Madness of the Horde King - Zoey Draven Page 0,136

her eyes again…and now that I could, I found myself never wanting to look away.

“I’m here, Davik,” she whispered, pressing her forehead against me. “And I can barely believe that I am.”

That was her truth.

She pulled back. Her eyes were glassy with tears. She held her arms out and I helped her from the bed, holding onto her waist as she got her footing. She’d bathed earlier—her mother and sister had been alone with her then—but she was still weakened.

She wore a simple shift and I bundled her in furs so she wouldn’t chill. Once I’d laced her boots, I guided her from the tent and out into the open night air.

Vienne’s face was one of relief as she stepped outside, her face immediately tilting back to look at the moon, only to blink in surprise.

It was the black moon tonight.

“Is it really over?” she whispered, staying close to my side. Her hand was warm against my forearm.

“With the Ghertun?” I asked, leading her towards the pyroki enclosure. It was a short distance away so it wouldn’t exert her too much and I knew she enjoyed watching them. She’d watched them with Lokkaru for hours. “For now.”

“You don’t expect peace?”

“Nik,” I told her. The encampment was quiet. Vienne’s family were nowhere in sight. I figured they were already settled into their voliki for the night. They’d chosen to stay in one, though I’d offered for all of them to have their own. “For a short while, perhaps. Maybe even years. But war always comes. If I have learned anything as Vorakkar, it is that.”

There was a large part of me—a part I wouldn’t tell her about—that craved returning to the Dead Mountain. That craved slaughtering all that had harmed her and her family. The sibi, the Ghertun who had burned the brand into their flesh, the Ghertun who had given them the first dose of vovic, and Lozza most of all. That bloodlust might never leave me.

“But for now,” I said quietly, as we stopped in front of the enclosure, “there is peace. And because of you, there are no more slaves under the Dead Mountain. Because of you, Lozza knows fear, knows that you alone spared his life though you wielded the heartstone’s power.”

She glanced up at me, leaning against the enclosure. I noticed the short walk had exhausted her.

“Are you angry with me for that?” she whispered, her eyes luminous, even in darkness. Under the Dead Mountain, they’d glowed blue, eerie and beautiful. I would never be able to forget that.

“Lysi,” I told her, my tone bordering on anguished. “I was vokking furious with you. And scared. So scared. Frightened out of my mind!”

“Davik…” she said, her expression softening, her brows furrowing.

“If you—” I cut myself off, feeling that familiar panic rise in my chest. I thought the last week might have taken years off my life, years I’d wanted to spend happily with her.

My fists clenched at my sides.

“If you had died because of it…” I continued. “I—I cannot bear to think of losing you, Vienne. When I saw you wielding the heartstone’s power…I did not think I would survive if you were gone from this world.”

She leaned into me, burrowing her face into the furs that draped over my chest.

I wrapped my arms around her, wanting to squeeze her as tightly as possible to me, but I didn’t want to hurt her while she still recovered.

“You have my heart, Vienne,” I rasped down to her, tilting her chin up so I had her gaze. “You know that. And it is terrifying to know that I am no longer my own.”

Her eyes softened though her features were serious, almost somber.

“And I know that I have very little right to be furious with you,” I added softly, stroking my hand through her hair. “I lied to you about the heartstone. Deceived you knowingly. It was I that was pushing you towards that decision to leave…because I had given you no other choice. You’d been right to not make that promise to me…to never alter my mind again. Because if you had stayed, I might have forced you to. I would’ve given you no other choice.”

“Why did you lie about the heartstone?” she asked.

My jaw tightened, shame lingering in my mind.

“At first, it was because I needed you close,” I said. “After you delivered your message in Dothik, the Vorakkars had decided that the Ghertun needed to be restrained. For years, they have been pushing their borders, attacking and