Madness of the Horde King - Zoey Draven Page 0,137
raiding more settlements. We did not know they took slaves. Not until you.”
“You needed me close because I could give you information about the Ghertun,” she finished for me. “Because I had lived under the Dead Mountain and I might know their weaknesses.”
“Lysi,” I said. “I needed your trust. But no one except Lokkaru and I knew about the heartstone. I kept that information from the Vorakkars even because I never intended for it to be found. And the last thing we needed, on the verge of battle with the Ghertun, was for their king to be in possession of a heartstone.”
Vienne’s lips pressed together.
“You know how dangerous it is now,” I said, my throat tight. “You are the only being alive that knows how dangerous—and powerful—it is.”
She swallowed, her eyes flickering in memory of it.
“And then, I did not tell you about the heartstone because I selfishly wanted to keep you near,” I admitted. “I wanted you as my own. I knew that I could protect you. I knew that I would never let you return to the Dead Mountain. I knew that I would bring you your family, so that you would stay.”
Her vision went glassy again.
“But I did not know about the vovic running through your veins,” I finished, my voice roughening. “I did not know that every moment I kept you here, it sickened you further. I did not know that lying to you about the heartstone was inadvertently harming you more.”
“Because I never told you about the vovic,” she whispered. “I lied to you too.”
“We have both kept secrets from one another,” I said, my claw brushing the softness and warmth of her cheek, “for reasons that were our own. But I do not want that anymore. I don’t want anything unspoken between us. From this moment forward.”
“I don’t either.”
My heart began to pump in my chest, nerves coiling in my belly. Because if there were to be no more secrets between us, I knew what I needed to do. And I had never talked about that night, or the ones that followed, to anyone before. I wasn’t even certain I would be able to put it into words.
Nillima approached us at the enclosure fence and when I raised my head to look at my bonded pyroki, my eyes caught on the darkness of the enclosure behind her, searching the shadows.
But my sister had not appeared to me since the Dead Mountain. I had seen others…faces I didn’t recognize. They spoke to me sometimes but never anything I could remember. Devina never came, however.
Nillima nudged my arm with her snout, though she ignored Vienne completely, something that brought a wry smile to my female’s face.
“You want to tell me now?” Vienne whispered. There was no one around. We were alone in the fresh, crisp air of the dark night. “Or later?”
This had been long overdue and I wanted her to know. I was ready to tell her what I’d done. I wanted to, so there would be no more barriers between us. After tonight, we would start anew.
“Once, you asked me to tell you the worst thing I have ever done,” I started. “The worst thing I have ever done was watch Devina die. And be powerless to stop it.”
Her hands settled on my chest.
“It is not a long story,” I said, my throat feeling like it was on the verge of closing up entirely. “There was a male. From our horde. His name was Jarun.”
“Jarun,” Vienne repeated, recognition flashing in her gaze.
I frowned. “You know his name?”
“The memory…the dream,” she said. “The one when you and Devina talked about her wanting to leave the horde, wanting to find a husband, and settle in Dothik or an outpost. She talked of Jarun in that dream. She said she liked him. But you didn’t.”
“Truthfully, I would not have liked any male for my sister. No male would have ever been good enough for her,” I admitted gruffly. I had always been overprotective of her, an instinct I sensed and even admired in Vienne’s own brothers. “But Jarun had held her interest for a long while.
“I told you once about my horde failing when I was younger. Because of overhunting, we would have been hungry for the season and the other Vorakkars had already claimed their land. The horde fell and we had to return to Dothik, to await the next season before we could venture to the wild lands again.”