at him felt like benuva bursting over my tongue, sliding down my throat, and warming my belly.
Swallowing, I forced myself to look away. Clearing my throat, I asked, “Which way?”
“What were you thinking just now?” he asked, stepping closer.
Surprise jolted me, my eyes widening on him.
“Nothing,” I said quickly.
“Then what is this, seffi?” he rasped, reaching out to brush his fingers over the front of my throat.
A sharp hitch in my breath came at the unexpected contact. I tilted my head back to look up at him and felt the side of his claw drag across my sensitive skin. I barely suppressed my shiver but I could do nothing about the way my nipples pebbled tight under my tunic…and the zinging heat that pooled low.
“You are getting flushed and we have not even started yet,” he purred. His eyes were watchful, his voice deep and husky.
Why did those words sound so…wicked?
Silence stretched as we regarded one another.
“Nothing,” I said again, the word coming out a little breathless. “What are you thinking right now? Because—”
“I’m thinking how much I enjoy looking at you,” he replied, making me blink, the rough, calloused tip of his thumb dragging down to the notch in my throat.
It bobbed against his finger when I swallowed hard.
My first instinct, as it always was when it came to compliments, was to deny his words. I didn’t know what he was doing, or why, but I wasn’t so naive as to think he was attracted to me, though his words and his touch would make any other female believe he was.
Kiran had never been attracted to me.
I wouldn’t fool myself into thinking that he’d suddenly changed his mind.
Clearing my throat again, I stepped away from his touch.
I didn’t want to go down this path again.
I couldn’t.
“Shall we?” I asked quietly, turning my burning face away.
Kiran waited a moment before he blew out a rough sigh and said, “Lysi.”
Then a calculating expression came over his face and the left side of his mouth quirked.
“Race you to the end of the lake, seffi,” he murmured, jerking his chin behind me.
“Neffar?” I frowned.
Kiran took off in a steady run.
Realization made my eyes widen, made my heart skip a beat. “Not fair!”
His deep, rumbling chuckle wound its way back to me.
For a moment, I forgot. It was like nine years had been erased in a single moment as I sprinted after him.
I shook my head, smiling as my hair blew back and my feet pounded harder and harder on the earth.
It felt nice to forget. If only for a moment. It felt nice to remember that before everything happened, I had always loved Kiran as my friend first. He’d been the one who’d comforted me when he found me crying. The one who’d always made me feel special and important to him.
But I needed to remember that this male was dangerous to me. That he made it all too easy for me to love him.
I would never love him again.
I couldn’t.
Because if I did, it might destroy me completely this time around.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
My brow was furrowed in concentration. Keeping my hand steady, I plucked the last of the debris from the darukkar’s open wound and dropped it onto the table beside him.
“Ruhna,” I said, which was the Dakkari word for apprentice, nodding at Essir. “It’s clean. Close it and then apply the uudun.”
Essir looked nervous. As did the darukkar, suddenly. But my apprentice didn’t dare voice any of his concerns after I’d given him an order and he nodded, moving to my side.
Hinna was watching, looking a little pale from the sight of the wound, her normally healthy, golden complexion going a little grey. Luckily, she stayed as far away from the well-lit table as possible and was slowly edging her way to the entrance flap.
Taking pity on her, I asked, “Will you go get some more water? In a fresh basin, hanniva?”
“Lysi, mokkira,” Hinna replied quickly, inclining her head before darting from the voliki. My lips quirked and I turned my attention back to Essir. He was wrapping the needle with thread and I took it from him, showing him how to knot it tighter before handing it back. “Quickly.”
Essir nodded, his hand shaking ever so slightly as he brought the needle to the darukkar’s flesh.
“Would you not rather close it, mokkira?” the darukkar asked hurriedly.
“My ruhna is quite capable, I promise you,” I told him, giving him what I hoped was a comforting smile. Essir glanced sideways at me, his eyes