Chapter 15 #2
Corin still hadn’t moved, and he hadn’t let me go.
Actually, his tail had wound tighter around me, holding me closer and closer to him.
“Honey, you understand what that guy said, right?” I asked him.
Maybe, if I touched him more, he’d snap out of this weirdly protective mode he’d gone into.
“Come back to me.” My fingers trailed along his chest, then back up his neck and into the silky strands of dark blue hair.
It was very tempting to kiss him again, and I bit my lip as I gathered my courage to try. Sadly, his eyes suddenly snapped from the woods to my face, and I knew he’d managed to find his way back. “Min-Ji… I can’t. We can’t. If I lost you, it would kill me! I have to keep you safe.”
He leaned into my hand, his eyes intense as he watched me shake my head.
I knew he was going to protest, so I beat him to the punch.
“No,” I said firmly. “We can’t avoid this forever.
We can’t even avoid her. I know I’m safer with you, and I know that leaving me out here with Rakworms is not an option.
We have to confront this.” It made my heart pound in my throat to think about it, but I was very tired of hearing about a threat without having anything tangible to face.
Not that I really wanted to face an actual Naga Queen.
Vera had done it, and it hadn’t sounded fun.
The way he groaned and lowered his shoulders made it clear I’d won this round.
We were going to the Sacred Training Grounds together.
That meant I was about to see my first Naga Queen, and this one was supposed to want me dead if she knew I was Corin’s mate.
Which meant we were going to have to hide it until we could find a way to make her give up.
Secretly, I also wondered if she even cared or if fear had blown this problem out of proportion.
Corin had been so young when she tampered with his chance to be a Shaman and tried to convince him to be her consort.
But he wasn’t a youngling anymore. Now, he was a fully trained hunter, with as much knowledge as he could gather on ancient relics.
It might be different when he confronted her, and faced his demons. A girl could hope.
He tilted his head to search the surrounding woods, maybe for Khawla, or perhaps for the Rakworms. I’d never seen one in person, but Charlie had, and she’d described her experience in vivid detail. I wasn’t keen on meeting one of the giant snakes with fangs as long as my arm.
“She can’t find out,” he said eventually, but he still didn’t let go of me.
He kept me tight against his chest, his tail pushing against my rear to raise me higher.
This kiss was different when he bent his head to mine, slower, tender.
He didn’t rush it the way every kiss before this one had, exploding into passion as if it were the only moment we were going to have.
No, this felt more like a promise for more, but I didn’t dare hope for that.
When he set me back on my feet, the tip of his tail remained coiled around my wrist. That’s how we continued our trek downhill and deeper into the strange, boggy woods.
Reid was quiet now, barely moving and no longer moaning in pain.
If you ignored the fine sheen of sweat on his forehead, you could almost pretend that he was sleeping peacefully.
The area started to change as the day progressed, no longer quite so wet in the valleys between the hills.
That made traveling quicker, as we could now stay lower on the hillsides, avoiding all the steep climbs.
We only took one brief pause mid-afternoon for food and water.
Corin took out his healing device, the gold bands and odd gems fitting around his clawed hand like a glove.
He gave Reid a thorough check, and I loved watching him as he worked.
I didn’t think he realized it, but his tongue kept peeking out as he concentrated.
It was cute, which was a funny word to associate with a Naga like Corin.
He wasn’t soft anywhere, and since he was built along slender lines compared to guys like Krashe and Iave, he looked even sharper.
Lean and muscular, but refined—if that made any sense—but definitely not cute.
Unless he was focused and did that unconscious gesture: pursed lips, the tip of his tongue sticking out. I loved it.
“He has stabilized a little. I didn’t think he would,” Corin said as he tucked the device away again.
“His chances might actually be improving.” That was hopeful, but it didn’t look like he was going to get better soon; there was a gray hue to his face.
He was breathing normally, but I would have preferred the rambling and muttering from before over this quietness.
The glow of Corin’s mating marks suddenly dimmed when he jerked upright on the base of his tail and whipped the tip around.
The loss of his touch had me focusing on the wrong thing at first, but then I caught the way he was tensely staring into the woods.
“I think it’s a Rakworm,” he murmured. “I need to check it out. Stay with Reid. Shout if you see anything moving.” Then he pulled his knives and hurried down the hill without a backward glance.