Magnus watched her wipe the blood away from her chest. He shook his head once. “You don’t get it. This mark isn’t about ownership.” He gestured toward the wound. “It’s about my intentions. Respect. Trust. I have to win those things. I have to win you. Same as any other Na Dokiri.”
Nadine drank down the rest of what was in the skin and wiped the dribble from her lips. Her tongue tingled from the blandness of it. She bent down, withdrew the small sack she’d brought and fished out the flask of fire whiskey she always kept with her. She took two long gulps, then paused. Heat filled her belly. After a moment’s consideration, she offered it to the savage.
His eyes flicked to her in a show of surprise. He took it, then downed some without so much as a preliminary sniff. His follow-up cough made her grin.
“Glanshi, woman. That’ll burn a hole right through your chest.”
“That’s an idea.” She glanced at her tanshi mark, then took another drink.
Nadine tossed the flask to the ground before turning and making her way back to their campfire where she intended to settle in for the evening. She’d be keeping her lancet close because, though her body still hummed with lust, she’d had more of the barbarian than she’d prepared for this day.
Yet, somehow, Nadine felt as though she’d come out the victor of this particular round.
7
Animal
If the flight up the mountain had been harrowing, the flight down was exhilarating.
Without the threat of an impending bloody ritual, Nadine was free to experience all the glory. She squinted past the glare of the golden sun as it peeked over the distant horizon. Butterflies tickled her insides when Yrsa cut a steep turn into a cool current of air. Nadine opened her mouth to laugh, and the wind crowded into the back of her throat, swallowing up the sound.
She was flying. Transcendent.
Yrsa shrieked, the only noise loud enough to cut through the earsplitting howl of the wind. She started a gradual descent, which included long, sweeping strokes of the land. Back and forth. Nadine stretched her neck over the side of Yrsa’s body and looked down at the ground awashed in light. The foot of the mountain was scraggy and brown. A few barren trees twisted toward the sky before the land gave way completely to the Red Sea. They’d find the rendezvous point in no time. Samar and his men would be there. The men Nadine would lead.
Magnus’s weight shifted over her. His hands tightened and squeezed the nodules at his mount’s neck. How was he going to fit in with her mission? They’d been forced to spend the night under what he called the tanshi tree. She’d stayed on her end of the campfire, and he on his. Her flask of whiskey had been more lively company than the barbarian. Still, he’d met her ever-present scowl with an occasional signature grin and, once, even a deep rumbling hum that Nadine had to admit was oddly pleasant. Even so, he hadn’t seemed able to hide his lingering unease.
The barbarian clearly regretted what had happened between them. Maybe not the result, but the manner in which they’d gone about it. Still, it had happened. The constant ache on Nadine’s chest was a reminder of that. For all his faults, she couldn’t name indecision among them. For her part, she was glad things had played out as they had. Perhaps she and the barbarian would come to cordial terms for this mission after all. Though she wasn’t settled on that account yet.
Finally, Nadine spotted their camp near the end of the desert. Magnus directed Yrsa into a tighter circle several moments before Nadine locked on to what looked like a horde of dark brown mice breaking camp and loading up camels. They scurried as Yrsa blew past them.
Nadine let out a breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding as Magnus directed his mount over a nearby dune and down to the other side. So he was going to cooperate with this much at least, the request she’d made upon their departure from Amo Tanshi.
Yrsa touched down with unceremonious grace and plopped almost immediately to her belly to the warm sand below. With the wind of flight gone, Nadine breathed in the heat and was instantly grateful her teeth stopped chattering. She’d have accepted the barbarian’s offer of clothes for the return flight had she not been about to make an impression on men she’d never met.
Magnus released Yrsa and seemed to take his time moving off Nadine’s back. Nadine came up after him and yanked her leg over the saddle’s side to scamper off before Magnus would have a chance to unlatch himself.
He wrapped a hand around her upper arm. “Wait.”
Nadine sighed. She was getting very tired of this savage handling her and issuing orders. She glared back at him. “What?”
“You can’t just dance around Yrsa without a care in the world. You have to wait for me. She’s dangerous.”
Nadine glanced down at the beast, who had started burrowing into the sand like a happy beetle. Yrsa’s entire body vibrated a shiver of pleasure and a trill of contentment rose up in her throat as she basked in the sun. Nadine arched a brow back at Magnus.
Magnus pursed his lips. “Looks can be deceiving.”
“I don’t have time for this.”
When she tried to pull away, Magnus’s grip on her tightened. He leaned forward to speak into her ear. “I know what you’re worried about. Wait for me to get us both down, and I’ll stay here while you go convince whoever’s over that rise that you haven’t fallen hopelessly in love with me.”
Nadine clenched her jaw. For once, not with anger. Her position was tenuous enough as a woman set to lead a new company of men without adding in the barbarian over her shoulder. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know what rumors already abounded concerning their circumstances. She feared he was going to make this harder on her, deliberately or not.
Her worry turned to consideration. Thus far his playful humor bordered on capricious at times, and Nadine frowned to think she might have to kill him to maintain order for this mission. That would make any alliance between Ebron and the Dokiri people tenuous at best. The man might be a savage, but he was their chief’s younger brother. Still, she couldn’t risk mutiny. Even with Samar at her back, the risk was always there, especially on missions abroad. At least the barbarian’s willingness to stay behind was a good sign, a straw to hold onto. She nodded once.
Magnus released her. He cocked his head. “I only hope you’re a better actress than you are at sparring.”
On the other hand, killing him had a few merits of its own.
Nadine went rigid and waited for him to free himself, then ignored his offered hand as she jumped from the saddle and landed in the sand in one lithe movement. She snapped up her bag and started off immediately in the direction of Samar’s company. The barbarian snickered behind her as she stomped away through the sand.
Heat baked into Nadine’s pores, making her feel more and more like herself as she drew closer to her countrymen and further away from the man who’d disrupted her entire life. In total fairness, many things had disrupted Nadine’s life as of late. But only one had kept her awake at night. Anger was as familiar an emotion to her as lust was to a courtesan, and the barbarian inspired plenty of both.
But he elicited more than that. Emotions Nadine was not accustomed to. Or at least, not in combination. Rage, excitement, mirth, want. She unhooked her lancet from her belt and let the weapon spring open. She twirled it around as she walked, stretching out her shoulder and wrist, letting the sheer motion lull her aggression into a baseline level of familiarity and comfort. Yes, she was feeling much more like herself the further she walked away from that barbarian.