Chapter 10
Chapter
Ten
VANDER
“Sire.” Lenka greets me in the hallway outside my bedchambers.
I’ve barely shifted into my smaller form, ice still clinging to my scales from my long journey to the northern wards. “How is she?”
“Eating more now.”
“Good.” I hesitate for a moment. “Has she … Has she asked for me?”
Lenka pats my hand, her warmth mirroring my own. “She’s better. That’s all we could hope for. The rest will come with time.”
I shrug it off, doing my best not to appear crestfallen.
Larellin has been recovering nicely, the wound on her leg healing over the past week.
I’ve been in and out, working with my brothers to secure the keep against any unwanted intrusions from Sela as well as maintaining our borders.
But my mind has been elsewhere during the long flights.
I find myself wondering about the mortal, worrying for her to a degree that verges on alarming.
I’ve never cared for another like this. Only my brothers and the few friends we’ve made here in Oblivion over the eons.
But a mortal? I’ve never gotten close to one.
Larellin is something new, and my feelings for her, as confusing as they are, are stronger than anything I’ve ever experienced.
“Go on, Sire. See to her.” Lenka gives me a kindly smile and descends the stairs.
I roll my shoulders and swipe a hand through my wavy hair, doing my best to tame the strands that are, as far as I’ve ever known, untamable.
“Good afternoon,” I say stiffly as I walk in.
She’s mid-chew, a piece of bread in her hand. “Hi,” she says around it.
“How are you feeling?” I walk around the bed and sit in the wooden chair, still slightly toasty from Lenka’s presence.
“Much better.” She swallows and folds her hand in her lap. “I walked without my crutch yesterday,” she offers. “But Lenka scolded me for it.” She rolls her eyes.
“As she should.” I lean forward, breathing in her honeysuckle scent. “You need rest.”
“I’m done resting.” She tucks her shiny dark locks behind her ears. “Being cooped up in here is driving me batty.”
I glance at the windows.
“Ugh! I don’t mean I’m going to jump again. I just mean I need to move around. I’m not used to this.”
“Not used to what?”
“This!” She gestures around the room. “Sitting in bed all day. Someone else taking care of me. Someone else emptying my chamber pot and bringing me food and—”
“You had no servants?” I ask.
She gawks at me, her pink lips open. “Of course not!”
I suppose I don’t know much about her village or how she lived before she came here. I’ve never been interested in how the mortals live. They shun and hate anything they don’t understand. But perhaps Larellin could be different. “Tell me about your home.”
She frowns, a slight wrinkle forming between her dark eyebrows. Beautiful. I’ve never seen a creature like her.
“You really want to know?”
“Yes.” I sit back and rest my hands on my thighs.
She follows the movement, her gaze tracing up my body. Her eyes flicker the slightest bit when she gets to my chest. Then she meets my gaze. “Stop smirking like that.” She wrinkles her nose.
I’m smirking? Yes, I suppose I am. Her attention on me makes my blood heat, but I attempt to school my features.
“Anyway.” She pushes her tray to the side and reclines back against the pillows.
Her pale skin no longer has a deathly pallor, just hints of pink and rose beneath the alabaster.
“In Raingreen, I lived with my mother. Well, and my father, but he …” She looks away, her lips pressing into a tight line.
Pain. I recognize it because I carry the same.
“He’s passed into the eternal?” I ask.
She cocks her head to the side a little and considers me. “That makes death sound almost … nice.”
“Death is just another sky to explore.” I shrug.
Her deep brown eyes narrow slightly. “Sure, but only if you can fly.” She flaps her arms a little. “In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not part dragon like you.”
I do smirk this time. “Oh, pet, I’m all dragon.”
“Ugh! What does that even mean? Never mind.” She clasps her hands together. “As I was saying, I lived with my parents in the outer village. My mother mended clothes. I did the same and also worked in the priory gardens.”
“You were a farmer?” I ask.
“No.” She shakes her head. “We didn’t own any land to speak of. I simply tended to the gardens used by the church and the nobility. Growing their vegetables, a few fruits, and raising their livestock.”
I admit I’m slightly baffled—first at the thought of growing vegetables to eat, second that she was growing it all for someone else. “You didn’t eat the food, then?”
“No.” She looks almost aghast. “Taking food from the nobles is the surest way to end up in the stocks or on a pike.”
I suck on a tooth, doing my best to avoid insulting her people but finding my efforts lacking. “And this is a place you wish to return to?”
“I want to see my mother.” She kicks her chin up the slightest bit.
“I want her to know I’m all right. The rest of Raingreen can feel free to suck on a rotten toe as far as I’m concerned, and that goes double for everyone up on that battlement who happily watched my sacrifice.
But my mother … She’s worried. There’s no way she can’t be. ”
“I’m afraid you can’t return to the mortal lands once the Bar—”
“Once the Bargain is struck. Yes, I know.” She slumps a little, then stares forward for a while before asking, “Why does Lenka call you sire?”
“It’s an old affectation of the Firefolk.” I can’t seem to stop watching her, the way her pulse flutters at her throat, the swell of her breasts beneath her shift, the way she sometimes chews on her bottom lip when she’s thinking. For being so breakable, she’s full of life.
“You didn’t answer my question,” she chides.
“No siblings?” I ask.
She nibbles her lip for a moment, then lets out a sigh. “I guess that means you don’t intend to answer my question.”
I stare at her.
She looks away, doing what I find myself completely incapable of. She’s stolen my attention, my every thought. How can a mortal have such power over me? It doesn’t make sense.
“I had a little brother, but he didn’t survive his first winter.” She goes silent then, her eyes downcast. She tries to cover her hurt, but I see it anyway. An old wound, never truly healed.
“I lost a brother and my parents,” I say softly. “They wait for me even now, all of them one with the eternal just like your father and brother.”
“I’m sorry.” Her voice is a gentle caress.
“It was long ago.” I stand, needing space though reluctant to give it. Being near her seems to soothe an ache I never realized lived under my skin. “Rest.”
“I’m tired of resting,” she says to my back as I walk to the door.
“Even so, you need to recover.”
“For what?” Her question hangs in the air as I stand in the doorway. “What happens after this?”
I turn and look at her. “I keep you alive and safe from harm.”
“Why?” She sounds tired now, her cheeks slightly pink. “Why does it matter to you if I live?”
“Because you’re mine, pet,” I answer truthfully, though it isn’t well received if the scowl on her face is any indication.
“I will return later.” I step into the hallway and close the door.
“‘Because you’re mine, pet’,” she mimics in a deep voice somewhat under her breath. “Ugh. Ugh! Arrogant. Gods.”
I can’t help my smile as I head downstairs to meet with my brothers.