and it made my head spin as we kissed even harder. His body was thick and solid against me, tethering me to this place, this moment. And it didn’t frighten me—the intensity of this kiss—because like I’d admitted to him…he made me feel safe.
It felt…freeing.
All at once, my mind flashed to Devina. To her sad eyes as she pleaded with me to help him so she could be freed, so they both could.
I broke the kiss, drawing in ragged breaths as his lips landed across my cheek, my jaw. He stooped low, dragging that hot mouth down to the column of my neck where he nipped and laved and marked. His tongue soothed his bites and I shivered, though heat was building between us fast.
“Don’t distract me,” I whispered, stepping away on shaky legs, giving him an equally shaky smile.
“I changed my mind,” he rasped to me, his fingers loosening the tie over my furs. “Let’s go to our bed instead this night.”
Our bed.
How good those words sounded…as if I owned something. As if I owned something with him. As if I had a right to be in that bed at all.
“No,” I told him, stepping away from those dangerous, dangerous hands. “Let’s go before you actually change my mind, horde king.”
He let out a deep chuckle, though it sounded slightly strained. He let out a small breath and the sound filled me with relief. At least I knew these emotions weren’t one-sided. At least I knew he was as affected by that kiss as I’d been.
We walked from the voliki and I was surprised when Davik led us towards the pyroki enclosure. The pyroki master, the mrikro I believed he was called in Dakkari, was absent, gone home to his own bed for the night.
Davik let out a shrill, sharp whistle at the fence and I heard movement from the shadowy figures in the darkness. The sound of taloned claws running in the earth, and then his pyroki was before us, tossing her long neck when she saw her master.
“Her name is Nillima,” he told me quietly. The encampment behind us was dark and silent, though I saw smoke rising from some of the voliki, some still glowing with the warmth of the fires burning within. “She is one of my oldest friends.”
I smiled, knowing what he told me was a gift, an offering. Masters were almost as secretive about their pyrokis’ names as their own among the Dakkari, or at least that was what Lokkaru had mentioned to me a couple days ago when we’d passed the enclosure and watched the pyrokis for a few hours. Lokkaru had enjoyed watching them.
“Nillima,” I whispered. It sounded familiar. “I think you said her name when the jrikkia had come. I remember it.”
After Davik brought her out from the enclosure, I reached out to touch the pyroki’s neck. However, she made a sharp sound and trotted away from my touch, huffing out a puff of air that was like smoke from her nostrils.
I shook my head. “She still hates me, I see.”
“She has always been jealous,” Davik told me. “She is a selfish, possessive creature.”
His hands came to my waist and he lifted me onto Nillima’s back before climbing up behind me. The position was so familiar that I swore I felt my inner thighs give a throb of protest, remembering the pyroki burn that had come from riding on Nillima’s back for too long, all the way from Dothik to the horde of Rath Drokka.
“You should get used to riding on a pyroki, leikavi,” he rasped quietly in my ear. “Though I promise, we will not go far.”
His words made me pause. Why would I need to get used to riding on a pyroki? I would not be here much longer, after all.
Unless—
No, I thought, firmly keeping my mind from going to that hopeful place. Because it could never happen, would never happen.
“Why did you choose her?” I asked, in an effort to distract myself from my dangerous thoughts.
“It is more like she chose me,” he rumbled, leading Nillima quietly through an entrance close to the enclosure, one separate from the front. I realized it was an easy exit for darukkars or hunters, perhaps, so they wouldn’t have to lead their pyrokis through the horde.
“What do you mean?”
“After I was appointed to my position of Vorakkar, after I passed the final Trial,” he began, “I was expected to choose my pyroki from the Dothikkar’s own…collection.”