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“It would appear so,” he said.
He’s lying,I thought. Of course he was. That story was ridiculous. Severs hunted with their claws and fangs like wild beasts. Not with a bow. It still didn’t explain what Lorikhadbeen doing in the Black Veil at midnight.
“Whatever it is that you’re involved in,” I started quietly, “don’t pull me into it. I helped you. I saved your life. I don’t need your problems spilling into mine. Veras already took the one person I loved most in this world. And if you’re involved with him, in any way, I need to know. Right now.”
Lorik held my gaze, his features sobering for a brief moment.
“I’m not involved with Veras, Marion,” Lorik told me, his voice gruff and soft. “Not now, not ever.”
My shoulders relaxed. Maybe I was a fool, but I heard truth in his voice.
“Does that mean you’ll let me stay in your bed?” he asked, the question helping to ease some of the tension that had risen between us.
I tried to hide the way my lips quirked.
“Just until you heal,” I told him. “And I’m convinced you’re free of infection.”
“Perhaps you’ll even join me there tonight,” he rasped. “I’ll keep you warm with my infected, feverish body.”
The laugh that bubbled up my throat…that one I couldn’t help.
All the amusement left Lorik’s face, and he stared at me until my laugh slowly died, until I pushed a strand of hair behind my ear, grazing my cheek with soil.
“What is it?”
“You have a beautiful laugh too,” Lorik said. But gone was the teasing lilt in his voice. The words were guttural and raw andhonest. An honest compliment, devoid of any expectation. I didn’t know ifanyonehad ever spoken to me like that before.
“Oh,” I whispered, pleased, embarrassed. “Thank you.”
“Will you sing again for me?” he asked, settling more fully against the wall, though I was concerned about the growing chill in the air and the sweat slicking his chest. He paused. “Though maybe not that poem. I’m not fond of tragic endings.”
I studied this half-Kylorr, half-Allavari male, wondering where in the world he had come from. I suddenly wanted to knoweverything.
“All right,” I said, thinking that with those glittering blue eyes, he could ask me to go to the Below itself and I would.
And so I sang for him. I sang as I tended to my garden, as the moon slowly rose, as my glowflies buzzed all around me, and as Peek even settled close by without hissing at our guest once.
All the while, Lorik never took his eyes off me.
Chapter
Five
Lorik hid his infection well. Better than most…until it reared its head the following night.
And it was ugly. The ugliest I’d ever seen.
“You stupid fool,” I whispered without malice, stroking a cloth I intermittently dipped in cold water across his face and down his chest.
Earlier this afternoon, he’d been burning up, his flesh nearly scorching to the touch. The only ray of hope had been the night nettle weeping out from his skin, a blue cast staining the washcloth, and requiring me to use gloves to touch him.
But there was no evidence of the poison now as he lay in my bed, thrashing restlessly in his deep sleep, his chest heaving. His long, dark hair was tangled around his sharp horns, and I’d nearly gouged my wrist trying to untangle it, so I left it be.
My back was beginning to ache from the chair I’d been situated in for nearly the entire day. I thought of how lucid and present he’d been last night, sitting in the back garden with me for seemingly hours until the chill had turned bitter.
I sang as I wiped his brow. Old Allavari songs, coupled with some human ones, ancient tales of our home planet, of Earth.
I had a few wax candles lit, infused with lovery leaves, the gentle smoke filling the air to help him breathe more easily. Shadows flickered over his sharp features, and I studied every dip and line and angle, trying to separate the Allavari from the Kylorr and failing.
