8. Nevarn

Chapter 8

Nevarn

" Y ou're sure you can walk with that wound?" Kerry asked, frowning at my belly.

Since she'd had to cut my tunic to help me, I wore only my pants.

"I jumped from the tree this morning," I said.

"Yeah, but I'm sure you winced." Her gaze traveled across my shoulders to my waist, and it felt like a caress, but I must be mistaken. She wasn't attracted to me.

Was she?

"I'm nearly healed." I turned my body until the sunlight peeking through the canopy highlighted my chest and abs. "See?"

She bent forward, a frown filling her face. "You do heal fast."

Grinning, I puffed my chest. "They were just scratches."

"I thought you were going to die of sepsis." The worry in her voice fed my hope that she cared.

Tilting her chin up, I smoothed the lines of distress from her face with the pad of my thumb.

Her breath hissed, but she looked up at me, not stepping away.

"As for walking . . ." I couldn't resist stroking her hair, coiling the thick band around my palm to hold her in place. "I'm a warrior. Strong. Nothing and no one is going to slow me down."

Her swallow worked her throat, and her lips parted.

What would I give to kiss her?

Everything.

But when I leaned toward her, she scooted to the right, her gaze darting away from mine.

"Ready to go, Molly?" she croaked. "It's time."

When she hefted her pack, I took it from her. She had to show me how to strap it to my body so it hung on my chest, thankfully, not touching my biggest wound. I found the device ingenious. I'd speak to Helena about crafting some for my clansmales.

"I'm glad you're okay," Kerry said softly.

While she kicked dirt onto the smoldering coals of our morning fire, I closed my eyes and hummed, calling to whatever wood gods that might be in the area. Only one responded, and its whispered reply sounded sluggish. The gods here had been neglected too long. Was it possible to bring them back? After this was settled, and I'd returned to my clan, I'd send a clansmale here to try.

A stick shot from the woods and skidded across the ground, coming to a stop by my feet.

Kerry palmed the hilt of her knife and rushed to the tree, pressing her back against it while staring around wildly. "Attack," she hissed. "Get down!"

Molly rose onto her haunches and studied the stick, her whiskers twitching.

I hefted it and examined it. "This will do." I could work on the tip as we walked.

Kerry relaxed away from the tree and took a tentative step closer to me. "Did you . . . Nah. That's not possible."

"I asked the wood gods to send me an appropriate branch to make a spear, and one did." I held the partly formed weapon out to her. "It's straight and true, and the end only needs a bit of work." When I hummed once more, a network of vines dropped from overhead.

Her breath sucking in fast, Kerry's body jolted.

I lifted the vines and quickly wove them into the strap I'd need to hold my spear on my back.

"You . . ." She rubbed her face. "The trees did not give you a spear and vines to make a sheath."

"No?" I strapped the sheath to my back and adjusted the fit before sliding my new spear into its holder, adding the pointed stick they'd sent to prove Kerry was my mate. "Thank you," I told the god. "The vines and branch are perfect."

A tree limb swung down and tapped my shoulder.

"See? Our gods enjoy praise," I said. "Are you ready to leave?"

"Yes." The breathiness in her voice made heat shoot straight to my cock. It was all I could do to suppress it. "I am. I . . ." She shook her head. "I'm ready."

I hefted Molly up onto my shoulder and she latched onto my hair with her tiny front paws, holding on while bracing herself with her back legs.

"This way." I waved to the woods on my right.

Despite wandering around in delirium after being wounded, I hadn't traveled far from the trail that would take us to the sea. I picked it up quickly, and we walked quietly together.

I keep an ear on the world around us, but if the person who'd stabbed me was watching or following, they didn't give themselves away. I wouldn't relax my guard.

Molly slumped across the back of my neck, draping herself on my shoulders, her claws dangling on my chest on both sides. I stroked her soft fur and told her she was a good girl.

Perhaps a grundar did make a good pet.

Kerry looked up at me, and the smile on her face shot through me like the scent of the sweetest flower.

Anticipation and nervousness rode on my back as we walked. One look from her made my heart race, and even a simple touch on my arm made me lose my thoughts. I stumbled over my words, cringing each time I did it, but I worried I might say something that would offend her.

A strange combination of excitement and fear gripped me—excitement because she might one dare care for me deeply but also fear that she never would. It was maddening yet exhilarating to care this much about another person's happiness over my own.

"How far do we have to go?" Kerry asked, easily keeping up with me. She spoke in a low tone—wise. She also kept peering around, and an arrow remained ready to fly from her bow. This woman was incredible. Strong. Determined. And smart. If she wasn't, she wouldn't have survived as long as she had on her own.

How could someone this perfect ever want to be with a male like me?

"We'll reach the shore late tomorrow." Keeping my voice low, I shifted Molly around to hold her in my arms. Who would've thought I'd return to my clan not only with a woman but carrying a grundar pet?

Pausing on the path, Kerry frowned. "The shore?"

"The Dastalon Clan lives in the sky."

She blinked, tipping her head back to look up. "I . . ."

"Not this part of the sky."

"Oh." Her frown didn't fade. "They live in the sky above the shore? I'm trying to picture this."

"Their islands float above the sea. There's too much turbulence close to shore during storms."

Humor flickered in her pretty eyes. Zuldruxians universally had teal-colored eyes, and I found her lighter blue arresting. Enthralling. I wanted to stare into them for a very long time.

The mate bond was speaking to me, but it wasn't just that. It was her. She was beauty and light in a world that had been drab and dark for much too long.

"You're joking, right?" Humor bubbled in her voice.

"No." Why would she think that?

"I guess I'll see what you mean when we get there." She continued down the path.

"That's true."

"What will your old clan think when you show up with me?"

"I'll have to tell them you're my mate."

"Which I'm not."

I stopped.

While she kept walking a few paces, she eventually looked back at me over her shoulder, pausing.

"If you're unmated," I said, "another male may try to claim you."

"I'll say no."

"If the traedor states you must pick someone, you won't be allowed to say no."

"Then I'll run away."

"There's so much danger in that," I said.

"Don't forget, I did quite well here on my own for over a week."

"You were lucky."

We started walking again.

She huffed. "Luck had nothing to do with it. I have great survival skills thanks to my mom. You can't deny that."

"You're strong."

"Thank you."

"And resourceful."

"Even better."

"But you have no idea what you'll face in my world."

Her shoulders fell. "You're right about that, but I'll find a way."

I sighed, and we kept walking. "Please don't run away. You might—"

Molly hissed.

"What's the problem, little one?" I whispered, stopping again, peering around.

She hissed again and crouched low, leaning into my chest, her eyes focused on the dense woods to our right.

Someone cried out from that direction—a Zuldruxian if I wasn't mistaken.

We were being followed.

And . . . Thuds and snarls rang out, the sounds getting louder.

Kerry froze. After I gently placed Molly on the ground, she hustled beneath a cluster of bushes on our left.

I pulled my new spear while Kerry notched an arrow in her bow. We moved quickly and quietly to place our backs to each other, studying the area.

A culendar burst out onto the trail ahead of us, its dark lavender scales bristling across the top of its spine and its orange eyes focused on us.

It had been driven this way. While a pack might attack a lone Zuldruxian, they rarely came after more than one person at a time.

Whoever stabbed me was trying to get the beasts to kill me for them, and they'd now placed Kerry in their sights.

Kerry barely breathed, but her hands didn't waver as she lifted the bow and sighted down the shaft at the enormous culendar.

"Up a tree, mate," I whispered, flicking my hand to my right. "That one. Quickly. I'll handle this." She'd be safer off the ground where she could see an attacker coming.

"Not happening, Nevarn."

I loved how grim she sounded, how determined, but I was desperate to keep her safe.

"Whoever tried to kill me sent the culendar our way."

"Well, fuck them."

My grim smile rose. "Yes, fuck them." I shifted to watch the trail we'd already walked along, because . . .

As expected, two more of the wily creatures slunk out of the woods, their claws digging into the soft soil and their spiked tails jutting up across their spines. They bared their fangs and their low growls rippled through the air.

"Damn," Kerry snarled.

"They take down prey in packs of three or four."

"Where's the fourth?"

"If we're lucky, this is a small pack."

"Luck rarely plays a role in my life," she said.

It had in mine. If I hadn't been wounded, I wouldn't have met Kerry, though I wished it could've been under different circumstances. Had the wood gods led me to her?

I released a low hum, but the trees around us didn't respond. They either didn't hold gods, or the gods had gone dormant. Well, I'd protect my mate and myself with my will alone.

"The first to appear will always rush toward their victim while the others will quietly come at them from behind," I said softly. "Watch for it."

"Clever."

"Effective. Few realize they're being attacked from multiple directions until it's too late. Will you climb a tree now?"

"And leave you to face them alone? No way." Her back tightened against mine. "We're in this together, Nevarn."

My heart froze before thumping heavily.

Warmth flooded my chest, and a spark lit beneath my skin. Standing with her while we faced this threat together was like breathing in life itself, raw and nearly overwhelming. It felt right, as it should be.

Like destiny.

This was a woman worth fighting for.

"Very well," I said. "Distract the single culendar while I dissuade the other two."

"How will you—"

With a guttural cry, I raced away from her with my spear flying toward the two and her small hunting blade in my other hand.