Broken by the Horde King (Horde Kings of Dakkar #4) - Zoey Draven Page 0,61
dangerous they can be. Nik, you stay in the horde, where you can be protected, where you are safe.”
“Kiran,” I breathed, needing him to understand. “I—I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t know what to expect from a hybrid pregnancy and I won’t have Addie pay the price if I cannot help her because of my inexperience.”
His nostrils flared.
“Hanniva,” I whispered. “I need to help her. Hanniva.”
I saw the defeat in his gaze before I saw it in the drop of his shoulders. His jaw was tight. I had forgotten how often I’d gotten my way with him.
“The nearest horde is Rath Tuviri’s,” he finally voiced. “But you will not leave. I will send a darukkar for you, lysi? He will be slower than a thesper but he can reach the horde and return in a little under a week.”
Relief and gratitude filled my chest.
“Kakkira vor,” I said quietly.
“Write out your message and get it to me,” he said. “I’ll send the darukkar out the morning after the feast.”
“I will.”
He sighed, studying me. The fire in the basin popped again, crackling.
Goosebumps broke out over my arms again when he rasped, “I had forgotten how I could never say ‘nik’ to you, especially when you looked at me like that.”
His words mirrored my own thoughts.
“Like what?” I whispered.
A huff burst from his nostrils. He shook his head, keeping whatever he thought to himself.
I turned to leave. “If you cannot say nik to me, Vorakkar, then I suggest you get some sleep. It will do you some good.”
“I’ll keep that in mind, rei mokkira,” came his response.
I ignored the way my belly fluttered as I stepped from his voliki, a cool breeze threading through my hair. I took in a deep breath and felt it sting my lungs.
Overhead, a bright star streaked across the sky and I froze as I watched its trail.
Kakkari’s guiding light?
A sign?
Nik, it couldn’t be.
Swallowing, I averted my gaze and ignored it, just as I ignored my speeding heart and flushed cheeks.
It would only mean trouble.
Chapter Twenty-One
Errok laughed, the boisterous sound filling the empty clearing, carrying over the cold air that stung our flesh that early in the morning. He laughed, even though he wiped the blood away from his split lip.
“That was a dishonorable shot,” he growled.
I grinned. “We were always taught to strike. No matter how.”
Without warning, Errok retaliated, slamming the hilt of his sword into my thigh. Before I could react, he slugged me across the face, making me stumble back a couple feet.
“Like that?” he asked, raising a brow. His chest was heaving. As was mine. We had been in the training enclosure since the first rays of dawn had broken across the sky. Behind us, the horde was still sleeping. Most of it. It was beginning to stir, fires being lit, smoke curling from volikis.
“Again,” I growled, wiping at the blood at my temple.
Errok was the only one who could get away with something like that. And only because he was my pujerak. Only because we’d known each other in Dothik, had trained together with the Dothikkar’s darukkars.
As we did every morning, we trained together. Because we were almost a perfect match for one another’s strength and blade skill. We had been the best in Dothik, after all. We had both worked hard to be the best. I knew that Errok had always had his sights on being a Vorakkar. But the Dothikkar had not allowed him into the Trials because he had no line, no ancestry to account for.
I knew that it always ate at him. Sometimes we butted heads, him needing to submit to my position when he had the soul of a Vorakkar.
It was something I knew he’d always hold against me. That I had been chosen and not him. Because of who my father was.
Still, we were friends.
Still, we had worked together from the very beginning to build this horde. He was my second-in-command and the horde treated him with the respect he deserved, the respect he’d earned.
“There is your female,” came Errok’s gruff voice, the ringing of our clashing blades filling the clearing.
“Neffar?” I asked, turning my head to where he’d nodded.
I caught sight of dark curls and smooth flesh.
That was all I saw before Errok sliced a thin line through my hide trews, black blood beginning to leak over the material. I hardly felt the pain, knowing that had he been an enemy, he could’ve gone for a killing blow.