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“Perhaps I did it to myself so that a beautiful human witch would take pity on me and allow me to warm her bed,” he said, “when I have been dreaming of it for so long.”
His words brought a dizzying rush of heat to my belly.
“The arrow tip pierced all the way through your shoulder. Even with your strength as a Kylorr, even if you somehow were in your berserker state—which you weren’t—you would’ve needed a bow for that. Quite impossible to shoot yourself,” I pointed out, if only to distract from the rapid beating of my heart.
“Is that what your beloved logic tells you?” he asked. I’d looked down to the brightbell plant I was tending to—ironically, the plant that would have been the antidote to the night nettlepoison had it been fully grown—but I heard the smile in his voice.
I shrugged a shoulder.
He chuffed out a small sigh. When I looked back at him, he had his face tipped back to the night sky, his eyes closed. I paused in plucking out leaves to watch him. My gaze drifted down the long, thick column of his throat, over his shoulders, one of them tightly wound in clean gauze, down the slabs of muscles lining his chest.
“Who do you think shot me with an arrow?” he asked.
“There is an Allavari who lives in the village,” I said quietly. Swallowing down my hatred and bitterness, I said, “His name is Veras.”
Lorik laughed, but there was an edge to it. “You think that useless piece of flesh managed to shoot me with a poisoned arrow?”
I frowned. “If he heard you speaking about him like that, he surely would. He’s a dangerous male. You should be more careful with your tongue.”
“I welcome him to try,” Lorik rumbled. “It would give me a reason to tear him limb from limb.”
I nearly shuddered at the bloodlust in his voice…and yet…
“You like it when I’m bloodthirsty, little witch?” he teased, his voice morphing into velvety softness. “YouhateVeras. Would you like me to give you his still-beating heart? Perhaps that can be my repayment to you. For saving my life, I will give you his. I will give you one favor, Marion, and it can be whatever you want. I vow I will grant it.”
I couldn’t tell him just how much I was tempted to say yes—because there was an instinct in me that told me Lorikmeant it. That this male was much, much more dangerous than Veras could ever hope to be, even with his henchmen carrying out his bidding and his manipulative pull within the village.
“Don’t,” I said quietly. “I am a healer, not an accomplice.”
“Even after what he did to your sister?”
I couldn’t contain my sharp breath. It was no secret. Lorik had obviously asked about me throughout the village—and I didn’t know how I felt aboutthat.
“I would do anything for my sister—you were right earlier,” Lorik said, his tone turning savage and I leveled him a sharp look. “I imagine you would’ve too.”
“Then you’re not so selfish as you insisted,” I pointed out, filing away the fact that he had a sister, one I’d never seen. Did she live in the village? Where didLorikeven live?
“Did I say that?” he asked, his mood unreadable.
“You implied it.” And he knew it too.
Lorik stared at me, and then his mouth slowly drew into a grin, his teeth appearing even sharper in the moonlight. For the first time, I had the instinct to run from him. Warning bells in my mind battled with the warmth in my chest.
“A Sever shot me with the arrow.”
I jolted, gasping. “What?”
I always felt out of control with him. Even when I’d met him at the market all those months ago. He’d always made me feel like I was walking on trembling ground.
It was unsettling.Exciting.Unpredictable.
Unless he’s lying,I thought.
“But…butwhy?”
“How should I know?” Lorik asked, holding my gaze, his blue eyes glittering again in the silver light.
“So aSeverjust…came up from the Below, tracked you down in the Black Veil in the middle of the night where you happened to be, and shot you with a poisoned, metal-tipped arrow they just happened to have prepared?”
