Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 91775 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91775 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
Her bed is gone. The tube of light-moss that provided her reassurance, gone.
Tia is gone, too.
Is this part of my father’s plan? To lie to me and steal her away? If he has put her behind the wall…
Biting back a snarl, I race towards my father’s house. I burst through the doors, storming down the hall and into his private quarters. He is not seated near the fire this time, but sits at a dining mat alone, dragging a mushroom through a bowl of creamy sauce. He eyes me with distaste. “I told you not to return for a hand of days.”
“Where is she?” I snarl. “She is gone.”
“I know,” Father says calmly. “I moved her. I did not like that the rebels were sniffing around. She is in Cas’zor’s quarters. Did you know she cannot camouflage her skin? It is always that same shade of brown.”
Hot rage blisters through me again. He put her in another male’s quarters? Biting back another sound of outrage, I push through the house once more, heading for the back rooms, where Cas’zor moved in when he took the position of my father’s attendant. I burst into the room without knocking, nearly destroying the door in my haste. Inside Cas’zor’s room, I see Tia laid out on the sleep pallet. His sleep pallet.
And I see Cas’zor seated in a stool across the far side of the room, his arms crossed over his chest. He looks miserable, and thoroughly unsurprised to see me. “Chief’s Fist. I was wondering when you would return.”
“Why is she in your bed?” I all but growl at him as I bend next to the bed. The hour is not late and yet Tia is fast asleep. I touch her cheek to wake her, but she does not stir. Her mouth hangs open, limp, and a bead of drool slides down her face. Horrified, I look over at Cas’zor. “You have drugged her?”
“Your father did,” he says flatly. “I was very angry when I found out and insisted she be brought to my quarters so I could guard her.”
“Guard her against what?”
“Your father. He gave her such a large dose she has been sleeping for longer than I like.”
“Why did he drug her? She could not escape.” I pull Tia’s limp form into my arms, cradling her face gently. “She is not a threat.”
“I think he gave her the leaf that the old ones say enhances a khui. One that encourages resonance. But it just makes her sleep.”
So my father has drugged Tia so when I returned, she would be craving my touch like a gorger in heat? I grit my teeth, furious. I should believe my father’s stories, but…I believe Cas’zor. He is the most honorable of males. “Father told me the rebels learned of her location.”
Cas’zor sounds tired. “Lies. He is trying to turn you against me. She is not safe here, Rem’eb. I have not left her side because I did not trust your father not to tamper with her food. He might want her as your mate, but he does not care what she wants, Rem’eb.”
Holding her close, I can feel her soft breath against the scruff on my neck. It reminds me that she is here, she is alive, and she is in my arms.
But I cannot keep her safe if she stays here in the village of my people. I know my father. He might give me Tia now, but the moment we resonate and she is full of my child, he will shove her behind the wall like the other females and say it is for her safety. The thought makes me fiercely angry.
My father is not the only threat, either. If the rebels find out she exists, no one will be safe. Not my father, who betrays his people. Not Tia, who has only two small arms and a fragile frame. Not her people above, whose females will be stolen if the rebels find out they can simply attack and claim the strangers from above. The rebels will riot and destroy everything in their wake.
This cannot go on. “I am taking Tia out of the village and back to her own people,” I tell Cas’zor the Loyal. “And I must go with her. You cannot stop me.”
“I do not plan on stopping you,” he says. “I will help you. In fact, I have an idea…”
Chapter
Fifteen
TIA
Waking up is a struggle. I drift back and forth between vague consciousness and sinking back into sleep. I want to stretch and turn over, but my bladder feels full and urges me awake. Or it tries to, anyhow. Opening my eyes is difficult, and when I finally manage it, a headache stabs right between my eyes.
I groan, squeezing them shut again.
“Shhh,” says a familiar voice in my ear. “I have you.”