Madness of the Horde King - Zoey Draven Page 0,110

stroked its snout, determination rising.

“I need your help,” I whispered. “Will you help me?”

There was something to be said about the intelligence of pyrokis…and I knew the Dakkari revered them for a reason.

I could understand it now. I even swore the pyroki understood me, or understood my desperate plea. Because in the next moment, it bowed its front legs forward, allowing me to scramble over its back before it rose to full height again.

“Thank you,” I whispered to the pyroki, setting my sights on the gate that separated the encampment from the plains.

I took a deep breath in. A part of me had expected to feel like I had while staring at the glittering turrets in Dothik weeks ago. Frightened beyond belief so that I physically trembled with it.

I felt fear, no doubt, but it wasn’t the same. It was…inevitable fear, but I would not let it deter me.

“Vir drak,” I whispered to the pyroki.

Chapter Forty-One

“Davik!”

I jerked from sleep, hearing my name echo from my sister’s lips, my breath heaving and a cold sweat pouring from me as I sat up in the furs.

But my mind was playing tricks on me. Again. Because it hadn’t been my sister’s voice, it had been Hedna’s, my pujerak, who had ducked his head inside my voliki and was regarding me from the entrance.

“Drokka,” he was saying. “Another thesper arrived.”

My heart slowed in my chest and immediately, I looked over to my left. I stilled, seeing Vienne was not in the furs with me, a frown pulling at my scar.

“Lysi, I will come now,” I told him, wondering what I had dreamed and why I felt such dread inside me. “Have you seen my kalles?”

Hedna’s shook his head. “Nik. Is she your kalles now?”

I knew what he asked. “Lysi,” I murmured, rising from my furs, pulling up my trews.

“So you will finally take a Morakkari?” Hedna asked quietly. “Another vekkiri Morakkari, at that,” he commented, knowing two other Vorakkars had also taken them as their queens. “Perhaps I should find a vekkiri for myself.”

“The thesper just arrived?” I asked, not wanting to speak of this now. It would be announced to the horde soon regardless. I kept my gaze on his as I strapped the holster, which contained my daggers, across my chest before shrugging on a fur cloak. The mornings were still crisp, though the cold season was long behind us. “From Dothik or one of the hordes?”

Looking back at the empty bed, I couldn’t help the frown that pulled at my lips but I stepped outside with my pujerak, my gaze scanning the encampment, looking for signs of a small, white-haired female.

I realized…I didn’t like waking up without her beside me. It made me restless, like my blood was buzzing under my skin again. She was like a drug, one I needed every morning, every afternoon, every night…and possibly all the other moments in between.

“The thesper is from the Vorakkar of Rath Kitala,” Hedna told me.

That made me glance sharply over at him. “Rath Kitala?”

“Lysi. I have not read it yet.”

That could not be good. The Vorakkar of Rath Kitala had made it no secret that he disliked me.

Quickly, we made our way to the council’s voliki, though only Hedna and I were present as I unwrapped the thin parchment the thesper had brought.

My lips thinned, anger rising when I read the words.

“Well?”

“He will be here by tonight. He sent the thesper as a courtesy,” I said, balling up the parchment and throwing it across the table. “He fears for my kalles’ wellbeing under my protection.”

That insult burned, stoking my temper, but I knew he had reason to be wary. He’d walked in on us in my private rooms in Dothik, after all, with her straddling my lap as I bit at her neck. She’d been afraid of me then.

My cock thickened with the memory—as I knew it would, considering I was so fucked in the head. But Vienne made me burn in an entirely different way. Back in Dothik, she’d been fearful of me, lysi. I’d ensured that.

But she’d also been curious about me. Now I knew how deep that curiosity ran and all the things she did to me with that curiosity and that was what aroused me.

My claws scraped into the wood of the council’s table as Hedna regarded me.

“Shall I have volikis prepared?”

“Nik,” I said. “Rath Kitala can sleep on his pyroki for all I care.”

Hedna shook his head but he was all too used to the feuds