Chapter 66
Chapter
Sixty-Six
A short time later, I have my arm folded over and I’m leaning back in the chair by the fire. My head is spinning and I’m dizzy, but there’s a comforting edge to it because I know it’s from my potion, the very last dose I had. I don’t know what we’re going to do tomorrow, but I suppose that’s tomorrow’s problem. Nearby, Nemeth fusses with the small cook-pot over the fire. We found some spices in the kitchen, along with salt, and I have to admit that even though I’m not excited about eating horse, it smells utterly divine. My mouth waters constantly and I watch my mate with sleepy, blurry eyes.
He looks so good. I could stare at him all day and all night, just admiring the strong lines of his back. His kilt is water-stained and the leather distorted, the decorative straps no longer lying flat. They part across his backside, revealing the short stump of a tail that he’s so prudish over. His wings are folded up neat, the wing-points framing his head, and he just looks so familiar and cozy that I want to stay in this moment forever. Just me, drowsy with a hit of medication, and Nemeth fussing over a delicious-smelling meal and sneaking glances back at me while rain patters away on the roof.
“How did you find us?” I ask him when he dips a wooden spoon into the pot and tastes the stew. “Was it magic?”
Nemeth glances back at me. “I told you, Candra. I never lost you. I’ve been following this entire time.”
The words don’t make sense to me, no matter how many times I turn them over in my head. “I don’t understand. What do you mean you were following?”
“We were talking, remember? In the cottage?” He licks the spoon, then dips it into the pot once more, and then blows on the steaming contents to cool them. He holds it out to me, an offering, his other hand underneath. Reluctantly, I lean forward to eat and the meat is tough, but it’s delicious. My stomach cramps hard with hunger and I nod at him. He takes the spoon back and then stirs the pot once more. “Not too much longer. We’ll let it cook down a bit more, soften the meat.”
“Nemeth,” I chide. “Don’t change the subject.”
“I’m not. But feeding you is first and foremost in my mind.” He turns his head and gives me a wry smile. “Everything about you is first and foremost in my mind.” He stirs the meat again, then lets the spoon rest against the side of the pot. “Something broke my perimeter spell, and I gathered shadows to investigate.”
“Perimeter spell?” I frown. “This is the first I’ve heard of such a thing. What is it?”
“Magic, of course. It’s a type of enchantment that allows me to watch over the periphery of an object. You know the old battle saying that you can never sneak up on a Fellian?”
“No.” I give my lover an amused look. “I’m not up to date on my battle sayings, I’m afraid.”
“Ah.” He rubs one ear, looking embarrassed. “Well, we like humans to think it’s because of our shadow magic, but it’s truly due to enchantments. You can never sneak up on a Fellian because most of us have a perimeter ward upon our belt buckle.” And he gives his a pat. “The moment someone comes close, it makes a strident noise that only I can hear and alerts me that there’s an intruder. I cast another perimeter spell upon my food stores back in the tower, too. You’ll recall I caught you sniffing around?”
“I never stole from you!”
“Aye, I know you didn’t, love. But at the time I didn’t know you well. So…a perimeter spell. We were in the cottage, and I heard the noise of someone approaching, and I slipped into shadows to see who it was. When I saw it was the humans, I kept to the shadows, ready to attack…and then I saw that they had horses.”
My stomach gives a funny, uncomfortable little flip.
Nemeth’s expression is uneasy. He won’t look me fully in the eye as he continues. “And I saw those horses, and it made me pause. Because we weren’t going to reach the human settlement before you ran out of medicine. I knew I couldn’t fly you there, and so I made a choice.”
“Nemeth, no .” I’m horrified. He left me with those men deliberately?
“I couldn’t let you die, Candra.”
“You left me with those vile men? Let me worry over you? I thought you were hurt! Or worse! I thought you were dead, Nemeth, and that I’d never see you again.” I shudder. “They ate all of our food and drank two of my potions before they knew what they were, and you left me with them?” I feel betrayed.
“It was a choice I agonized over,” he confesses, his rich, velvety voice aching with sorrow. “And I watched from the shadows. If they tried to hurt you, I would slaughter them where they stood. But as long as they were traveling towards your city, and as long as they had the horses, they were moving faster than I could go with you, and so I left you with them. I’m sorry. I thought you might be safer with them than with a Fellian who can barely fly.”
I’m stiff with anger. On some level, his words make sense. The humans were moving faster than we could. Nemeth can’t fly me, and we’re low on supplies. But the last few days of sheer agony—of bitter worry over his absence, of distress over the situation—make it impossible for me to easily forgive. “You could have said something.”
“When? They didn’t leave you alone for a second, Candra.” He shakes his head and nudges the spoon in the pot, as if he can somehow will our dinner to cook faster. “When was I supposed to come in and warn you?”
“I don’t know,” I say helplessly. “All I know is that you let those men eat our food and take my potion. You let me worry that you were dead—” My voice catches and I can’t speak. I shake my head, weary and hurt beyond all capacity to reason. I hate that we left the tower and brought this on the world. I hate that Nemeth abandoned me. I hate that the world I used to know no longer exists, and I’m trapped in this rainy, deserted hellscape.
More than anything, I’m worried. My last potion is gone. We’re down to eating horse…and every time I turn around, I feel like I’m learning something new about my mate. I stare down at the bite on my hand, and I think about the happiness I felt on that day.
It feels like a very long time ago.
“You’re upset,” Nemeth says, voice soft.
“I am.” Upset doesn’t even begin to cover the emotions I’m feeling right now.
He moves to my side and crouches low in front of the chair, gazing up at me. Nemeth takes my hands in his, and I’m reminded of how enormous his hands are in comparison to mine. Like all Fellians, he has the oversized grip…a grip that squeezes my heart between his fingers and is in danger of breaking it. “I am thinking of you and our child, Candra. I know you’re hurt. You have every right to be. But if I have to choose between watching you die at my side or letting some humans drag you to their city on horseback, I’m going to pick the humans.” He strokes his thumb over my knuckles. “Even if it means you hate me.”
“I don’t hate you,” I whisper, aching. “I just hate everything about this situation.”
He lifts my hand to his cheek, the hard planes of his face familiar under my touch. “I’ve been following ever since they broke into the cottage,” he tells me. “I’ve agonized over every moment. I haven’t slept, knowing that you were with them and vulnerable. Ten thousand times I wanted to slaughter them all and take the horses, but I cannot ride, either. At least this way you could cling to one of them.” He turns his face, brushing his lips against my palm, grazing the bite mark there. “I hated them. I hated them so much, and every time I nearly stole you away again, a new settlement would be on the horizon, and I was convinced that this would be the one that would have people. This would be the one where they would welcome you like the princess you are and feed you. They could give you more than a Fellian, and so I watched from the shadows and held back my rage.” He bares his teeth, his green eyes glinting. “I hated that they stole the food. If I had anything to slip you, I would have left it in your path. But there is nothing. The rain is washing everything away.”
The goddess is furious with humanity. Not with myself and Nemeth, but that bit of knowledge doesn’t make me feel any better. It’s difficult for me to see Nemeth so stern and not try to make him smile. So I manage a weak grin and stroke his strong chin. “You miscalculated, I’m afraid. We’re still at least a day out from the city and we’ve eaten the horse. If your plan was for them to take me to the gates of Lios, you’ve failed, my love.”
His teeth scrape over my bite, and it sends a shiver up my spine. “I couldn’t wait a moment longer. They were going to hurt you. Touch you.” He bares his teeth, his lips curling back with fury. “I’d destroy every human alive before I’d let them harm one hair on your head.”
My eyes go wide.
“You belong to me.” He places his teeth over the plump part of my palm, fitting against the bite mark. “My Candra. My mate. Do you know how feral it makes me to think that they might have touched you? Do you know how much I wanted to tear them limb from limb for the way they were looking at you?” Nemeth growls, his nostrils flaring as he gazes at me. “Do you know how much effort it’s taking me not to drag you to this floor and give you my knot because I need to claim you?”
My breath catches in my lungs. “Nemeth.”
“I know what I did was wrong. I know, and I hated every moment of it. But I would do anything for you, Candra.” The look he gives me is full of longing, full of emotion, and I’m right back there in the tower, listening to him confess his love for me. “You are everything to me.”
“I love you, too,” I tell him. “And if I didn’t feel like death warmed over at this moment, I’d ask you for that knot after all.”
That brings a smile to his hard, unforgiving mouth. He kisses the mark on my palm and gets to his feet. “I may not be able to knot you, but I can feed you. Right now, that’s almost as good.”
“Is it? Is it really?”
He pauses. “Well, no.” His wings flutter with shy agitation. “But it will have to do.”