Broken by the Horde King (Horde Kings of Dakkar #4) - Zoey Draven Page 0,126

Maeva, taking her face in my palms.

Her cheeks were so cold and her eyes were round and glassy with fear when I met them.

“Seffi, are you hurt?” I demanded, feeling a shiver rack her body, so I drew her closer, wanting to crush her to me in relief that the polkunu hadn’t taken her.

She shook her head, her eyes flickering to the opposite side of the clearing. “Where’s my guard? Is he all right?”

Always worrying about everyone but herself, I thought.

Maeva hissed when I touched her arm and my fingers came away with hot blood.

“Vok,” I breathed, looking down at the wound, my chest tightening with worry and more fear. The back of her forearm had a long slash down the flesh. It was a clean slice but it needed to be mended. And soon. Blood was dripping from it, wetting the earth and the furs that hung from her shoulders. “We need to get back.”

“The guard, Kiran,” she said hurriedly. “Hanniva!”

“I’ll check on him when I get you on Roon,” I said, hearing my darukkars in the background make the killing blow to the polkunu, quick and efficient. The weight of its slackened body shook the ground as it fell.

All at once, the forest grew silent. Even Maeva seemed to be holding her breath as I lifted her carefully in my arms. Roon went to a kneeling position on his front legs and I deposited her on his back easily.

I was loath to leave her side but I hurried around Roon to check on her guard, Danir, one of my best warriors. Just as I reached him, the pack of darukkars returned.

“It’s done, Vorakkar,” one of them called out.

Danir was breathing, which was a relief. He didn’t appear injured or bloodied but that tail whip from the polkunu had knocked him unconscious.

“Should we take the creature back to the horde?” my darukkar asked.

“Nik,” I rasped, thinking of the red fog in the east. “The meat might be tainted.”

“Should we bury it?”

“Nik, burn it,” I told him, standing from my crouched position over the darukkar. Burning a creature of Dakkar was not common practice but I wouldn’t take the risk. “Danir lives. One of you take him back to the horde. The mokkira’s apprentice can check on him.”

“Lysi, Vorakkar.”

When I returned to Roon, my gaze immediately landed on Maeva. She was looking forward, into the darkness of the forest, where the polkunu now lay.

My breathing still felt ragged and uneven. I couldn’t shake the fear that swam through my entire body, like I’d been plunged into it. Like fear was Drukkar’s Sea and I’d jumped off the cliff. Those waves threatened to pull me under but I needed strength.

When I swung onto Roon behind my seffi, I wrapped my arm around her waist, holding her close and tight, though I was careful of her arm. She was shaking in front of me and my jaw tightened.

“Ji vorak,” I ordered to Roon and he began to run through the forest, back the way we came.

With my fear came my fury. Fury at myself, for not protecting her from harm. Fury at Danir, for putting her in danger.

Fury at Maeva.

I’d explicitly told her to stay away from the forest unless I accompanied her. And she’d gone out to seek the adir trees, which were so deep inside it.

We didn’t speak on the ride back to the horde. Maeva’s shaking finally ceased once it came into view, the golden glow from the fire basins lighting up the sky around it. The gates were closed but I heard the yell of a darukkar when he saw my approach and opened them.

To one of the posted guards, I growled, “Bring me the mokkira’s ruhna now.”

I didn’t wait for his reply. The eyes of the horde were on us. Most had come out to see the commotion because they knew I’d left and taken a pack of darukkars with me into the forest.

Maeva stiffened with the attention even as her blood dripped over my arm. Her red blood. Blood I’d hoped to never see again because I knew how slowly vekkiri healed.

I brought Roon to a halt outside the mokkira’s voliki and my pyroki kneeled, letting me slide Maeva off his back, swinging her into my arms as I strode forward.

“Kiran,” came her soft voice. It had regained some of its strength on the ride back to the horde. She was no longer shaking. She was no longer panicked now that she knew her guard hadn’t