybe I wouldn’t. If letting him in gave him the chance to make demands on my body and time, leaving him outside would be my best option. He could sleep on the open balcony or with Feyla. She must have a nest somewhere nearby, and he could snuggle up to her instead of me.
My grin widened as I took in the large living area with windows spaced evenly around the entire outside wall. The room appeared to take up the entire level of the tower. The stairs on the opposite side went down as well as up.
Time to explore.
I trod across the room, tossing my bag onto an orc sized sofa, and paused beside the spiral staircase. “Up or down?”
Why not both?
I climbed and found myself in another large room, this one holding a huge stone structure in the center with piping shooting down from above. I peered inside.
“A tub.” Flat stones had been placed around the outer wall at various levels, and a drain in the middle must allow the tub to be emptied through piping above the living area ceiling and the wooden floor beneath my feet. A sink and what I took for a toilet, though we only had dug outhouses back at the village, had been placed on one side of the room. Another large stone tub near the toilet appeared to be for washing clothing, if the wooden racks leaning against the wall beside it were any indication.
Washing my things in a basin would be better than hauling dirty clothing down to the river and cleaning them there, then hauling them back to hang beside the woodstove.
